Our Team
Stefania
President
She is tenacious, optimistic and curious.
She was born in Rome and worked for 32 years among books and libraries at the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage. At the age of 56 she joined the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs following development cooperation projects in the cultural sector, until she became project manager for some Latin American and West African countries. And it is precisely in Africa where her heart has always been, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. She knows how to speak to people, to listen to them and to establish deep and sincere relationships. She cannot stand injustices and indifference, and she really believes that acting positively in our own personal "microcosm" can really change the world and improve the living conditions of many people. Stefania provides to NINA many years of experience and a high level of expertise.
For Stefania, NINA is the chance and the possibility to reduce poverty and pain.
Bruno
Vice president
From Belluno, he is dynamic and stubborn, he is an idealist and a dreamer. Bruno is a trunk from which two main branches depart: the love for cooking and the passion for social issues. Born in the Italian Alps, he loves food in all its forms and shapes, he loves discovering new flavors and drinking a nice glass of wine in good company. His deep love for nature and his constant striving in the social world led him to spend a year in the Amazon Forest, in close contact with indigenous people. And it is precisely there where he defines his greatest dream: implementing development projects strongly linked to gastronomy and agriculture, with the goal of enhancing the cultural identity of a land and its people. Once back in Italy he ultimately obtained a Master’s degree in "Management of Social Enterprises" at the University of Trento, but the call towards South America is constantly alive and never abandons him.
For Bruno there is no such thing as a coincidence; for this reason, when the right astral conjunctions occurred, he understood that NINA had to be born.
Bruno thinks that NINA is a beautiful dream and a courageous life project.
Sara M.
Project manager
From Turin, she is empathic, proactive and a hopelessly optimistic dreamer. Passionate about foreign languages and cultures, she graduated in Linguistic Mediation applied to International and Diplomatic Organizations at the University of Padua; she then flew to London for a Master’s degree in Development Studies at SOAS University. After several different experiences in the international cooperation and solidarity field, she felt the desire to get her hands dirty, and, therefore, she moved first to Peru for as a Civil Service Volunteer, and then to Bolivia for another year as part of the Italian Civil Peace Corps. After such experiences, she finally understood what she wants to do in her life: dedicate herself to others by vocation and not only as a "hobby". She loves trekking and hiking, as well as travelling around the world to discover new places and spend time with her international friends. Sara believes that there is always a reason for everything, even behind negative experiences: she thinks that they can bring us something good, open new doors which otherwise would not be opened.
Sara thinks that NINA is the confirmation that everything happens for a reason, and it is a big dream coming true.
Sara G.
Fundraising manager
She was born in Rome with some paintbrushes in her hands: always carrying brushes and charcoals, she attends an artistic high school, while she does several volunteering experiences also abroad.
These experiences in Africa, and a meeting with Father Alex Zanotelli, are precisely what convinced her to actively contribute for a change: she graduated in Political Science, and entered the world of international cooperation by spending a year in South America as part of the Civil Peace Corps. She loves politics as much as art; she is thoughtful, strong-willed and a dreamer. She talks about her grandfather Marcello, a partisan, with great pride and deep emotion: from his memory, and some afternoons spent listening to her grandmother talking about the war, it comes her attachment to the idea of equality, which she has pursued with a deep political militancy basically since her birth. Her favorite word is Tinkuy, which in Quechua means "union". If she were a color, she would be blue: like the sky and the sea, freedom and strength.
For Sara, NINA represents novelty, innovation and a response to her values.
Giacomo
Ecuador Operations Manager
From Ravenna, for the love of Amazonia after a one-year experience in Ecuador with the Civil Peace Corps, he decided not to take the return flight to Italy, and now his home is right there.
He is thoughtful, a dreamer, idealistic but also outspoken, and with his feet firmly kept on the ground: that’s a legacy coming from his ancestors, peasants from Romagna. Giacomo is also very quiet, he speaks little and when he does, he has perfectly thought about what to say; even for this reason, he is a great observer and an excellent listener. He’s an herbalist, he loves nature, plants, and traveling; it is exactly his passion for traveling and discovery that led him to do various volunteering experiences, even in complicated contexts such as Rwanda. In addition to plants, he loves music and strums the guitar.
For Giacomo, NINA is the natural evolution of his last experience within the Civil Peace Corps in Ecuador, together with all the people who compose it, with their ideas, skills, and desire to do.
Federica
Accounting and Secretary Manager
From Rome, Federica is curious and direct, linear, and has her feet firmly kept on the ground. Graduated in Languages with a historical focus, she taught for a while, first in Paris and then in Italy again. Later she started working with her father in his accounting firm.
Federica hates injustices, arrogance and lies; she believes in friendship, sharing, welcoming and participating.
She does not like to draw, either make up ideas or cook by herself; on the other hand, she is very good at being the right-hand woman, she can summarize and organize things very well.
Federica is convinced that each one’s freedom ends where the freedom of others begins.
Federica has come to NINA thanks to a strong and deep friendship. For her, NINA is above all a challenge.
Alessio
Chocolate master and Tutor for chocolate production
Originally from Belluno, after graduating at hospitality high school, he works as chef de partie for many starred restaurants all over Europe, as Alain Ducasse’s La Bastide de Moustiers, arriving then at the Academy Chocolatiers Italian Masters to become a chocolate maker. His creativity and ability in pastry and chocolate making allows him to collaborate with high-fashion brands and to win many important awards with his team during his Londoner experience at Berkeley Hotel.
He loves climbing, camping and spending time in nature. His fundamental values are trust and reciprocal respect, and if he had a magic wand he would cancel war, racism and every type of inequality. He would desire the existence of a world where it is possible to genuinely and humanly cooperate, without fomenting hate between each other. Thanks to the meeting with Bruno, his job so sweet and his will to help others lead him to NINA.
For Alessio, NINA is a way to improve himself and to help people by putting his skills and knowledge at the service of others.
Elena
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Tutor and Manager for training and job placement
Originally from the Belluno province, Elena is a creative, passionate and spontaneous person. Her always-present will to help people who are struggling, with the aim to sustain them in their path towards autonomy and redemption, led her to Trieste to study Social service and education.
She loves swimming and traveling to discover new places, people and colors; if she were a color, she would be pastel red. She can’t lie and say no, and she doesn’t know how to whistle; she can’t stand ignorance related to pride and falsehood, and considers transparency and respect as her fundamental values. She hates the word border, and exactly because of this her motto is ‘knowing that the sun exists, even if hidden by the clouds’. Elena believes that we can always improve ourselves, and that’s exactly her will to put herself out there that led her to NINA.
For Elena, NINA is the opportunity to concretely create a useful reality from the social point of view, and humanly rich; a reality in which to invest our own dreams so that they become real. Even if it seems a ‘Disney’ kind-of-phrase, according to Elena, NINA and Disney have in common the strength to believe in the braveness of people.
Simona
Volunteer
Originally from Benevento, she does a job that is appealing – literally – to everyone: the chocolate master! Her passion for chocolate is so strong that Simona has managed to make it a profession.
Because chocolate, she says, is history, culture, social emancipation, respect for nature, but also the discovery of a world that should not exist, where the exploitation of children, women and natural resources are seen as the norm.
Simona is a dreamer, but always with her feet kept on the ground. The word she loves the most is resilience, and the one she hates the most is selfishness. As for Goethe, also for Simona, audacity has genius, power, and magic in itself. Start now.
For Simona, NINA is the opportunity to follow dreams and ideals with people who share her same values; it is a way to give voice to those who do not have it, to spread love and respect for nature and for others. After all, we are only guests on this Earth: to leave it to those who will come next in the best possible way is a mission for Simona.
Born in Rome under the astrological sign of Pisces, Costanza is generous, sensitive, an extrovert, messy, melodramatic. Graduated in Political Sciences and International relations, with a specialization in Human Rights (which are the two words she loves the most), she loves organizing events, listening to the stories of those who have something to tell, cinema and nature.
Costanza cannot stand injustices and solitude, she loves the sincere smile of people, carbs and, above everything, family and friends: without them, her beacon in the night, she would feel lost.
According to Costanza, we always need to remember not to do to others what you would not want them to do to you.
NINA, for Costanza, is sharing with a group with whom to live the same ideals, the same passions, the same vision of Life. Friendship, with a capital F, has brought Costanza to NINA.