Titti Andriani, Alumna of our Master in Fundraising Management 2009 edition, was nominated “Official of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic” by the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella, for her work with the Association AFRON, Oncology for Africa, which she founded right after the Master. The news was also made public through various media, like the newspapers La Repubblica and Il Sole 24 Ore.
Marco Crescenzi, President of Social Change School, writes to her:
Dear Titti, I would like to congratulate you on behalf of Social Change School for the well-deserved recognition of your work against cancer in Africa. You and your Association have saved and improved many lives, particularly those of women and children. I clearly remember your first steps creating the Association, how we talked on the phone to exchange ideas… Back then it all seemed like an enormous dream, but we had all felt its potential and we never doubted even for one moment that you could do it. I believe this is a fantastic example, both for those coming from the “for profit” sector, like you, and for the youngsters, to inspire them not to restrain their social ambitions. An example that you uphold, like many others of our fellows, by keeping high the value of a professional social commitment in such complex and hostile times”.
Titti Andriani is an Alumna of our Master FRAME in Fundraising Management and is currently President and Founder of AFRON, Oncology for Africa. Her story is about willpower, sense of initiative, brotherhood and humanity.
To those calling her a “hero”, Titti replies:
The ones that are truly brave and live the fatal abnegation of their rights are the kids we assist in the oncologic hospitals in Uganda. Because to be a hero also means to sacrifice, while the thing these children want more than anything else is to be normal, like many others”.
Today, as I am moved to tears by emotion, I dedicate this important commendation to these kids, who were forced to become “heroes”.
In 2006, Titti had been working for 11 years as Responsible for Company-Specific Training for a multinational and organized medical conventions. She had always loved Africa, so one day she decided to go for a volunteer experience in Uganda, like many of our students do, to work for a project on remote adoption of young orphans and to build a School in the North of the country. This experience left such a profound mark in her soul that she promised herself she would offer a bigger contribution to the African population in the future.
Between 2006 and 2009 her dream was still alive, but in order to make it come true she needed more competences. This is when she decided to enrol in Social Change School’s Master in Fundraising Management. While she was organizing an Oncologic Convention, she found out the number of people dying in Africa because of cancer and decided to go to Uganda to gather some data. An alert from the World Health Organization confirmed to her the need to intervene promptly with proper programs of treatment and intervention in order to avoid a situation that would see 13 million new cases of cancer by 2020 and roughly 1 million deaths per year. In Uganda she found out with consternation and indignation that 9 out of 10 women with cervical cancer die because of the lack of knowledge about the disease and lack of early diagnosis.
It’s September 2009, at the apex of her brilliant career, Titti leaves the company once and for all to work full time on the realization of an association dedicated to the prevention and treatment of women’s cancers in African countries.
May the 10th, 2010: AFRON, Oncology for Africa is born, advocating the right to oncologic treatment for African women.
Titti finally realizes her dream, thanks to the competences developed during the years as a manager and the knowledge acquired during the Master, thanks to her resolution to give new meaning to her life and hope to African women, but most of all thanks to her passion, determination, courage and grit.
AFRON, Oncology for Africa operates in Africa to support women and kids during their fight against cancer.
Its interventions aim to:
• Make African women and communities aware about how to recognize the disease and eradicate the stigma of cancer.
• Promote prevention and early diagnosis as the primary means to defeat cancer.
• Facilitate access to oncologic treatments that aren’t covered by African sanitary systems.
• Guarantee oncologic training to the local medical and nursing staff.
AFRON works in partnership with African communities and local hospital facilities to ensure long-term sustainability of the performed interventions.
During her years working in Africa, Titti has shared many times with the School her stories and experiences on the field with AFRON: you can also read the other articles on our blog, like The project in Rwanda with AFRON, In Africa to fight cancer – Diary of the last trip to Uganda by Titti Andriani and EDITORIAL. Change of life, from a multinational to international cooperation: Titti Andriani and others.
