The Social Change School will celebrate its 20th birthday in a couple of months. 20 years dedicated to teaching and transmitting values and techniques. 20 years spent in training new individuals, ready to make their dreams come true.
However, what is the driving force of the Social Change School? Who are the faces, the people, who make the realisation of projects, ideas, events possible and who represent the soul, give life and breath to the whole organisation daily?
With this new rubric, we want you to know them! We will present each individual, one by one to you: who they are, what their experiences are, how they gave up life for their dreams, and how, above all, they could help you shape and realize your dreams…
The first person to go under out magnifying glass is Cinzia D’Intino, who is energetic and cheerful and also responsible of the didactic. Let’s meet her together and… ‘Let’s get to know eachother”
Q.: Cinzia, how old are you and for how long have you been in ASVI Social Change School?
A.: I’m 33 years old. I have happily been, in the Social Change School, for a bit more than a year. I did my online interview when I was still in Africa, in Zambia, at Kanyama, one of the poorest compounds of Lusaka; with all the technical difficulties foreseeable by the case: the connection was falling through many times…
Q.: Since when have you been in the social sector? Is there an episode that particularly impressed you?
A.: For a long time. Surely since I was a young girl. When I was a teenager, I spent a long hours at the parish, in Pescara, my hometown, I spent a long time there organising games and activities for gipsy children. There is an episode, related to my life in the wold of solidarity, that I think was particularly meaningful: I worked in Tanzania, as a Project Manager, and we could obtain by the local authorities for the local agricultural cooperatives, a lot of land we could cultivate, where they planted soy. The farmers invited us to harvest together: it was beautiful, even if tiring. It was a moment of great complete sharing and happiness!
Q.: Cinzia, three words to describe yourself
A.: Rational, Empathic and smiling
Q.: What is your main quality? And your flaw?
A.:I think that my quality, is to try and put myself into the position of the person in front of me, to understand their problems, necessities, points of view. In every type of relationship…My flaw is instead… that I am very lazy. Physical laziness but, not mental; to defeat that I usually put myself in difficult situations, such as hard works, uncomfortable travels.
Q.: Cinzia, do you have a special and strong bond with Africa. Not only professional…if I ask you: what is Africa, what do you answer?
A.: Africa was one occasion. One occasion to discover many hidden corners of myself. I will make an example:Previously, I was an impatient person, always wanting immediate results, Africa taught me that we need to be able to wait in order to obtain results from ourselves and from the others. Therefore, Africa taught me the perseverance.
Q.: What is your role in the Social Change School?
A.: I am a Didactic Coordinator. In particular, I coordinate the master in ‘Project Management for International Cooperation’.
Q.: During this time, you surely met someone, a student, a teacher, collaborator, that remained impressed: who and why?
A.: If I have to think to one person…It was a lecturer, I had just started to work for ASVI, one of the first ones I worked with, who was a great source of inspiration for me, both as a person and as a professional. It was one of those person who, when you are back home after the long day, you feel lucky to have met.
Q.: Cinzia, a balance of your adventure until now in the universe of non-profit.
A.: Surely very positive. I got a lot. Not everyone finds their own route. For me it was a combination of factors: the right moment, the right occasion, and also my ability, or intuition, to take it up. I explain: when the right opportunity arrived, I felt that it also was the right moment and I just jumped into that life, without a parachute. I am a rational person, but when I spot an opportunity, I throw myself in and I am bold!
Q.: Surely, one of the key words of ASVI is ‘Dream’: a strong and delicate word at the same time, very demanding…what is for you a dream?
A.: A dream is an objective towards which one is striving. A stimulus.
Q.: Can you reveal two of your dreams to us : a professional one and a personal one.
A.: My professional dream is to make most experiences as possible, live in as many situations as I can and meet as many people as I can. The personal one is, at the end of all these experiences and meetings, to live in a house on the beach, where I can walk without shoes all day. I am sure that I’ll realise both of them!
Q.: Cinzia, what are your expectations of the future? In the short term, before going to your house on the beach…
A.: This is for me a moment of great changes: I expect from them satisfactions and joy!
Q.: For you, those who decide to commit to the Non Profit what can they expect from it? And what do they have to be ready to give?
A.: From the Non Profit, you receive satisfactions that go beyond what you can imagine. The satisfaction of being part of a huge global community, you receive an incredible gratification, a feeling of completeness. You feel part of a world in which you live extremely happily. But you need to give a lot, much more than a job in the for profit. You need to be able to adapt and flexible. You need to have your own basic balance.
Q.: Can you give a suggestion to those who, at this point, would like to enter the non-profit World?
A.: Have lots of experiences. Start from the reality that surrounds you, associations, parishes, centers, to understand your nature. If yours is a passion, follow it and test yourselves. Then, when you will be confident in yourself, study. You need to acquire your own education and a own personality and professionality.
Q.: Cinzia, what is your recipe to save the World?
A.: I don’t have a recipe! But I want to explain my philosophy with a sentence that I heard during a course in International Cooperation: “the ultimate sense of the International Cooperation is for it to stop existing.”
Q.: Cinzia, to conclude, how and where do you see yourself in 10 years?
A.: I see myself as zippy, happy, in great shape, always moving…in 10 years it will still be early for that house on the beach (laughter..).
By Guido Pacifici
If you want to know more about Cinzia, you can read the following stories and reports:
#FromTheField: Cinzia Coordinator of the Project Management Master takes us to her Tanzania
Parting Feelings of those who help others to help
#FromtheField: The black…wind mill! That is to say.. how to support education with cornmeal mush
