Good morning, my name is Selene Biffi
I am a social entrepreneur
As I’m not very good at talking about weightier matters
I hope you will be able to get interesting ideas from my story…
It started 11 years ago, I was 22 and I started thinking…
about something which I thought might help many people.
My idea was to develop a platform based on the peer to peer system
to share theoretical and practical knowledge around the world…
among youth interested in being active in their communities.
I had the idea during a conference, and when I came back to Italy
I found myself knocking at doors for six months
I went to institutions, companies and universities.
Basically, being 22 years old, I didn’t have the necessary competence
let alone the funds, to start something similar alone
so I started knocking at these doors and hoped someone would notice this idea
and support it so as to develop something which had never been seen.
The answer was practically the same everywhere
You’re only 22 and we’re not up to investing…
if you were 30 years older it wouldn’t be a problem…
Or they might say: - Nice idea…
It’s surely the bad copy of something already existing…
in the US or in England, right?
When I answered that we were actually the first ones to do it
they said it seemed science fiction, so it was a ‘no thanks’ anyway.
I’m not very patient in general, so I started on my own.
In January 2005 I decided to use what I had
and with 150 Euros, pretty much the price of a pair of shoes
I launched ‘Youth Action for Change’
an organization that was soon teaching thousands of young people
in 130 countries around the world, 95% of which developing countries or in transition.
The starting point of the organization is that it is managed by 25 volunteers
We all have other jobs to earn a living
In my case, I became a UN consultant thanks to an internship when I was 20
I dealt with technologies for education and for development.
One day I was asked to go to work to Kabul
I was asked to go to Afghanistan
for a project that had nothing to do with technologies
I was asked to write a textbook for elementary school children
especially for those living in rural areas.
In a country which was torn to pieces by nearly 35 years of war
and where 8 people out of 10 were analphabet
maybe a textbook was not the most useful thing
but it was really a UN project… so I packed my bags and went to Kabul
maybe not so much for the idea of the textbook
as for the idea of seeing a country in transition…
When I got to Kabul, I realized the textbook was interesting…
but anyone could do it, even sitting comfortably at home.
I didn’t need to be there…
Then I realized there would soon be presidential elections
and they were looking for election observers
I had been an observer at university and I had organized missions in Eastern Europe
so I candidated, and I did it seven times
hoping my profile would be in line with observation
more than for writing the textbook…
All the seven candidatures were rejected and I was very upset about it…
I really thought I had more to give in that field than for the textbook
but this made my story change… in October 2009 my whole world changed
a Taliban attack located a guest house in the centre of Kabul
where 12 people died, of whom two were my colleagues
among the 114 guest houses used by the UN
they chose the only one which was actually occupied by observers
so the textbook that I didn’t really want to write
probably made my professional career change.
I was evacuated and came back to Italy.
After three weeks I decided to go back and finish the book
I stayed in Kabul six months until my contract ended.
Then I came back to Italy and used my mission allowance to start ‘Plain Ink’
an organization which creates stories and educational comics
to teach children and communities to find solutions to local problems
related to poverty and social exclusion.
For three years I worked in Italy and India
but my desire to go back to Kabul was stronger than anything else
so after three years searching for funds and sponsorships
I finally got a sponsor, in this case Rolex
which gave me the opportunity to go back to Afghanistan in March
to open a particular school, a school for story tellers…
because Afghanistan is a country a literacy rate of 23%
so it’s difficult to get concepts through
unless they are communicated orally.
This school is currently open, it’s free, it teaches pupils from 18 to 25 years old
it teaches them to write stories containing massages for local development
from public health to gender equality
to make them more available and relevant in their context.
Going back to Kabul and opening a school individually
without the UN, but as a single person
I had to do absolutely everything, from achieving licenses to finding a school
finding the teachers, covering Kabul with posters to find students…
As you can imagine it was not easy at all
We had to deal with attacks and bombs
We didn’t only have to motivate people to come and study
but we had to motivate ourselves to try and go on in such a difficult context
where failure is not always behind the corner but it’s much more probable than success.
My courage was probably to refuse three candidatures for the Italian Parliament
and go to Kabul to work for free…
What I was interested in was doing something
that nobody else had tried before.
Basically, I believe courage means motivation
and motivation means not to settle with the little reality in front of us.
It means finding a new way to make things better
and finding a way to promote change
a way to make everyone contribute to this change.
I believe you don’t necessarily need to be extraordinary to do extraordinary things
Motivation and talent make anything you have in mind become extraordinary…
The school in Kabul is running and we will soon be able to broadcast
so the ‘Qesse Academy’, or Academy of Stories, as it was called,
will be a school on the radio, and from Kabul information will be distributes
all over Afghanistan just with a button…
because radio is the only media with a 100% penetration.
When I got back home I had to find something else to do
this something is very recent and it’s called ‘Spillover’…
it’s about non formal education
in the next six years we will have 2.8 million vacant jobs in scientific fields
because 60% of young people don’t like science…
they consider it abstruse, abstract, too far, they don’t like it…
they would never consider a career in that field.
This obviously damages competition and innovation
and will increase unemployment.
Spillover also uses the methodology of comics and storytelling
it takes research, innovation, inventions from research labs and universities
and creates video games for kids from 10 to 15
with the purpose of changing their opinion
and making them participate actively…
before their opinion is created, which is around 15 years old.
I haven’t got much time left so I would like to finish with an idea
which is actually a short poem by Rumi
an Afghan poet from the 13th century.
It basically says:
We do not have to be pleased by the stories we hear about
or by how things have worked for others.
We must write our own legends.
So I invite you not to settle with the stories you listen to today…
Because what really matters is your own story.
Thank you.