Stefano Battain, also called “Teto”, is from Canale d’Agordo (Belluno), has a foot size of 46 and a wide, fast stride. He put one foot – sometimes also both feet – in more than one continent, first as student, later as volunteer and eventually as aid worker.
After taking his first steps in the “search for the other” first in South America and later in India, Stefano afterwards directs his path towards the University of Birmingham to study a master in poverty reduction and development management. This is just one of the stages that make him touch the African soil in Sierra Leone, Tanzania and South Sudan.
His experience in Africa starts as volunteer for the civil service and then as country representative in Tanzania, with the NGO CVM – Comunità Volontari per il Mondo, from 2008 to 2012, then he moves to South Sudan with the French NGO ACTED, managing agricultural projects oriented to food safety between 2012 and 2014.
Search and curiosity towards development and cooperation, its inconsistencies and possible alternatives, the social dynamics as result of government policies and choices, the birth of collective structural formations, drive Stefano to further considerations, analyzing the problems from a global point of view, pointing his nose towards new horizons, like a compass indicating the many worlds yet to discover and where to immerse his steps for the first time.
After living for one year and half in Jordan working with local communities and Syrian refugees, since September 2017 Stefano has been living with Daniela in London, where he currently works as Food Security and Livelihoods Advisor for War Child, a non-governmental organization for children assistance in war areas.
It is possible to read some stories about Stefano’s life in Africa in his blog Notas de Viaje; in addition he collaborates with the web-sites Anordestiche and Slowear Journal.
