This event was part of the series Questioni di Civiltà, co-sponsored by La Civiltà Cattolica and Georgetown University.
Biographies
Giulio Albanese is a journalist and belongs to the Congregation of the Comboni Missionaries. He is a columnist for L’Osservatore Romano and Avvenire for issues related to Africa and the Southern Hemisphere, a consultant for the international activities of the Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, and a member of the Committee for International Cooperation of the Italian Episcopal Conference. He was director of the magazine Popoli e Missione until December 31, 2019. He directed the New People Media Center in Nairobi and founded the Missionary Service News Agency in 1997, which later became the Missionary International Service News Agency (MISNA). He was a member of the Committee for Charitable Interventions in Favor of Developing Countries of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI). He taught missionary journalism and alternative journalism at Pontifical Gregorian University from 2007 to 2014, he and is the author of monographs related to geopolitics, journalism, and missionary theology, including Soldatini di Piombo. La questione dei bambini soldato (2005), Vittime e carnefici nel nome di «Dio» (2016), and Poveri noi - Con Francesco dalla parte dei poveri (Ed. Messaggero Padova, 2017). In July 2003, Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi awarded him the title of Grand Officer of the Italian Republic for journalistic merits in the Southern Hemisphere. He has also won 19 journalism and four literary awards.
Cécile Kyenge is a former Italian minister for integration, with responsibility for youth policies during the Letta administration from 2013 to 2014, and a member of the European Parliament from 2014 to 2019. Kyenge has always been committed to the defense of human rights, the fight against racism, and the integration of migrants in Italy and in Europe. The first Black minister in the history of the Italian Republic, she is currently a consultant for development policies, a doctor engaged in the Special Unit of Continuity of Care (USCA) in the fight against the SARS-COV2 pandemic, and a member of the ethics committee of the European project MATILDE: Migration Impact Assessment to Enhance Integration and Local Development in European Mountain and Rural Regions. She was included in the list of leading global thinkers in 2013 by Foreign Policy. Kyenge was born in Kambove, Democratic Republic of Congo, and arrived in Italy as a student in 1983. She graduated with a degree in medicine and surgery with a specialization in ophthalmology. The mother of two daughters, she has been an Italian citizen since 1994. In 2002 she founded the intercultural association DAWA—which in the Swahili language means magic, medicine, well-being—in order to promote mutual knowledge of cultures and paths of integration and cooperation between Italy and Africa, especially the Democratic Republic of Congo. She is also strongly committed to promoting full citizenship for immigrants.
Giovanni Mottini is professor of university development cooperation at the Campus Bio Medico University of Rome. Since June 2011 he has been president of the scientific committee of the non-profit organization HARAMBEE Africa International, committed to supporting projects centered on education and professional training in Africa and the promotion of a culture sensitive to human development issues on the continent. From 2002 to 2009 he was a member of the technical organizational committee and operational coordinator of the project AFIA TOGETHER: Training for Health in Sub-Saharan Africa, promoted by Campus Bio Medico and Farmindustria. During his career he has directed numerous health projects in different continents working to support local populations. Since June 2002 he has been responsible for international university cooperation projects at the Campus Bio Medico University in Rome. Since September 1998 he has been a consultant to the NGO Institute for University Cooperation (ICU) of Rome for health cooperation, in particular for the African region, and a member of its board of directors. In his numerous scientific publications, he has dealt with specifically medical topics, the relationship between ethics and medicine, issues of transcultural medicine, and the relationship between medicine and social issues such as poverty, solidarity, and development.
