My parents were diplomats and I lived in many different countries throughout my childhood. We lived in China in the 1980s, where, as a child of expats, I recognized the difference between the experiences of families like mine and the local children I went to school with.

When we moved to northern Italy in 1988, the war in the former Yugoslavia had just begun. My Girl Scout group arranged a charity in support of refugees fleeing the country. Connecting with those people, mainly women and children, really stirred something within me. I listened to their stories and connected with their similarity to mine. They were exactly like us, but victims of a nonsense war which had traumatized them. This experience influenced me to volunteer in refugee and asylum camps in Morocco in the late 1990s, and to work with an NGO in Niger and Burkina Faso for three years in the 2000s.

I learned so much about people from these experiences and it became my mission to communicate the dynamics of poverty, politics, and culture and the role they play in the lives of so many.

I know how it feels to have no water, no food, to be exposed to violence and discrimination and I realized physical and mental health are essential to have enough strength to face hard times. I found my inner peace, purpose, and motivation in working at Havas Health & You, as it fosters my values and satisfies my needs. To me, it is a very meaningful job.