Alessia, Embraced by Burkina Faso as One of the family

THE EDITOR OF EGEA, ALESSIA USLENGHI WORKS AS A VOLUNTEER ON COMMUNICATIONS AND FUNDRAISING PROJECTS FOR LVIA IN THIS AFRICAN COUNTRY

Burkina Faso society is based on the manches longues concept, the “long-sleeve” family, which symbolizes the act of hugging and welcoming people with whom one has no blood ties. And this is one of the characteristics of West African culture which Alessia Uslenghi has chosen for her own life: “I don’t have a family of my own, but I do have my friends’ children”. Uslenghi has been the senior editor of EGEA since 2011, and is a volunteer for LVIA, the Lay Volunteers International Association which works in support of children. She has also become a godmother for youth attending the Collége Li Koulbila, a top-notch school in Burkina Faso built by the NGO Bambini nel Deserto. “I set up a library which provides the texts used for lessons, and I gave the school a microscope, which I’d asked my parents to give to me for my birthday”, continues Alessia Uslenghi.

She speaks with the enthusiasm of someone who has fallen in love with Africa and its people, and has made Burkina Faso a part of her life. However her approach to the Dark Continent has been gradual; initially she travelled in Libya, Mali and Angola for pure pleasure – stacking up one kilometer after another as she trekked around the land or travelled on waterways which cross the landscapes. But it was during a slow trip floating down the Niger, aboard a pinassa, when Alessia Uslenghi “got to know the people from the Bandiagara Escarpment villages, close-up. As I visited these places, I saw wells tagged by Bambini del Deserto; a colleague of mine from the publishing house where I work had already told me about this NGO. When I returned to Italy, I decided that I would do something myself, so I contacted them and offered to be a volunteer and work on communications”.

After that she followed a project in Kinshasa, Congo, and in 2012 she went to Chad to participate in a UNICEF and OIM (International Organization for Migrants) program to fight malnutrition and provide assistance to 570 children in a refugee camp, who had escaped from Nigeria while under attack from Boko Haram. In 2013 she took time off work and went to Burkina Faso. “That was when I fell under Africa’s spell. Ever since then, this has been the destination for all my vacations”. While participating in a development program in Ouagadougou, Alessia Uslenghi met the director of LVIA, and an intense collaboration sprung up from their encounter. “For LVIA, I handle projects regarding communications and promoting awareness in order to encourage fundraising”. And she doesn’t hide the fact that she’d like to move to Burkina Faso one day: “I discovered the amazing sensation of what a nest means for an animal, in Burkina Faso. It’s awesome”.  
 
 
  
 

by Allegra Gallizia