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SERENA, DAVIDE & GIOVANNI RUN4MATEMÙ
SERENA
I am a dynamic figure in her thirties trying to appear younger, sometime acting as a professional business woman, some other seen scaling walls and crushing ice, here and then cooking 10 minutes meals in 1 hour while drinking a bottle of Prosecco.
I balance, I weave, I frolic but I rarely give up. I believe the life has too many meanings for being written down, it is better to fully enjoy it.
Last winter I decided to run my first marathon in New York, another objective to reach and to tick in my bucket list. Then I decided to do it with the purpose of helping others. And I’ll struggle to cross the finish line, for myself and for the project I’m supporting.
DAVIDE
BANDE
This is how i would summarize myself : “Live every single day of your life in the best way possible, appreciate every little thing, respect the others and be open”.
I’ve spent most of my life away from my hometown, but today together with my wife we have created new homes, because being together is all that matters.
I enjoy traveling the world, to discover new places and new cultures.
Preparing for the marathon has been a new challenge, a hard resolution for this year, that together with Serena and Giovanni we are approaching step by step. And I’m sure that we will make it!
GIOVANNI
BANDI
“Cogito, ergo sum” – “I think, therefore I am”, as Descartes put it. Whilst this summaries a lot of my thinking, it doesn’t tell the full story. I am someone who seeks to understand furthermore, of life and of myself. I am a professional, a professor, an investor and an entrepreneur. Yes, I am all of those, and yet it quite doesn’t tell you who I am in full. But I am also a son, a brother and a friend. And so, in the pursuit of a better understanding of my being, here I am running with friends, for friendship and for that sense of accomplishment I seek. The truth for running a marathon is that you do it for something important to you or others you care about. So, if you are a seeker too, you shall see my point! Also…I am the heavyweight guy of the Armata trio so you may excuse me if I get there last…but steady, I hope, at the very end of Central Park, New York City!
MaTeMù is the Youth Centre and School of Arts created and run by CIES Onlus from 2010, together with the Rome Municipality (Municipio I).
It represents a meeting, artistic and cultural growth, listening, support, orienteering and entertainment place. It is an incredible mix of ideas and possible “what comes next”.
It is a place where girls and boys of all cultures and backgrounds can express their creativity, live differently the spare time, being heard and supported.
It is a place where all differences are seen as values and incentives to explore new possibilities.
It is a laboratory of ideas and initiatives, where you can enjoy open spaces to get together and create meaningful, recreational, academic support, help activities in times of trouble.
MaTeMù is totally for free, it organises activities for teenagers and young people, but it also represents a space where associations, individuals living the neighbourhood as “active citizens”, or artists, can find a reference point to meet up and work with and for the youngsters or for the city.
Every day it welcomes more than 60 guys, with more than 2000 active users over the eight years of the Centre.
When we had to choose who to fund with this once in a lifetime Run, we opted for MaTeMù, a project run by CIES Onlus and dedicated to activities of integration of young foreigners.
We know very well what it means to live in a country that is not yours – we all live outside of Italy – and we know that being part of a local community as foreigners is hard. We live in cities with 100+ nationalities settled in and, yet, we are called “expats”, slang for expatriates, not for immigrants. An expat, most likely a westerner, white professional, may want to integrate, or not, and in any case it can still live happily.
Unfortunately this is not always the case for people coming from different cultures, experiences, backgrounds.
MaTeMù is based in the Esquilino, a multicultural area of Rome that has lived decades of degradation and conflicts, also due to its multicultural pot.
It is now, however, ready to be reborn, also with the support of MaTeMù, leveraging the one thing that really brings integration: education.
We love MaTeMù because it has a CONCRETE, LOCAL impact by the sharing of educational activities, personal supports and arts programs.
At the same time, this impact is made GLOBAL because it is aimed at transforming these young people’s lives and increasing possibilities of sustaining meaningful livelihood. MaTeMù kids will eventually act as role models in their communities, spreading the benefits of the education they had.
Therefore we strongly believe that projects like Matemù affect our future, increasing the integration, pushing the value of diversity (it is a value!) and boosting concrete opportunities for kids in unfortunate situations.
We are sure that your support will push us through the end line as well as MaTeMù through a better world!
Just click here. You can use your credit/debit card. The donation process is easy and secure.
A big thank you for your donation from Serena, Davide and Giovanni (l’Armata Brancaleone)! Running the NY Marathon and supporting MaTeMù is for us really exciting. We hope that we can make a little difference and your help will allow for this!
