Could you share with us the results of the FUNTASIA program?

To date, Funtasia operates in Italy and Egypt. It has supported 2187 children and youth and trained 356 adults in both countries combined.

Funtasia’s journey began in Luxor, Egypt in 2014 with the creation of its pilot centre. In 2016, Funtasia’s adult trainings included participants attending from all over the country, and in 2017, Funtasia expanded its trainings to Cairo and Alexandria. Funtasia’s educational programs are currently being implemented in 4 locations in Egypt.

In Italy, ESF has been partnering with Save the Children Italia since 2016 to implement the programs in their centres throughout the country (from Torino, Rome, Milan, Genoa to Bari and Massari). In autumn 2017, ESF started collaborating with Slow Food Italia expanding to governmental schools in Italy.

You are already collaborating with an Italian school, how it is that working out? Do you plan to expand to other schools / other countries?

Of course that would be the dream and goal. This is what we are working towards, reaching as many schools as possible around Italy and for them to run the programs in their schools, like we are doing in our pilot. To train the teachers who apply (we already have an extensive waiting list) and support them in implementing Funtasia program. By this I mean Funtasia doesn’t only hand the curriculum to the schools, but it supports them all along of the process, preparing and debriefing. The fact is we have been asked by the public school we are currently working with, to extend our collaboration by enlarging and fine tuning our existing programs to many more school subjects, to get even more intersections than we currently are. This means they would like to include not only the professor of arts, music, or environmental studies, but also geography, Italian, history and so forth. We are in the position to fine tune the programs to the specific academic targets to the year, so that those extra activities are actively contributing to the national school program itself. We are looking for partners to help us fund the training of more governmental school teachers who have already signed up and support with the cost of the support in the implementation of the programs. In fact it’s not a big cost, given the number of people who would benefit. We at ESF just can’t bear the whole cost alone at this stage, also because we are investing in several other projects already, such as the development of the programs, training of adults and the quality of the implementation.

What is elegance for you? And what is your style secret? Do you have any female fashion icon?

Elegance to me is a way to carry your body. It’s a confidence in who you are.

I think the style secret for anyone is to really know your body, its proportion, the assets you prefer and those you like less. And knowing how to work around them through fashion to enhance you. I have many style icons, from Lauren Bacall in her first movies, to Talitha Getty in Morocco, to women from Peru in the traditional attires, to a beautiful woman in jeans and white tshirt.

How did you manage your body changes from the beginning of your pregnancy?

I paid attention to what I ate and I did a lot of massage. Muscular to accompany the changes happening to my body, but what was most effective was the Bhoga massage, which is a technique developed by Roberto Magi, and works on water retention, lymph drainage and tissues inflammation through a very dynamic massage which gives me energy and helped so much throughout the pregnancy. I realized that for me the most weight gain during this time is related to water retention! The other products I swore by during this pregnancy are KOMBUCHA, who also gave me lots of energy and helped with my digestive system, REISHI Mushrooms and Class A Adaptogens. Magnesium supplements also helped a lot.