Hi! My name is Stella Airoldi, I was a member at DEAL, then SIFE in 2010. I was a board member. I currently have my own social enterprise, 22STARS and foundation 22STARS.

In addition I run SOCIAL NOMADS, which is a website to inspire other travellers to make a social impact and I organize social impact trips to Uganda. With 22STARS we empower families in Uganda. We use education and entrepreneurship to empower children and their families to rise above poverty. We created within our sponsorship program long-term sponsorship for 310 children in Uganda and also run several community development initiatives including a nutrition program, small business training and micro loans program for 57 families, livelihood program, and our holistic after school program with extra-curricular activities. With the 22STARS social jewelry business I design jewellery from recycled paper handmade by artisans in Uganda which we sell worldwide. I learned at DEAL/ SIFE, that the best way to help people out of poverty is making them self sustainable. And one of our arts projects in Bolivia inspired me to start my own crafts project with recycled paper jewellery in Uganda, 22STARS. Hence thanks to SIFE/DEAL, I am now empowering families in Uganda to rise above poverty. However I realized that the product model to raise funds was not enough. Hence why we also started a foundation with a donation based model. In particular for children this is important, as we cannot expect them to work for their money. And also when they don’t have the opportunity to go to school, it will become difficult for them later. Hence why we focus on education! But in addition to education, local leadership and entrepreneurship also play a big role in our foundation.