Our history and mission

Rita Levi-Montalcini

Rita Levi-Montalcini

In 1992, Nobel laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini and her sister Paola, established the Levi-Montalcini Non-profit Foundation in memory of their father, Adam Levi.
The Foundation’s main goal was the orientation of the youth to work and study. In January 2001, Rita Levi-Montalcini founded the “Fondazione Rita Levi-Montalcini Non-profit”.
This new body, in continuity with the previous experience, expresses a new sensibility for the lack of education which affects many children, girls and women in the African continent.

Our Mission

The mission we have received from our founder is to support education and schooling, in all of its forms, for children, girls, and women in Africa. Our effort is motivated by two precise reasons.

The first one is to provide women with the tools for a full development of their capabilities, thus enabling them to escape from diffused discriminations and prevarications, and allowing a dignified and authoritative participation in the societies where they belong.

The second reason is that a satisfactory level of education and culture of women represents an important, when not crucial, contribution to the economic, social and cultural development of society as whole.

Women are crucial for the social development of a country, considering both the traditional roles they play within family relationships, as well as their fundamental contribution to business, education, nursing, and leadership in all fields.

The experience gained by the Foundation since 2001 has fully confirmed how, through the schooling and education of children, girls and women, it is possible to achieve these goals.