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Axé Italia

Axé Italia Onlus - Board of Directors

The members of the board of directors are:

Cesare de Florio La Rocca - President

Cesare de Florio La Rocca con i ragazzi del gruppo GE.CA. - Roma, 2008
Born in Florence, Cesare de Florio La Rocca is the founder and president of Projeto Axé.

He has been in Brazil since 1968 and has dedicated his life to education; with degrees in theology, philosophy and law, he has worked for numerous children's organisations in Italy and Brazil, including UNICEF, and received numerous honours and awards:


  • Honorary citizenship of Manuas (1972)
  • Prêmio UNICEF Brazil (1993)
  • Order of Educational Merit of the Ministry of Education – Brazilia (1993)
  • Order of Rio Branco of the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil (1994)
  • Honorary citizenship of Salvador de Bahia (1994)
  • “Rome-Brazilia, cities of peace” award from Rome city council (1994)
  • National Prize for Human Rights of the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil (1998)
  • “Educator of the Year” - “Educação” magazine (2000)
  • “Dalla Parte del Bambino” award from the UNICEF Italy committee (2001)
  • “Italians in the World – Italy Foundation in the World” award - Italian government (2002)
  • Palmi Prize – IX Edition (2003)
  • Parliament Prize for Infants – Italian parliament (2005)
  • Silver Gonfalon Prize – Tuscany Region (2006)



    • Guido Clemente - Honorary president

    Guido Clemente
    Professor of Roman history and former head of the Faculty of Arts at Florence University, he has taught as a visiting professor in prestigious foreign universities including Columbia and Princeton in the United States, Jerusalem and Oxford in the United Kingdom. Together with Jacques Le Goffe he has edited the magazine “Storia e Dossier” and he has served as Florence city councillor for culture and director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

    Giovanni Comboni - Vice president

    Giovanni Comboni
    Lecturer in business economics at the L. Bocconi University in Milan and on the Master's in Marketing Management run by Parma University and Il Sole 24 Ore, he has provided strategic consultancy to industrial and service companies in Italy and abroad for many years.
    He served as city councillor and deputy mayor of Brescia from 1994 to 1998. He sits on the board of managers of several not-for-profit organisations.

    Maria Teresa Scassellati Sforzolini - Board member

    Maria Teresa Scassellati Sforzolini e Cesare de Florio La Rocca
    Civil lawyer practicing in Rome with 20 years' experience particularly in the fields of authors' rights, image rights and the right to report. She currently holds positions in, and provides professional advice to, not-for-profit organisations including Foundation Dulcimer pour la Musique and Foundation Alta Mane, of which she is President.

    Francesco Paolo Aureli - Board member

    Francesco Aureli
    Currently Italian spokesperson for the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health based at the World Health Organisation in Geneva. He has served as director general of the Italian chapter of the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), which operates in 22 African countries with 140 development and emergency aid projects, and he is a member of the G8 Health Experts Group.

    Francesco Cappellini - Board member

    Francesco Cappellini
    Lawyer practicing in Rome, providing assistance and legal advice in the fields of civil, commercial and company law. He is involved in the not-for-profit sector particularly in relation to the protection of children's rights and has been working with the association Axé Italia Onlus since July 2009

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