WeWorld-GVC - WeWorld in short - was established in December 2018 by two important Italian organisations:

  • WeWorld Onlus, established in Milan in 1999 and active in Italy and in other 7 countries of the world to support and protect women, girls and boys through the right to education, gender equality, and the fight against the phenomenon of violence against women.
  • GVC - Group of Civil Volunteering (Gruppo di Volontariato Civile in Italian), a non-governmental organisation established in Bologna in 1971 and engaged in Italy and in over 20 countries in the world in the field of development cooperation, humanitarian aid, international volunteering and education for global citizenship.

The union has consolidated emergency interventions, with a support at all levels in overcoming the crisis to: increase development cooperation projects, in Italy and in the world; continue to rely on distance support to guarantee an inclusive and quality education for thousands of boys and girls, and strengthen the voice towards the outside, through the creation of a subject that acts as a single interlocutor for the institutions and for all the protagonists of international cooperation.

ChildFund Alliance

In November 2020, the ChildFund Alliance Board of Directors approved the membership of WeWorld, which thus becomes the first Italian member of the global network for the defence of children's rights, present in over 60 countries around the world.

Timeline

1970

Our establishment
We were born in 1971, after a long phase of political mobilisation, on the initiative of a group of university students. The first initiatives included the support for missions in Africa through self-financing.
The first steps in cooperation
In 1972 we were amongst the first organisations to obtain the recognition of eligibility from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to access co financing to start the first two development cooperation projects in Brazil and Congo, which was then Zaire.

1980

Consolidation and development
The eighties marked the consolidation of a path of intense growth both in terms of projects and structure. We became an organisation capable of managing strategies of complex multi-sectoral intervention, responding to various needs: from health to food safety, from rural development to education, from women’s to children’s rights.
A world of rights
Our actions became increasingly focused on supporting the rights of women, minors, people with disabilities, refugees, migrants and other subjects at risk of exclusion around the world, as well as
on supporting the first activities of LGBT groups in Havana.

1990

Humanitarian aid
In the nineties we started specialising in the Emergency sector, due to funds from the European Union and the United Nations, and in the support of the cooperative world. We guaranteed prompt and effective responses to populations affected by natural disasters.
Beyond the emergency
We create the conditions for sustainable local development together with local and international actors. Examples are the creation of a network of olive oil producers in the Middle East, the first Earth Market in Mozambique together with Slow Food, the marketing of Caffè Solidal Coop thanks to a cooperative of producers in Nicaragua.

2000

Distance support
Thanks to thousands of donors, we start launching the first distance support programmes. In Kenya, Benin and Tanzania we guarantee food and health to mothers and their children. In Brazil we start the first educational projects for girls and boys. We are present in Cambodia, India and Nepal against the exploitation of minors.
Awareness-raising work
Our awareness-raising activities and global citizenship education programmes in Italy and Europe grow together with young people, teachers and the civil society. In 2007 we organised the first edition of the Terra di Tutti Film Festival (TTFF) in Bologna, while in 2009 we kicked off the WeWorld Festival in Milan.

2010

The commitment in Italy
The first interventions against educational poverty were launched in Milan, Palermo and Naples in 2012. We also launched the first programmes against violence on women. We open the first Woman’s Space (Spazio Donna) in Naples.
The Study Centre
Programmes in support of women, girls and boys in Italy are supported by the important work of our Study Centre. The first Survey on the costs of violence against women in Italy was published in 2014. On the 25th November, which marks the day for the elimination of violence against women, we were invited to the Chamber of Deputies to present our report.

2020

Together with ChildFund
Thanks to the alliance with ChildFund starting in 2021, we are able to guarantee aid to the population of Haiti, which was hit by yet another natural catastrophe, and to the Afghan population, victims of a 20- year conflict.
New Woman’s Spaces (Spazi Donna)
Our commitment is also growing in Italy, with the opening of a new Woman’s Space in Brescia, Pescara and Bologna, the first in Emilia-Romagna.