If He Were Your Son

Se fosse tuo figlio

If he were your son, is the English Edition of Nicolo Govoni’s book, Se fosse tuo figlio. Nicolo is the Founder and CEO of Still I Rise, an organization dedicated to education and humanitarian efforts for vulnerable children through the world. From the Still I Rise website,

Still I Rise is a nonprofit organization bringing world-class education to refugee and vulnerable children around the globe.
Our mission is to end the global education crisis. We open schools to emancipate the most vulnerable and through our revolutionary educational model and our unshakeable advocacy work we aim to ensure top-quality, free schooling to all children within our lifetime. We are independent, transparent and efficient, and we make progress every single day. We change the world one child at a time.

While the overarching goal is constant, the approach is tailored to the location, and the need.

EMERGENCY AND REHABILITATION SCHOOLS
We open Emergency and Rehabilitation Schools to provide relief in the most complex segments of global humanitarian crises. We offer a versatile curriculum, meeting basic needs such as nutrition, hygiene and child protection. We offer psychosocial support to regenerate child well-being. We rehabilitate our students from living in the streets, child labor, slavery, mines and refugee camps, restoring their right to freedom. We fight to protect childhood, before it is too late.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS
We open International Schools in the most stable settings to turn emergency into rebuilding. We offer the highest level of education, the most recognized curriculum in the world, and a holistic, state-of-the-art school model to ensure long-term solutions. We create opportunities for development, social cohesion and inclusion not only for our students but for entire communities. We educate to shape the leaders of tomorrow. We champion potential and rebuild the future.

The first book I read from Nicolo was “Bianco Come Dio”. I didn’t lead with that one, as it may only be offered in Italian. It’s the story of his voulenteer work in an orphanage in India and his rejection of the ‘savior’ model to running an NGO. You don’t ‘save’ your own children, you nurture, protect, and guide them so that they can grow into to their potential. Se fosse tuo figio.

His message and approach resonated with my experience doing a study abroad course in Cape Town 20 years ago. The program was Comparative History and there were both active and passive learning aspects of the program. If I recall correctly, the title was Conflict and Identity. The only way to fail the course, was to blindly take sides, not find shared humanity and humility, and to fail to recognize the inherent reciprocity in giving; when you are given the opportunity to teach and help, you are also being helped and taught.

It’s very easy to become disillusioned with charitable organizations. Organizations can become machines. With that said, there are good ones, and I hope for as long as there is a need, this is a good one. A natural writer, Nicolo posts frequently on Instagram, @govoninicolo. He gives you more than a glimpse into his motivations, his stresses, his weaknesses, his victories, and his love for the children who showed him his path.

At 25, he found what he wanted to do, and needed funding. So he wrote a book. Sometimes I wonder if I learned Italian in college so that 15 years later, I could read his book.

Personal musings aside, this is a book that can reignite your own passions, by showing you what any individual can do, with a little love, determination, and by simply asking, if not me, who? If not now, when?

Forza Nicolo.