You don’t have to be extraordinary to do extraordinary things

Selene Biffi’s story as a social entrepreneur begins with a book. A book she found on a shelf while she was studying in Australia. The cover was prophetic: How to Change the World. And changing the world is what Biffi tries to do every day, because her career is to create companies to help others. One start-up after another. 

A 2005 graduate of Bocconi in International Economics and Management (DIEM), Biffi says that her résumé is a mix of experiences, but that what changed her life was working in the field. In fact, she prefers practice to theory. 

“I have always had a pragmatic approach to things. I felt that even studies should have a practical side, an impact on the world. That’s why I did volunteer work, I traveled as much as I could, I set up projects. But in Italy, it was difficult to find people who supported my ideas. I was young, and nobody took me seriously. So when I was 22, with just 150 euros in my pocket, I launched my first start-up, Youth Action for Change. The digital project worked and in 2005 an organization was founded that develops online training courses and facilitates access to free education in 130 countries, 95 percent of which are developing.

At that time, Biffi was traveling extensively and in 2009 she arrived in Afghanistan as a volunteer to create an illustrated educational magazine for young people in rural areas. The following year she created Plain Ink, educational comics designed to combat illiteracy; they tell stories about how to improve village life: from healthcare to personal hygiene, from food safety to disease prevention. Biffi later left Afghanistan, but her dream was to return with a new project: to open a school to rediscover and promote traditional storytelling. That opportunity came in 2013.

She says: “I returned to Kabul to open the Qessa Academy, the first school to rediscover traditional stories and use them to create training and employment opportunities, even in a difficult context like Afghanistan. In the seven years of the project, we have trained nearly 80 unemployed girls and boys between the ages of 18 and 25. Once they complete their courses, they use their art to entertain, educate, and inspire thousands of people by participating in well-known television and radio programs.” In recognition of the impact of her work in Afghanistan, Biffi received the Mother Teresa Award in India in 2016; previous recipients include Malala Yousafzai and the Dalai Lama.

Then, in August 2021, Kabul fell and the Taliban returned to power. “I tried to help my students and anyone else who asked,” she says, “evacuating dozens of people and creating an informal support network for thousands more who stayed behind.” When women ask for help to continue working, Biffi sets up the non-profit organization She Works for Peace, which last year provided economic and technical support to more than 300 women-owned micro-enterprises in different regions of Afghanistan.

To those who wish to follow in her footsteps of social entrepreneurship, Biffi says: “You don’t have to be extraordinary to do extraordinary things. Each of us can change the little corner of the world that’s right in front of us. Dive in! I say this especially to girls, who often place limitations on themselves. The most important thing is to start, the rest will come in time.”