According to theEdelman Trust Barometer , 78 percent of Italians believe that businesses can take specific actions aimed not only at profit, but also at the growth of the communities in which they operate.

To Give back is not a utopia and has always been a duty for me.

Give back: part of my fortune, happiness ,time, money to those who have less, those who are less fortunate, those who in life have been left behind or even just born in the poorest hemisphere of the planet.

That is why I choose to produce as much as possible with small artisans who work alone or with their families (my small tailors in Jaipur and Delhi for example, or with social cooperatives of women who have joined together to protect their labor, which is too often exploited.

Like Doha who teaches embroidery to women in Marrakech or Cristina an indigenous Wayuu woman from Colombia who has created a cooperative of women artisans of the mochila, the traditional Colombian bag, or Samia the Tunisian seamstress who makes Samia shirts in the women’s cooperative in Parma founded by my friend Elisabetta (www.lunariacooperativa.it)

If I can’t find social cooperatives then I choose realities that then give back part of the proceeds to support local projects. Like the carpet factory in Rajastan, which I also use to make bags, which has activated a project to support schools in remote villages for which it purchases desks, chairs, school supplies, and computers.

I donate 5% of the proceeds from the sale of Dress more with less products that are made in India to the Italian non-profit organization Living Slowly (www.vivereconlentezza.it)

Ella, she is in charge, you see her in the photos with me in the small school in the slum that stands in the Jaipur landfill and then with Usha, one of the girls that the association snatched from the slum and an arranged marriage with a man much older than her. She now lives with her husband, whom she chose, in housing found by the association and has started a small production of fabric purses and home repairs. The association supports the empowerment of several girls in Jaipur. It is a small non-profit organization that does small but very concrete projects thanks to funds donated by me and other individuals.

But also, when you don’t have the financial possibilities, helping those who are left behind is possible.
Just give up some of your free time to devote to others.
The real luxury today is that.
Free time .
A precious commodity.
For many people it is worth more than money.
The watchword is sharing.
Making your happiness available to those less fortunate
your time,
your skills.
Each of us knows how to do something that can help others.
So, in my second life I chose to devote even more time to those who need my help.
I chose to make my skills, my network of knowledge, and part of my free time available to others. As a volunteer, without any financial gain.
Millions of people around the world make my choice.
Which is nothing special, mind you.
I simply joined them and with a group of friends we founded Ransoms (www.ri-scatti.it), a small association that uses images, photography, as a therapy to tell a discomfort, a pain, even a transitory moment of difficulty.

And since I’ve been living in the United States, I devote volunteer hours to packing boxes for Feeding South Florida, the U.S. food bank. A small gesture, a beginning.

"It's not so much how much we give but the love we
put into giving."
Mother Teresa of Calcutta