A Sales pro with a twist. Francesca built a school in Mozambique

While in an office, small talk usually happens in impromptu, face-to-face situations. Someone compliments your new haircut in passing or a colleague tells you what happened to them on their weekend. It all happens organically, and even if you’re quite introverted, you’re bound to find yourself part of a friendly office chatter from time to time.

Yet, the remote environment is cutting off many employees from workplace small talk. Casual interactions about anything outside of work can significantly improve remote employees’ well-being. I am such a relevant example of that. And an avid fan of the Slack #Donut app. Connecting for virtual coffee, I am religiously making room in my agenda as it charges me with great energy and it allows me to meet my colleagues beyond their roles.

This is how on a Wednesday afternoon I had a virtual ?? with one of our Lobsters, Francesca Zumbo and it was one of those ”aha” moments where you can only listen and get inspired. Not only is she doing a fantastic job as Labster Regional Sales Director, but….she also built a school in Mozambique. Long story short, I asked her a couple of questions, as we had to spread the word. Hear her out!

?? Francesca, what is your story in a nutshell? Tell us about yourself to kick things off?

When you asked me to have this interview about my school in Mozambique I was surprised and grateful at the same time. This is the first time I am sharing this story publicly. It has been “my project” for 11 years with a lot of feelings and emotions attached. But sharing it is a gift and I hope it might inspire someone who wants to do something similar.

I’m 37 and I come from Reggio Calabria, Southern Italy. I have a beautiful family that always supported my choices & travels far away from home and the sweetest dog that I adopted a year and a half ago.

I left my place when I was 18 to go study International and Diplomatic Sciences at the University of Bologna. After that, I did my Master's degree in Institutions and Politics of Human Rights and Peace at the University of Padova. I lived in Ljubljana for a while where I studied as an Erasmus student and worked with single mothers & kids who were victims of domestic violence as part of the EVS project.?

After my graduation, I lived in Barcelona for a month then moved to Poland to work for an NGO. I lived in England for a year attending a college for international cooperation and development, then in Mozambique working as a Professor in a teacher training college. In 2012 I got a job offer as a pedagogue in Denmark and here I am after almost 10 years still in the chilly Copenhagen!

I have worked in sales for many years. I always had both a social and a business/sales profile. I am a certified life coach. I can speak Italian, English, Spanish, Portuguese, and a bit of French (but very little Danish). I love traveling, people, cultures, and diversity, with a strong passion for human rights and positive energy! I have had a very special connection with Africa since I was a kid, I can’t explain why (maybe because I’ve been conceived in Kenya :)).

I grew up with a lot of love and care that inspires me to help others. I've been volunteering since I was a kid. I believe that everything happens for a reason; we are here on a mission and good things always generate great things. We can all contribute and make a difference for ourselves and others!

?? Your appetite for education, where does it come from? My father has a huge library at home with hundreds of books and encyclopedias. I grew up with the same passion for reading & studying. I love learning new things. Although I believe the best teachers in life are the people you meet; you can learn a lot from them and if you are lucky enough you meet some good ones :).

All children should be able to access education with no exception, it’s a basic human right! Learning in all different forms helps children to train their way of thinking, empowers them to grow, and develop new skills for a brighter future.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” Nelson Mandela

?? How come you ended up in Mozambique some good years ago? As part of the program for international cooperation in England, we had to be in the field and spend 6 months working in a developing country (that’s the main reason I joined the program) and my project was in Inhambane, Mozambique – a beautiful place on the coast of the Indian Ocean.

?? Building a school is absolutely inspiring, such an impactful project for any community.?Tell us more about how the idea came up and what happened next. Besides my project as a professor, I was working on my own in the community - I love to connect with the people in the place I live in.?

So, I went to teach English very early in the morning at the elementary schools around my place and in the afternoon at the central market. I worked with HIV groups and we used to meet close to the ruins of a school. There were only 4 wooden poles standing and I asked what it was. They told me it was an old preschool that was not working anymore since they didn’t have the money to build it and the children were not able to study.

?I had some money aside and I knew my family and friends would have loved to help me out, so I went to talk to the chief of the village, Dona Olga and asked permission to build the school for the children to go back to study. She was thrilled and gathered all the community in order to start working on it. With the contribution of a few close friends and family from Italy I started this project and managed to buy all the local material (wood, palm leaves, cement, latrine) to build the school. The entire community was involved and helped with the construction. It took us a couple of weeks to build everything from scratch and at the end, we had a big inauguration party with food, drinks, and music for the entire community!?

They gave the school my name “Escolinha Comunitaria Francesca”. The school was built in 2011 and has been functioning since then as a preschool for the children aged 2-5, for extra evening courses for adults, and HIV and community groups meetings.

I just came back from Mozambique for the renovation of the school. We built 2 separate toilets for both boys & girls, a new covered area for the children to rest and play in the shadow, a locked room to keep all the material safe and a new roof for the main school. The cost back in 2011 was around 700 Euro, but prices have gone up and this year I spent nearly 2000 Euro. Dona Olga is taking care of the kids and making sure the school keeps running. She is of great support for the Escolinha and the entire community, we’ve been in touch since 2011 and we are very close.?

The idea has been since the beginning to help them with the construction which is the biggest economic challenge for the community and then let them self-manage the school. I never wanted to create dependency, therefore my contribution is only for the construction and renovation of the school, the inauguration party of course, and school material and presents for the kids. The kids’ families pay a monthly fee to send the kids to school and the money covers the uniform and the salary of the teachers. There are currently over 30 kids at the school but it varies depending on the period - at one stage we had almost 100. They had to split the group in two (one in the morning and one in the afternoon).

My goal is to see more and more kids being able to attend the pre-school in a bigger escolinha that can fit them all at the same time and create a sustainable model that can be used in the rural and poor areas to help kids in many countries!

?? Most probably there were plenty of challenges you had to overcome, do you have any details or stories to share? Everything went so smoothly from the beginning actually. The entire community chipped in and helped build the school, all the women helped cook for the opening back in 2011 and now in 2022. It was amazing! I believe when something is meant for you it will find a way to happen naturally. But there were (are) a few challenges of course…I had to be very very patient: everything is slower, it’s like there is no time frame, everything happens amanha (tomorrow). When you plan something at a certain time you can expect to be delayed at least 2 hrs or not happen at all. I’m Italian (we are not the most punctual people) and I live in Denmark where everything is on time and things work (most of the time) so one of the challenges is surely accepting that things run differently and at a different pace and even if it can be frustrating at times if you go with the flow and follow the rhythm you start to slow down too and it’s a good thing after all!

Another challenge is since I’ve been self-financing and managing the project on my own, how can I continue helping them long-term and more efficiently? I’m sure there are a lot of people out there that would love to help, a small gesture can mean everything to these kids!

But the biggest challenge is leaving knowing that when going back someone might not be there anymore. I lost my closest friend, Virginia, this year just before arriving in Mozambique. She was very sick and left a 10-year-old daughter that she decided to name after me when she was born. Francisca is a very sweet kid, she’s like my goddaughter and I’ll do my best to always support her and take good care of her!?

?? What is next? What new initiatives are you going to work on? Any message for anyone willing to make a difference out there? My idea is to develop something more sustainable with no need for renovation every 10 years. It’s great to use local material but it requires maintenance. Hopefully, in a few years, I’ll be able to make a brick construction that will last longer and integrate also breakfast and a proper meal for the kids to be more “motivated” to go to school, and soon will be possible to send donations directly on the school page in order to give more support to other communities and eventually implement the “escolinha self-management model” in other countries too.

The only message I can share is: just follow your heart, everyone has a call but not all know what it is. You don’t need a master’s degree or a lot of money to do something good.

Just find that motivation, and passion and let it drive you far away. Try to find that purpose that is bigger than anything else and don't be afraid! Do something good for someone every day. Giving is the best way of receiving.

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