WWOOF Italia
social promotion association was founded to coordinate the WWOOF movement in Italy and dedicated to create networking in agroecology and biodiversity
To date, WWOOF Italia has around 700 hosts, 5700 WWOOFers and 10 ordinary members who, though few in number, actively participate in WWOOF Italia initiatives and also to coordinate or manage associative activities.
We also have a small number of junior members who give a fresh boost to a movement that invests in a better future through the dissemination and application of bio-diverse and agro-ecological knowledge.
The Statute and Regulations, which are approved by the General Assembly, provide guidelines for the Board of Directors to carry out the associations activities.
In the local area, the relational networks between members are animated by the group of coordinators who are active in welcoming new hosts and organising local meetings or assisting members in resolving any issues.
The daily work of communication between Members, Coordinators and the Board is carried out by the Staff.
WWOOF Italia group of coordinators
The Board
Basil Black
Board member / President
I grew up on a small farm in central Italy where I learned a lot about animal husbandry and farming.
I have hosted WWOOFers for many years on our family farm and have traveled extensively as a WWOOFer myself.
I was involved in the formation of FoWO in 2012 and since then I have worked as the coordinator of the WWOOF Independents network. Since 2018, I have also been working as the coordinator of FoWO activities.
I am also also active in coordinating our local national organization – WWOOOF Italia.
In my spare time I enjoy mountaineering and exploring wild places.
Fabrizio Romagnoli
Board member
My name is Fabrizio Romagnoli, I am 47 years old and from Bologna. I have been in the WWOOF world since 2005. For more than ten years we have hosted wwoofers on our farm in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, in the province of Bologna, and have taken part in various projects (in particular Viewwoof and LLOOF, an international project whose final meeting we hosted). Currently, for both family and work reasons, we have left the farm and moved a little further afield to Sassoleone, a small town, which has given me time to gain some experience as a woofer and to think about dedicating some of it to the WWOOF Italia Board. After having helped my wife for years in the coordination of the provinces of Bologna and Modena, I have been in charge of the coordination of western Romagna for a couple of years now.
Daria Bruni
Board Member/Vice-President
I was born and raised in Rome, in an urban context far from the countryside. In 2010 I embarked on my first Wwoof experience, which gave me an alternative view of the world and, progressively, a change of perspective in my life choices. Over the years, travelling the length and breadth of the peninsula, I have had the chance to get to know the Italian agricultural context at close quarters, increasing my wealth of knowledge and important human relations.
Nowadays I work in a young farmers’ cooperative just outside Rome, which lets me discover the political and community aspects of agriculture every day.
I have been an active member of the Wwoof association for years in the role of coordinator for a part of Lazio, because I believe it is essential to be involved in caring for the territory and local networks.
I place great trust in the associative nature of WWOOF, that it may be a fertile place to imagine a common horizon to face this delicate moment.
Francesco Bifulco
Board Member
Woofer since 2012. Then coordinator, then host. Originally a city dweller, by doing Wwoof in Italy I discovered that it is possible to bring real nature into people’s daily lives, just a stone’s throw from the cities. I now live on a small farm in Ficulle and contribute, along with other farmers and inhabitants of the vast area, to animate, grow and protect the land that hosts us. The WWOOF network continues to contribute a great deal, offering tools and frameworks to seize the many opportunities of a local network!
When I have time I go exploring, try out recipes or invent games.
Gabriele Taverna
Board Member
Gabriele, born in 1986, I was born and raised in the countryside, always among animals and nature, which keep me bound by a very tight knot, out of which I have made my reason for living; in pursuit of essentiality. I am about to start a small project of rural life and work in the mountains, in Piemonte, and I am also working as a dry stone craftsman.
A member of Wwoof Italy since 2014, I became acquainted with this movement because I was looking for someone to show me that it was possible to concretize, in an even more radical way than I already had been doing, an essential lifestyle that respects my needs, others and the nature that surrounds us. I actively participated in the VieWwoof project and closely followed other projects of the association. I help in the coordination of some provinces in Piedmont. I enjoy taking care of what I feel involved in and connecting people and ideas, with the intention of initiating truly participatory processes and the development of best practices. For the past few years I have been training in the Facilitation field, particularly in regard to groups for social change.
Our Staff
Stana Nezval
I learned about WWOOF many years ago through Bridget and Alan, and that is how I discovered this wonderful world of people caring for nature and human relationships. Thank you, Bridget!
I have been h WWOOF Italia’s bookkeeper since 2011 and would like to grow medicinal herbs someday.
William Di Cicco
I am a lawyer and legal advisor to WWOOF Italia.
I provide counseling and litigation for Italian and foreign entrepreneurs, cooperatives, nonprofits, and corporate groups and am a member of the international Jurisglobal network.
For Wwoof Italia I monitor several projects and initiatives including the proposed law for peasant agriculture and the campaign against GMOs.
Working with WWOOF has allowed me to get to know a world and people from whom I have always had valuable professional and personal stimulation and enrichment.
Claudio Pozzi
A landless farmer, passionate about sustainability issues, I became acquainted with Wwoof in 1996 thanks to Elisa Grandis, who was managing the first small informal list of Wwoof Italia at Casolare Acqua Chiara.
Since then I have taken the association by the hand and have guided it until the end of 2018.
Today I am busy handing over the old to the new and building project networks across the territories.
Alessandro Bignamini
Farmer in Massa e Cozzile (PT). Originally from Lombardia. I try to help and am active for the association in digital work and in communication.
Eszter Matolcsi
I was born and raised in Hungary, but have lived in Italy since the early 1990s.
After completing a degree in Foreign Languages and Literature in Bologna, I moved to the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines where I still live with my family. In 2005 we joined WWOOF Italia as hosts and have hosted WWOOFers on our family farm for more than ten years. For several years now, I have been active in the association’s activities as coordinator for the provinces of Bologna and Modena. I am furthermore part of the staff of the association, as liaison for relations with foreign countries and I am on the board of the Federation of WWOOF Organisations (FoWO) as a representative of WWOOF Italia.
In my spare time I pursue handicrafts and collaborate with a non-profit association that produces handmade crafts engaging socially disadvantaged people.
WWOOF, a spontaneous worldwide network
WWOOF began in the early 1970s in the UK when a lady named Sue Coppard founded the first WWOOF group.
“I feel that WWOOF chose me as its channel: a secretary from London without rural friends or family, but yearning for the countryside. WWOOF originally stood for Working Weekends On Organic Farms (today it has the meaning of World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). I quickly put an ad in London’s Time Out magazine, and that is where the first fifteen requests started.”
WWOOF has grown into a worldwide network of some 15,000 hosts in over 130 countries with hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. WWOOF farms offer food, accommodation and training to wwoofers who come to help out. WWOOF hosts share their homes, food, knowledge and daily life with all the people who want to help on the farm.
“When I first thought of WWOOF in 1971, I had absolutely no idea that it would one day become a well-established worldwide network with members in so many countries travelling all over the world! But WWOOF meets the needs of so many people that it had to happen”.
Sue Coppard
