Cristina Duranti graduated from Siena University and earned a PhD from the University of Florence. She later served as consultant for Italian universities and government agencies in Economic Policy, Economics of Public Goods, Management of Non Profit Organizations.
In 2008, she set up the Good Shepherd International Foundation, an international organization that supports the mission of child protection and women empowerment of the Good Shepherd sisters in 35 countries. In her role as Director of the Foundation, Cristina has fund-raised and helped design programs to uphold the rights of girls, children and women in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
In 2012, she coordinated the start-up of “Bon Pasteur Kolwezi”, recognized as an international best-practice in the eradication of child labor in the cobalt mining areas of DRC.
In the past three years, together with Amnesty International and other NGOs, she and her team successfully lobbied some of the world’s largest companies (through WEF and the OECD) to finally acknowledge the problem of child labor in the battery supply chain, and to contribute resources to address the issue and comply with international regulations. Since 2012, Bon Pasteur succeeded in creating community-based safe spaces for 1,800 children out of the DRC cobalt mines.
Cristina produced two short films, http://www.maishafilm.com/ and http://www.mahilafilm.com/ documenting the positive impact of the Good Shepherd programs in eradicating child labor in DRC and upholding the rights of Dalit and Tribal women in Andhra Pradesh, India.
