Find Your Place on Our Team

Saving valuable human knowledge requires many different skills. Through Saving the Burning Library, we are building a growing network of people who help us discover, document, preserve, and share the stories, memories, experiences, and knowledge that risk disappearing from our communities.

We’ve organized our volunteer efforts into four key teams. Find the team that best fits your skills, experience, and interests, and discover how you can contribute.

Join WeDiasporan today!

 

Feel the Pride of Making a Difference

When you volunteer with WeDiasporan, you become part of something practical: helping valuable knowledge survive the people who carry it.

Your contribution can help preserve a memory, document a community, record an elder, uncover the history behind a photograph, capture the knowledge of a local business, or help make this knowledge accessible to future generations.

WeDiasporan is a socio-cultural research organisation working to discover, document and preserve the stories, memories, experiences and knowledge of communities before they disappear.

We are not simply creating an archive of the past. We are building Living Libraries that communities can continue to explore, question, correct, learn from, and build upon.

We do this through Saving the Burning Library β€” our mission to preserve valuable human knowledge before it becomes impossible to recover.

Start your journey with WeDiasporan today

Become a WeDiasporan Volunteer

You don’t need to be a professional storyteller or researcher to contribute.

Some volunteers work directly within communities. Others contribute through research, documentary production, technology, events, partnerships, or fundraising.

Find where your abilities can make the greatest contribution.

1. Narrative Engineers & Field Research Team πŸŽ“

Mission: To discover and document valuable knowledge within communities before it disappears.

  • Narrative Engineer: Identify knowledge holders and conduct interviews using our storytelling and knowledge-preservation methodology. Training is provided. Community Researcher: Research people, places, businesses, traditions, events, and community histories that deserve further documentation. Knowledge & Evidence Collector: Help identify and document photographs, objects, documents, places, and other evidence connected to the stories being preserved.

Creative & Documentary Team 🎨

Mission: To transform documented knowledge into compelling media that helps communities experience, understand, and preserve their stories.

  • Video Editor: Help transform interviews and field recordings into short documentaries, field reflections, and other audiovisual stories.
  • Content Writer & Researcher: Develop Knowledge Stories, articles, field reports, and other written content from documented material and supporting research.
  • Graphic Designer: Create graphics, documentary visuals, social media materials, and other visual assets that help communicate the mission and the knowledge being preserved.

3. Community & Events Team 🀝
Mission: To connect Saving the Burning Library with the communities whose knowledge we are working to preserve.

  • Community Connector: Help identify knowledge holders, introduce Narrative Engineers to people and organisations, and build relationships within local communities. Event & Restitution Assistant: Support community events, documentary screenings, Living Library presentations, and other activities through which preserved knowledge is returned and shared with communities. Community Outreach Volunteer: Help introduce Saving the Burning Library to new people, associations, and communities and encourage participation in the project.

4. Partnerships, Technology & Growth Team

Mission: To build the partnerships, resources, and infrastructure required to preserve knowledge sustainably and expand the work into more communities.

  • AI & Tech Specialist: Use your skills in AI, data analysis, or web tech to help us optimize our outreach, analyze engagement, and improve our digital platforms.
  • AI & Technology Specialist: Contribute skills in AI, data, software, web technology or digital systems to support our Living Libraries and knowledge-preservation infrastructure.
  • Fundraising & Grant Research Assistant: Identify relevant funding opportunities and help develop grant applications, sponsorship proposals and other resources needed to sustain the mission.

You May Already Know a Burning Library


The person could be in your family.
They could live in your neighbourhood.
They could be an elder, business owner, migrant, teacher, craftsperson, community leader, or simply someone carrying experiences that have never been documented.
You may even be that person.
The knowledge is already around us. The question is whether we will preserve it in time.

Join us to make an impact!

Those who have already worked with us

Here is a list of the incredible individuals and organizations we have worked with in the past. We are truly grateful for their invaluable contributions.

  • Africanews.it.
  • Verona Film Commission
  • Agy Kwakye: Resident – Vicenza.
  • Lorenzo Mazzi: Resident – Verona.
  • Vilma Ottonelli: Resident – Brescia.
  • Macelleria Atlas: Resident – Verona.
  • Karole Tcheukam: Resident – Verona.
  • Ada Indrieş: Social assistant – Verona.
  • Yimer Dagmawi: Documentarian – Verona.
  • Andrews Yeboah: Photographer – Verona.
  • Gbeyo Yoro Stephanie: Resident – Verona.
  • Manuela Garreffa: Acquei Terme.
  • Riccardo Sagentini: Photographer – Verona.
  • Malice Omondi: Social assistant – Verona.
  • Corinne Djitchouang: Resident – Verona.
  • Chiara Fraccaroli: Resident – Verona.
  • Karine Tchuente: Resident – Verona.
  • Eliana Bombieri: Resident – Verona.
  • Fabrizio Colombo: Priest – Verona.
  • Ofure Mathina: Resident – Verona.
  • Meg Ebu: Designer – Verona.

Veronetta – New Faces Of a Neighborhood – Interviewees

  • Zama: Shop owner – Veronetta.
  • Rasika: Shop owner – Veronetta.
  • Giulia Vicenzi: Resident – veronetta.
  • Lauria Andrea: Resident – Veronetta.
  • Innocent Ebe: Shop owner – Veronetta.
  • Pierluigi Grigoletti: Architect – Veronetta.
  • Loughlimi Lhabib: Resident – Veronetta.
  • Marco Ambrosi: Photographer – Verona.
  • Uddin Monazim: Shop owner – Veronetta.
  • Giovanni Vignato: Shop owner – Veronetta.
  • Giancarlo Beltrame: Journalist and Lecturer.
  • Carlo Melegari: Director of Cestim – Verona.
  • Marco Danielon: Sculpture Artist – Veronetta.
  • Giusepina Boateng: Social Assistant – Verona.
  • Mustapha Wagne: Trade Unionist – Veronetta.
  • Ibrahim Khachab: Restaurant Owner – Veronetta.
  • Francesca Benciolini: City Councillor – Padova.
  • Ramona Parenza: Teacher and author – Brescia.
  • Anna Mozzo: Student at the University of Verona.
  • Elena Migliavacca: Deretor of Casa di Ramia – Verona.
  • Cisse Falilou: Musical artist and trade unionist – Verona.
  • Marcellino Marundo: Lecturer of Economics – Mozambique.

Other Contributors

  • Lucia Perina: General Secretary of UIL Verona.
  • Sarah Chreyha: A psychologist who specializes in evolutive and psycho-diagnostics psychology in Padua.

For Advice and Revision of Texts

  • Innocent Daniel Ezenwa: Community leader – Verona.
  • Ugochukwu: Lecturer at Open University – United Kingdoms.
  • Elise Abram: Educator, Author, and Publisher – Ontario, Canada.
  • Daniel Kobehe: Ivory Coast Immigrant Worker – Paris, France.

WE REFUGEES – VERONA 2016 – Interviewees (Workers at refugee centers)

  • Claudio: Ronde della caritΓ  of Verona.
  • Lucia Zanoni: Centro aperto, Verona.
  • Nadia Gobbo: Centro aperto, Verona.
  • Eleonora Rizzi: Spazio aperto, Verona.
  • Andrea Tassetti: Centro aperto, Verona.
  • Massimiliano Minozzo: Associazione Betania, Verona.

Some Of The Refugees That Were Interviewed

  • Addourahmane.
  • Mamadou.
  • Fredrick.
  • Otokiti.
  • Omoregne.
  • Efosa.
  • Iyamu.
  • Obeto.
  • Nwosu.
  • Osemiekhian.

The Journey: Africans In Verona – Interviewees

  • Charles Ani: Architect – Verona.
  • Odion Hope: Resident – Verona.
  • Kingford Patrick: Resident – Verona.
  • Jean Francois: Entrepreneur – Verona.
  • Enabulele Benson: Resident – Verona.
  • Erhomosele Orukpe: Resident – Verona.
  • Hamid Barole: Poet and author – Verona.
  • Beyene Zerazion: Medical oculist – Verona.
  • Sandra Faith Erhabor: Social worker – Verona.
  • Ernesto Da Silva: Guinea Bessua resident – Verona.
  • Robert Osifo: Ex-President of the Nigerian Association in Verona.

Other Contributors

  • Francesca Bazzani: Food marketing consultant – Verona.
  • Tommy Kuti: Musical artist – Brescia.

The Color Of Our Children – Interviewees (Parents/Teachers)

  • Maddalena Albanese: Teacher of history and Italian language and a Referent for the integration of non-Italian students – Vicenza.
  • Ethiel France: The main protagonist of the research – Vicenza.
  • Cristina Cominacini: Social worker in β€œLe Fate” Association – Verona.
  • Elena Buttturini: Teacher in Massalongo Elementary School – Verona.
  • Domenico Martino: Director of the Ministry of education in Vicenza, at the time of the interview.
  • Ethiel’s Mother – Vicenza.
  • Valida Boafo: Mother – Padova.
  • Marta Borin: Ethiel’s friend in school – Vicenza.
  • Cadigia Hassan: Mother and journalist – Padova.
  • Ernesto Passante: Headteacher of Veronetta, Verona, at the time of the interview.
  • Jennifer Iloegbunam: Mother and cultural mediator – Verona.
  • Ziani Abdelghani: Moroccan parent and cultural mediator – Verona.
  • Marialuisa Damini: Teacher and researcher for cultural diversity in schools.
  • Giorgio Santarello: Director of Padova provincial administration, work and formation section, at the time of interview.

Voxpop – Students

  • Vanessa: Student – Verona.
  • Emanuela: Student – Verona.
  • Sara: Istituto Paritario Sacra Famiglia – Verona.
  • Nora: Massalongo Scuola Elementare – Verona.
  • Aima: Massalongo Scuola Elementare – Verona.
  • Anna: Massalongo Scuola Elementare – Verona.
  • Melani: Istituto Paritario Sacra Famiglia – Verona.
  • Mattia: Istituto Tecnico Industriale Statale -Vicenza.
  • Ahmed: Istituto Tecnico Industriale Statale – Vicenza.
  • Anthony: Istituto Tecnico Industriale Statale – Vicenza.
  • Winifred: Istituto Tecnico Statale Marco Polo – Verona.
  • Andrea: Istituto Tecnico Commerciale Einaudi – Padova.
  • Leonardo: Istituto Tecnico Commerciale Einaudi – Padova.
  • Camilla: Liceo Artistico Statale Amedeo Modigliani – Padova.
  • Lorenzo: Istituto d’Istruzione Superiore β€œA. Canova” – Vicenza.
  • Anna: Istituto Di Istruzione Superiore Leonardo Da Vinci – Padova. 
  • Asmaa: Istituto Tecnico Commerciale Aldo Pasoli – Verona.

Conference On Human Migration – University of Verona

  • Prof. Gian Paolo Romagnano: Director of the Department of Culture and civilization, University of Verona.
  • Jean-Pierre Piessou: Lecturer of African anthropology.
  • Gruppo dei rifugiati: African Young Stars, Verona.
  • Alessandro Tortorella – Vice prefect of Verona.
  • Luca Delponte: Journalist, TeleArena, Verona.
  • Marina Sorina: Italian-Ukraine author.
  • Anna Leso – City Councillor, Verona.
  • Fometh Attiogbe: Ivorian poet, Verona.
  • Raffaello Zordan: Journalist at Nigrizia, Verona.
  • Nadia Gobbo: Cooperativa spazio aperto, Verona.
  • Prosper Nkenfack: President of Africa’s friends, Verona.
  • Prof. Anna Maria Paini: Lecturer of Anthropology, University of Verona.
  • Prof. Emanuela Gamberoni: Lecturer of human geography, University of Verona.

What about you?

How do you want to support the mission and add your name to the list?

Volunteer my time Contribute my know-how Support with my money