Francesco Rocca

President of CRI - Italian Red Cross


Born in Rome on 1 September 1965.He is currently the president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and national president of the Italian Red Cross. Volunteering has always been fundamental in his life, from a young age, when he was a university student in law. The first experiences of volunteering are in favor of those who are most vulnerable, of those who live in the gray areas of our society, such as the homeless and migrants.From the late 1980s he began his commitment in Rome with the Jesuit Refugee Service: from 1988 to 1993, first as a volunteer and then as head of the San Saba dormitory. In the same period, from 88 to 90, he was also a volunteer for Caritas in the center for minors and, from 88 to 91, at the Little House of Divine Providence Cottolengo for assistance to the severely disabled. In 1990 he graduated and, three years later, he became a lawyer. From that year until 1995 he worked as operator and then mayor of cooperatives linked to Caritas, in particular the one called "Starting from the last" and continues to volunteer at the legal assistance center for migrants and asylum seekers of Caritas, from 1991 to 1995.From 1990 to 2003 he practiced the legal profession. In particular, in the second half of the 90s, he was a lawyer at the forefront of the fight against the mafia and for this reason he lived under guard for five years.In parallel to his activity as a lawyer, he continues to volunteer in the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) under Ethiopian law of the Hansenian's Ethiopian Welfare Organization "Hewo", of which for a short period he was also General Manager free of charge, active in Ethiopia and Eritrea, from 2003 to 2007.From 1996 to 2004, he was President and Commissioner of the IPAB "Santa Maria in Aquiro", while from 2001 to 2003, President of the IPAB "Asilo della Patria", leading the transition from an orphanage to a family home for vulnerable minors; from 2003 to 2008 he remained a director of the same structure. In 2003-2004, he specializes in the Higher School of Public Administration as general manager of hospitals. In those years he received numerous delicate professional assignments. In 2003 he was Extraordinary Commissioner of the Sant'Andrea Hospital in Rome and then, until 2007, general manager of the same hospital. In 2007 he was appointed head of the emergency operations department of the Italian Red Cross. From 2005 to 2009, he was a member of the evaluation unit of the National Cancer Institute - IRCSS Pascale Foundation of Naples. From 2007 to 2010, then, member of the steering committee of the National Institute for Infectious Diseases "Lazzaro Spallanzani" in Rome.In 2008, after a brief spell at the head of the Health and Social Activities Department of the Municipality of Rome, he was asked for availability to lead the Italian Red Cross in the commissioner and reform phase. He accepts the position of Extraordinary Commissioner of the Red Cross, proud to be able to represent the largest voluntary organization in Italy and in the world. In 2009, during the general assembly in Kenya, he was elected a member of the board of directors of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent.In 2010, he was appointed Extraordinary Commissioner of the ASL Napoli 2. In January 2013 he was elected National President of the Italian Red Cross. In the same year, at the general assembly in Sydney, he was elected Vice President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent.In the spring of 2015, he was selected for the position of director general of the IDI Dermatological Institute in Rome. In 2016, the volunteers of the Italian Red Cross elected him again National President, after having completed the historic reform of the Association which thus falls within the orthodoxy of the International Movement, being no longer a public body, but an association completely returned to the hands of volunteers.In November 2017, the General Assembly of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent elected him president during the statutory meetings held in Antalya, Turkey. Finally, in May 2020, he was elected again at the helm of the Italian Red Cross.During the years of the Red Cross he coordinated and represented the Association nationally and internationally. From the conflict in Georgia in 2008, just to give a few examples, to the earthquakes in Italy (L'Aquila, Emilia, Central Italy) that have taken place over the years, from the missions in Syria during the war, to the earthquake that hit Haiti or to the armed conflict in Palestine and in particular in the Gaza Strip, up to the mission in Kenya, during the very serious drought that mainly affected the Turkana area.

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