Susanna Fioretti has worked for a music publishing company, in the General Directorate’s secretariat at ENEA, and as coordinator of an environmental protection project in Greece. At the same time, she obtained a diploma as a volunteer nurse with the Italian Red Cross and served for over two years as a Red Cross volunteer in a Roma camp on the outskirts of Rome, where hundreds of people of different ethnicities, living in shacks and caravans, experienced difficult and often violent coexistence. This experience, recounted in her book Fragments of a Roman Story, played a decisive role in steering her toward humanitarian cooperation.

In her first mission as an international aid worker, she was involved in an emergency program against acute child malnutrition in the Mauritanian desert, a context marked by a daily struggle against death. For the Italian Red Cross and for Italian Cooperation (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), she subsequently worked on both humanitarian assistance projects and development initiatives which, through education, training, and the creation of income-generating activities, help people overcome a constant state of need and achieve autonomy.

Over the years, Susanna has carried out numerous missions in India, Yemen, Mozambique, Iran, Sudan, South Sudan — where she worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross — and above all in Afghanistan. Arriving in Kabul in 2002, shortly after the fall of the first Taliban regime, she worked on supporting public orphanages. Later, through dialogue with families, Councils of Elders, and other local authorities, she obtained authorization to open a women’s center for literacy and vocational training, where women gained access to fields traditionally reserved for men, such as electrical and electronic repairs, the assembly of photovoltaic devices, gem cutting, and jewelry making.

In 2012, together with Arianna Briganti, she founded NOVE Onlus (now NOVE Caring Humans), becoming its president. Since then, she has continued to work in Afghanistan and Italy with her strongly pragmatic approach, focusing in particular on women and children. Among the projects she has conceived and implemented are a women-only driving school and the Pink Shuttle, the first and only all-female Afghan transportation service. These initiatives were presented as compatible with rules of gender segregation in order to secure approval, but were designed with the fundamental aim of increasing women’s safety and mobility, thereby promoting greater access to education, training, healthcare, and employment. (The Future Project recognized the Pink Shuttle with the Innovators for the Future award as an impact accelerator for system-change promoters working toward the Sustainable Development Goals.)

In August 2021, when the Taliban took power, NOVE had to decide whether to abandon the country. The choice, far from obvious, was to stay. Under Susanna’s leadership, NOVE managed the emergency evacuation of hundreds of Afghans at risk, while at the same time suffering the confiscation of its women’s training center and all equipment by the religious police, as well as the forced closure of the Pink Shuttle and other projects dedicated to women. Very few activities survived, and it was necessary to start almost from scratch.

A few months after the change of regime, Susanna Fioretti returned to Kabul to attempt direct dialogue with the Taliban authorities. Tenacity, the ability to assess risks, and to negotiate — skills developed through many years of international cooperation — helped her obtain initial results. Gradually, NOVE’s activities resumed, including those aimed at women.

“I have learned to listen, to try to understand the logic and the unspoken aspects of my interlocutors; to adapt and, if necessary, to accept compromises that do not undermine my principles. I avoid people with whom dialogue is clearly impossible, closed doors; I look for those that are open or ajar. My age is an advantage, because it allows me to speak almost on equal terms with Afghan men. I don’t give up easily when faced with ‘no’s. In 2004 I thought of organizing a prize for female entrepreneurship in Kabul: in addition to producing concrete results for courageous Afghan businesswomen, it could be a strong signal of hope and openness. At first I was told it was absolutely out of the question, but I sensed a small opening. And after various attempts, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry approved what I believe is the only prize for women in Taliban Afghanistan. It took place in July 2025 in a hotel in the capital, with men and women present together.”

From Susanna’s professional experiences in different countries, intertwined with personal events, came the books La tela di Penelope, printed in Kabul by a women’s cooperative; Involontaria, published by Einaudi with a commentary by Dominique Lapierre; and Quattro al secondo (Stampa Alternativa).

Although Susanna is rather reserved, her charisma and work have attracted growing media interest. She has been interviewed by numerous national and international outlets, and her testimony is part of the online volume “Italian Men and Women in Afghanistan” published by the Italian Embassy in Kabul, dedicated to the most significant Italian cultural and humanitarian experiences in the country. In 2025, she received Zonta’s “Amelia Earhart” Award for her tireless commitment to promoting emergency, development, and inclusion projects in contexts of extreme complexity, with particular attention to Afghanistan.

“The risk of being constantly in contact with so much suffering is becoming insensitive. Fortunately, that has never happened to me, but at times I have collapsed. With more or less difficulty I have recovered, and I will go on like this, I believe, for as long as I can.”