Humanitarian Mission — Mobile Bakery for Gaza
Humanitarian project with Fondazione Francesca Rava (NGO), commissioned by the Italian Civil Protection Department and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers — Jordan
I took part in a humanitarian mission in Jordan, carried out in collaboration with Fondazione Francesca Rava, commissioned by the Italian National Civil Protection Department and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. The aim of the project was to provide communities affected by the ongoing crisis in Gaza with a mobile bakery, designed and prefabricated in Italy with state‑of‑the‑art technology.
The bakery arrived in Jordan in two large containers, transported by Italian Air Force C‑130 aircraft: I remember the deep roar of the engines tearing through the stormy sky, as the crates landed on the rain‑soaked runway of a military airport near Amman, and the rain stopped for a brief moment. Once on the ground, the following day, our team worked with meticulous precision to reassemble the units: stainless‑steel ovens, robust mixers, hygienic worktops, and self‑contained generators. Every bolt tightened, every cable connected, was a step towards full operation, with technicians sweating profusely but never losing their smiles.
Alongside the assembly, with the help of the Italian baker Marco Randon — a long‑standing volunteer for Fondazione Rava, with hands marked by years of work in the oven — we trained a group of curious and determined locals. We taught them the secrets of bread: kneading rough flour with yeast and water, shaping perfect loaves, and baking in the electric oven until achieving that golden, crispy crust that smells like home. We produced clear, practical tutorial videos, shot amid clouds of flour, so that once the bakery reached Gaza, it could be operated independently by local teams, producing up to 1,000 loaves per day and feeding hundreds of families.
Throughout the mission, my role was to document every stage through photography. I captured not only the technical process—the surgical precision of the assembly, the logistics of transport, and the synergy between Italian, Jordanian, and international teams—but especially the human side: the focused faces of the technicians testing the ovens as they were lit for the first time, the intensity with which Marco showed a young Jordanian how to work the dough with rhythmic gestures, and the tangible impact of a warm loaf becoming a lifeline in war‑affected areas.
The images I took tell the story of tireless collaboration and pure commitment, showing how complex operations — from design in Italy to deployment in the Middle East — translate into concrete support for those who need it most. Beyond documentation, this visual material communicates the initiative to a wider audience, illustrating the obsessive care in planning, the dedication behind every detail, and the beating heart of this mobile bakery, a symbol of hope within the broader humanitarian mission it serves.
