Ethiopian woman owes freedom to Italy and goats but frustrated by anti-migrant era

Record ID: 1141887

  • Title: Ethiopian woman owes freedom to Italy and goats but frustrated by anti-migrant era
  • Date: 20th July 2018
  • Summary: VALLE DEI MOCHENI, ITALY (RECENT) (REUTERS) GOATS SMELLING THE CAMERA AND WALKING OVER IT DRONE FOOTAGE OF AGITU IDEA GUDETA WALKING TO THE GOATS' STABLE VARIOUS OF AGITU IDEA GUDETA WITH GOATS VARIOUS OF AGITU IDEA GUDETA WORKING GOAT'S CHEESE (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) AGITU IDEA GUDETA, SAYING: "I started with fifteen goats, obviously at the beginning I found a job to support myself. While I was working in another place, I started to recover the land and animals, starting with fifteen goats, and today I have reached 180 goats in production, and my company has an organic certification. We make cheeses, all of them of the highest quality." VARIOUS OF AGITU IDEA GUDETA PREPARING CHEESE (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) AGITU IDEA GUDETA, SAYING: "I created my space and made myself known, there was no resistance to me. But for those who are coming (migrants), these resistances are obviously conditioned by ideologies based on lies that can create fear and resistance, not on concrete or real things." AGITU IDEA GUDETA TOUCHING AND SMELLING A CHEESE CHEESE ON RACKS (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) AGITU IDEA GUDETA, SAYING: ''Why shouldn't we try to optimise, to draw the best out of each individual? This would be very wise. Once (migrants) are on our territory we should not constantly work to marginalise them. This is negative and counterproductive.'' FRESH CHEESE TAKEN BY HAND AND WRAPPED TRENTO, ITALY (RECENT) (REUTERS) CUSTOMERS IN FRONT OF AGITU IDEA GUDETA'S STAND AT LOCAL MARKET AGITU IDEA GUDETA GIVING A PIECE OF CHEESE TO A CUSTOMER (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) LOCAL RESIDENT SARA LORENZINI, SAYING: "I have a great admiration for her story and for what she is doing, and for the added value she gives to the community". (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) LOCAL RESIDENT ELISA FORGIA, SAYING: "Of course, people like her can help others to integrate too, because they can understand something more about how it can work. But there must be a wish to work." (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) LOCAL RESIDENT DIEGO DETASSIS, SAYING: ‘‘(Interior minister Matteo) Salvini in some way is right because we cannot open our doors and, and take in all the migrants of Europe while Europe does not help us. It is the right thing to do to use an iron fist for a while to wake up the rest of Europe.'' VALLE DEI MOCHENI, ITALY (RECENT) (REUTERS) GOAT ON THE GRASS MIGRANT WITH GOAT (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) AGITU IDEA GUDETA, SAYING: "When a company is born, the goal should not only be profit or earn, make money, which is not my main goal, but also to create jobs. The refugees fit better to this job, because our job is very peculiar, tiring. Certainly someone who has crossed the desert, crossed the sea, has a physical resistance and also a motivation to redeem themselves." AGITU IDEA GUDETA LOOKING AT HER GOATS GOATS DRONE FOOTAGE OF PASTURE AND GOATS
  • Embargoed: 3rd August 2018 09:07
  • Keywords: Agitu Idea Gudeta goat herd hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini goat's cheese
  • Location: VALLE DEI MOCHENI AND TRENTO, ITALY
  • City: VALLE DEI MOCHENI AND TRENTO, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA0018PJWY8P
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Forced to flee her native Ethiopia in 2010, Agitu Idea Gudeta settled in Italy and in just a few short years has built up a thriving business making goat's cheese and beauty products.
    Her experience is a shining example of what migrants can do for their new countries, given half a chance, but Gudeta fears growing hostility to newcomers in Italy will make it harder for outsiders to contribute in the future.
    Gudeta, 40, has made her home in the mountains of the Trentino region in Valle dei Mocheni, a stronghold of Italy's far-right League party, which is led by the hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
    Some opinion polls say the League is now Italy's most popular party, its support fuelled by its uncompromising stance against the arrival of more than 650,000 migrants, many from sub-Saharan Africa, over the past five years.
    Gudeta escaped from her home town of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, after her protests against so-called 'land-grabbing' - whereby huge swathes of farmland were sold to foreign investors - raised the ire of the local authorities.
    Ironically, in Italy she was able to use common land in the northern mountains to build her new enterprise, taking advantage of permits that give farmers access to public land to prevent local territory from being reclaimed by wild nature.
    At the local market in the regional capital of Trento, Gudeta's clients are regulars.
    "I have a great admiration for her story and for what she is doing, and for the added value she gives to the community," said Sara Lorenzini after having bought some cheese.
    Other customers say Gudeta is the perfect person to help other migrants integrate into society providing they have a willingness to work.
    Despite the fact the local community seem quite happy to encourage Gudeta, they also support Salvini's hard stance against letting more migrants into Italy.
    ‘‘(Interior minister Matteo) Salvini in some way is right because we cannot open our doors and take in all the migrants of Europe while Europe does not help us," said local resident Diego Detassis.
    "It is the right thing to do to use an iron fist for a while to wake up the rest of Europe,'' he said.
    Gudeta says one of the goals for her business, La Capra Felice (The Happy Goat), is to create more jobs but she has trouble employing Italians. Italians, she said, struggle to keep up with the gruelling work day, with milking starting at 5.00 a.m., followed by long hikes through the mountain pastures. Migrants are able to keep up with the tough work and she now employs two.
    "Certainly someone who has crossed the desert, crossed the sea, has a physical resistance and also a motivation to redeem themselves," she said.
    As she caresses her goats sitting outside in the sun Gudeta thinks about the bigger picture.
    "When a company is born, the goal should not only be profit or to earn, make money, which is not my main goal, but also to create jobs," she said.
    Gudeta will not let negative sentiment coming from the new government stop her ideas. She has recently purchased an abandoned mountain school creating a dairy on the ground floor. She now hopes to turn the top floor into accommodation for people wishing to come on vacation and share her way of life.
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