A MOMENT WITH GIOSUE
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
As part of our Black History Month feature, Giosuè discusses who he is proud to be and gives an insight into his journey.
Date: 11.10.21
My name is Giosuè pronounced (Joe- Sue – Ehh), I have worked as a software developer at Next for just over 2 years and I’m proud to be the son of my migrant parents.
I was born in Italy to Ghanian parents, which like many other Ghanian migrants in the 80s and 90s migrating to different parts of Europe, they decided to start a new life in Italy to have a chance to better provide for my immediate and extended family.
My parent come from working-class backgrounds, so with little to no formal education it was almost certain they were bound to be labourers, so my childhood was very similar to many other families that grew up with working-class wages, with limited resources, struggling to make ends meet. However, growing up that is something my parents were good at hiding, even though life was not easy, my parents always made sure to provide me and my siblings with enough to live a decent childhood.
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A champion to me is a person/people that demonstrate resilience in the face of adversity for this reason I champion my parents because regardless of the poverty that they have experienced in their lifetime, they have always been rich in spirit and understood the value of being happy with limited means as well as the value of working hard to survive, regardless of the hardships they went through.
Because of the struggle, my parents went through, me and all of my siblings were able to attend university and get degrees and masters, whereby my dad and my mom weren’t even able to finish primary school, because of their humility and resilience, I learned to work hard to get what I want.
I am proud to be Afro-Italian, I’m proud to be Giosuè and regardless of how much people will try to pull me down, the only direction I chose to go is up.
Unity
After the events that lead to the traumatic death of George Floyd, I felt very vulnerable and because that event almost hit home, as a member of my family was affected by police brutality, I felt like a safe space needed to be created in my workplace, to hear and learn from other people that could also have been going through similar feelings.
As result we created Unity to build a safe space for underrepresented ethnic minority groups and allies at Next, to connect, champion and celebrate the wealth of diversity that we have in the company.
My vision for Unity is to become a diverse support network not just for underrepresented ethnic minorities, but also for allies and people from all walks of like can knowledge-share, motivate and uplift the community so that we can all celebrate and champion one another.