Alessia Alessandra

de Borbón

          Alessia Alessandra de Borbon is the founder of the de Borbón Foundation. Throughout her life, she has been recognised by international charities and the United Nations as a figure of youth leadership and the empowerment of women. Now, at twenty years old in 2022, she is pursuing her mission to spread awareness of global issues to young minds. Having recently completed her undergraduate degree in Integrated Digital Media at New York University, she is now continuing her education as a graduate student at the Columbia University School of Journalism.

 

          Alessia Alessandra’s passion for philanthropy started within her family and was encouraged through her education. Her family's generosity towards supporting the arts shaped Alessia Alessandra’s mindset to understand the importance of giving back. At six years old, Alessia Alessandra was injured in a severe car accident. However, once taken to the hospital, she had to remain in the hallway for hours because there were no children’s rooms available. Immediately after the incident, Alessia Alessandra worked with her parents’ support to donate a children’s area for the hospital’s trauma centre. Years later, after having skipped two grades, she found herself attending the Montessori Model United Nations (MMUN) programme. Inspired by the MMUN and realising the great impact young students can make, Alessia Alessandra was encouraged to start two NGOs of her own.

 

          Take the CAN out of CANdy was a non-profit organization that collected cans in the month of October for local food banks. The second NGO, Help Mothers on Mothers’ Day, collected monetary donations during the month of May to support Free the Children, an organisation created by Craig and Marc Kielburger. Alessia Alessandra has traveled to underdeveloped villages in the Dominican Republic, not only to distribute food there, but to also live and cook with the locals. Those experiences gave her the motivation to push herself in her philanthropic work. They also taught her the importance of connecting with the people she and her foundation supports.

 

          Through the MMUN, Alessia Alessandra met Her Excellency Dr. Joyce Banda, former president of Malawi and Forbes’ most powerful woman in Africa. She became both a mentor and friend to Alessia Alessandra. Through Her Excellency’s advice, the de Borbón Foundation was born. Our foundation now works to help support other organisations such as the Joyce Banda Foundation Initiative (JBFI), The Jack Brewer Foundation, and AIME Mentoring.

 

          The first of these three partnerships is with Her Excellency’s foundation to focus on helping pregnant women in Africa. There are so many women who walk long distances to their nearest hospitals outside of their home villages, but are then rejected by the hospitals because they do not have the ten dollars to give birth there. Instead, they walk back home and give traditional births, which are extremely dangerous to both the newborn and the mother. With the help of the JBFI, we are adopting clinics so that women can give birth safely and in sanitary conditions, free of charge. AIME Mentoring, our second partnership, was founded by Jack Manning Bancroft. AIME is an education program founded in Australia that gives indigenous students with great potential the skills they need in order to go forth with their ventures and succeed. The third and last partnership we have is with former NFL player Jack Brewer and The Jack Brewer Foundation, whose core principle is “Empowering From Within.” The Jack Brewer Foundation is taking action towards helping people in Hati get access to food, medicine, and education. Alessia Alessandra also met Jack Brewer through the MMUN Conferences in New York City. We are honoured to announce our partnership with his organisation.

 

          Currently, the de Borbón Foundation is working on several projects. With the JBFI, we are donating school uniforms to students in Africa who cannot take advantage of their free primary education without uniforms, which their families cannot afford. We are working school-by-school to ensure that every student attending has a uniform so that he or she can go to classes. In addition, our founder is currently trying to find more ways to get young minds involved in public service. In an environment where kindness and generosity is familiar, a student growing up there is more likely to want to help others. Our next mission is to ‘normalise’ giving— for young people to feel that it is their responsibility to give back to their community, rather than exoticising public service as a rare interest.