OUR TEAM

” Pierre Chopinaud is a writer, political scientist and strategy advisor. At 18, he volunteered with minority populations displaced by the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia. He became the assistant of the artist Pierre Guyotat while engaging in political actions on the ground with people in very precarious situations who were victims of discrimination.

For several months, he organized successful mobilizations with residents of squats and shantytowns in the Paris region, notably in the Hanul Shantytown in Saint-Denis or in the Squat of rue Wilson in Montreuil. Then he joined the organization La voix des Rroms which amplifies the power of action and the voice of the Rromani and Traveler minorities in France and Europe. In particular, he created an international campaign called  Rromani Resistance which profoundly reforms the memory practice of the minority and the modalities of its political engagement at the global level.

As part of actions to fight against police violence, he met Tara Dickman, founder of Le Next Level and discovered the techniques of Community Organizing. He founded Conatus in 2021.

Pierre Chopinaud followed the course “Leadershing Organizing and Action: leading change” by Professor Marshall Ganz of the Kennedy School of governments at Harvard.”

Anina Ciuciu  is a lawyer and author of French and Romanian nationality and of Rromani origin. In 2013, she published a book « Je suis tsigane et je reste » which tells her story from the slums to the Sorbonne.

Her book has a great impact in the public space. She is very active in several grassroots NGOs, notably as president of l’association Askola. In September 2017, she was the first candidate of Rromani origin in the national elections (Senate) in the history of France.

In 2018, she qualified as a lawyer from the Paris Bar School. The same year, she founded the Collectif #EcolePourTous which brings together children, young people living in shantytowns, French travelers and unaccompanied foreign minors deprived of the right to education in France.