Female refugees as well as local women are taking part in a bread-making and pizza dough preparation course during Italian Cooking Week, which kicked off on Thursday in Niger's capital Niamey, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The course is being organised by Puglia native Antonio Cera's renowned Fornosammarco bakery as part of the 'Pizza for peace' project, said the statement.
Refugees on the course are being hosted in Niger by the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR while the local participants have been chosen for an International Organisation for Migration project to develop female entrepreneurship, the statement said.
"Pizza, a simple and nutritious food, is the perfect example of Italy. And Naples pizza making was awarded UNESCO word heritage status in 2017," said ambassador to Niger, Marco Prencipe.
"For this reason we have chosen pizza as the theme of the first Italian Cooking Week in Niger - for its highly symbolic value of union between peoples,” Prencipe added.
The Italian embassy is organizing Italian Cooking Week in Niger, which will also feature themed Italian gastronomy evenings involving Niamey's main restaurants, according to the foreign ministry.
