This organisation was built from the ground up, beginning by meeting the very people it set out to support. Today, it boasts a community of more than 7,000 members.

“I was born in South Africa, but grew up in Portugal and then studied abroad. I returned to Portugal after studying politics and international relations, to pursue a career fighting for human rights in Africa”, Gabriela Faria, founder and CEO of Lisbon Project, told The Portugal News. “I only came back to spend some time with my family, and that’s when I started meeting refugee families.”

“I had heard about refugees, studied about them too, but I’d never met a refugee, someone who had to flee their home because it was no longer safe”, she recalled, “so in meeting refugees here in Lisbon and then just different people from all over the world, realising that with each story, regardless of whether they had that refugee label or not, these people were here searching for a better future, but seeing that their hardships didn’t end with arriving in Portugal, I realised a pattern in their struggles.”

Integration process

These challenges include learning the language, navigating the bureaucracy, finding a job, and falling victim to numerous scams while attempting to secure necessary documents such as a NIF and a social security number.

“It was that summer, at 23 years old, I decided I could do something to build this community”, Gabriela affirmed. “What if we mobilise different sectors of the community, from universities to companies to sports clubs, to come together and, through relationships, create a more human and empowering integration into Portugal?”

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From Gabriela’s perspective, the integration process should be a cooperative effort between immigrants and hosts. “Sometimes people just talk about immigration as if Portugal just needs workers, but migrant workers are humans that have emotions, culture, and stories”, she explained. “For us, that sense of belonging is really important, where we can bring locals together with foreigners in one space and get to know one another.”

Support programmes

There are four pillars of the Lisbon Project’s community support: community life, education, employability, and social care. Each of these areas, with its various programmes, seeks to address integration challenges for migrants across a range of fields that affect their quality of life and opportunities in their new society. Such programmes include a regular community dinner, facilitating meetings between families and job-hunting experts, running a youth group for immigrant teenagers, and providing families with everyday needs such as food, clothing, and appliances.

According to Gabriela, these programmes have achieved significant success in uplifting members of her community. “The Lisbon Project is a constant for many in their new lives in Portugal, a home away from home”, she stated. “We have seen the hopeless find hope, and the lonely find belonging.”

“Kids that were five, six years old learning the language faster than their parents, we’ve seen them stick with us all these years and go from translators for their parents to now being teenagers that speak with a full-on Portuguese accent, really embracing a new identity in their new home”, Gabriela further highlighted.

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An inclusive society

The Lisbon Project not only helps migrant families but also has a responsibility today to provide a grounded perspective on immigration, which has become increasingly divisive.

“I feel like Portugal is at a crossroads with immigration. When we started the Lisbon Project, there were 400,000 foreigners in Portugal; now there are 1.6 million”, she commented. “Today, we’re hearing a lot more extreme voices that can be divisive and discriminatory, and right now the Lisbon Project gets to be a voice that talks about the facts and brings people together.”

For Gabriela, the most fundamental change we can make to improve the situation for everyone in Portugal, migrants and natives alike, is to engage in discussions where both sides are heard. “We need to build together. We need the Portuguese local voices, we need the voices of all the newcomers”, she summarised. “Really, what we’re trying to do is bring people together to have dialogues.”

“I know for many their hope is a little frail regarding the future of Portugal, but I believe that Portugal can welcome. Portugal can be inclusive, Portugal can be efficient, Portugal can empower, and we can extend the freedom that we celebrate every 25 April”, Gabriela concluded. “One in every four foreigners in Portugal is at risk of poverty and social exclusion. And so, what if the three can mobilise around the one? We can make a change, and we can be part of the future Portugal that would benefit all of us.”

The Lisbon Project plans to expand beyond the city for the first time in the near future, opening branches in different cities throughout Portugal. If you’d like to support their vision, please visit www.lisbonproject.org or https://www.lisbonproject.org/donate