Contributors
EurAfrican 2024

Fernanda Freitas
Journalist; President, Associação Nuvem Vitória & General Director,
Eixo Norte Sul, Portugal
Mother, volunteer and entrepreneur. Crazy about cats, books and travelling.
Originally from Porto, Portugal, she says she has two favourite verbs: to thank and to serve.
She is a journalist by training, leads a communication company, but it was in social entrepreneurship that she found her great passion.
Fernanda Freitas began her professional experience at Radio Press Porto and Radio Paris Lisboa.
In 1992, she took the first steps in her television career.
First on RTP2, then on Canal Noticias de Lisboa, Canal 21 and SIC, where she presented the programme “Às duas por três” between 2002 and 2005.
He has collaborated, coordinated and presented various programmes, such as: “Common causes”, “Between us”, “More Europe” “Changing lives” and “Authors”.
For 7 years, between 2006 and 2013, he coordinated and presented the daily programme “Civil Society”, an experience that provided the opportunity to work directly with more than 120 entities in Portuguese society.
“Civil Society”, which is still being broadcast, is a milestone in the history of Fernanda Freitas who won 14 awards and distinctions as the main figure of the programme.
In literature, she stands out as the author of the book “Sem Medo, Maria” – portraits of domestic violence in Portugal” and the children’s book “Porque não dormem os gatos?”.
In line with her profile of commitment to social responsibility, Fernanda Freitas was National Ambassador of the European Year against poverty and social exclusion, in 2010; National President of the European Year of Volunteering, in 2011; and Ambassador of the European Year of Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations, in 2012.
In 2013 she was decorated by the President of the Portuguese Republic, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, with the Order of Civil Merit.
Fernanda Freitas engages her social entrepreneurship on several fronts: she is a founding member of the Forum for the Rights of Children and Young People; a founding member of the Reading Volunteers Association; Ambassador of the Portugal sou Eu Movement; and founder of the Moda’R Mentalidades Movement, which aims to promote the inclusion of disabled people through fashion.
Currently, she integrates the Education Forum for Citizenship and is a Guest Lecturer in the Post-Graduation in Human Rights in the Law Faculty of the University of Coimbra.
She divides most of her days between leading “Eixo Norte Sul”, a content and communication company she founded, and as President of “Nuvem Vitória”, an association that brings together more than 500 volunteers every night in reading sessions for children hospitalised in paediatric wards in Portugal.