A Migrant activist 42 years in a Migrant bairro

The journey of an activist migrant from north to south in Europe following her dream of putting adult education to a radical use in the tradition of Paulo Freire. Collaborating to set up a centre with the community in the impoverished area of Cova da Moura consolidated its community development, but now it faces a threat from housing speculation.

Godelieve Meersschaert, now an active 80-year-old, came to Portugal in 1978 through a series of connections that happened after training in psychology and activist work in Belgium. She was influenced by the work of the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire and originally only came to learn Portuguese before following him to Brazil, but life took her on a different path.

Lieve has always been an activist and found plenty of scope to use her training to engage politically in Portugal. This was in the period following the Carnation Revolution of 1974 and the subsequent decolonization process which brought over 500,000 people back from the African countries that had been Portuguese colonies in a period of a few months. 

She had been working in Belgian and in the Netherlands in Adult Education as a psychologist she moved to Portugal through international connections between trade unions. Portugal in those days was still a place where social activism was relatively unchained. Another connection led to being involved in a cooperative for domestic workers. Later on, she participated, as a volunteer, in the setting up of a cultural community centre in the bairro of Cova da Moura, near Lisbon. She worked full time in the Portuguese Ministry of Finance as a Software Developer. (from 1985 till pensioner)

I visited her for The Prisma there at her home.

This is just the intro, you can read the interview and see photos on the website of The Prisma:

https://theprisma.co.uk/2025/09/29/a-migrant-activist-for-42-years-in-a-migrant-bairro/