If there’s one thing Alessandra Orofino won’t accept, it’s the status quo. She believes democracies can’t be healthy and thrive unless citizens roll up their sleeves and do the hard work of upholding democratic values. To that end, she co-founded Nossas, a Brazil-based activist organization that embraces fresh and unconventional ways to help people participate in the political life of their communities.
Nossas took shape in 2011 when the discovery of off-shore oil ushered money into Rio de Janeiro and the city prepared to host the World Cup and Olympics. “I was concerned that a lot of these massive projects didn’t have citizens at the center of them,” she says. A decade later, her organization’s focus has turned to the state of democracy in Brazil, which has begun to unravel under President Jair Bolsonaro. In order for everyone—across the globe—to enjoy democratic freedoms, she says the problem of inequality must be solved.
“We can’t have equal representation if we don’t have more equality in the other areas of our lives.” Alessandra talks with Nguhi about learning from failures (including an app that was DOA) and what drives people to take action (spoiler alert: YouTube). It turns out that democracy protectors in formerly colonized nations have a lot to teach former colonizer nations about the fragility of democracy.
Hear more about Alessandra’s childhood and learn more about tech entrepreneurs in lower and middle income countries on the Empowering the People, podcast. Read about her participation in the 2019 Obama Fellowship. Her quirky comedy show is featured in this NPR story: How Do You Make People Laugh During a Pandemic?
For more about Brazil, check out How Latin American Slums are Leading the Fight Against COVID-19 and It’s our city. Let’s fix it. And get a glimpse of Brazil’s embattled leader in Bolsonaro Is Bizarre. But He Knows What He’s Doing. Here’s a video on a provocative Brazilian YouTuber that Alessandra produced for The New York Times.
View the complete episode transcript here.
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