Priscila is a social entrepreneur and Public Relations professional with over a decade of experience in coordinating impactful social projects in Brazil. She is Coordinator of the Local Culture & Network Programme at Vaga Lume Association, where she fosters intercultural dialogue between young people in Amazonian communities and beyond, as well as being a content curator and producer of cultural events.
Vaga Lume is a social organisation dedicated to building libraries in rural communities across the Amazon region, ensuring every child has the right to access the power of reading.
Creator of the Salomé Project — Black Women Writing Their Own History — Priscila is passionate about promoting literacy, social transformation, and cultural exchange.
Priscila is one of our Aura Fellows, having completed our holistic nine-module programme designed to nurture and empower female leaders. In this Aura Spotlight interview, we delve into her experience.
Could you share one experience from Aura that felt particularly transformative?
Meeting the whole group in person at Boschendal was so special. There were so many women from such different places — seeing all our diversity in one place was beautiful. I loved the opportunity to meet such beautiful, amazing women; they all have such interesting lives! I loved listening to them all; I learnt so much. One moment that really stands out was meeting Eve — she helped to clarify a lot of things and helped me work through my own internal processes and healing.
To be together in South Africa — the place where my ancestors came from — was powerful. I had people come up and speak to me in Zulu and Xhosa, and although I haven’t been on this land for four generations, it showed me that I still live with this ancestry deep inside my body.
That really moved and impacted me; it changed my life. And I also met my wife at Boschendal…So many unimaginable things happened there!
These three years have been important for me because I was living through a grieving cycle in my life. When I started Aura I was deeply sad, and then I gradually started recovering. Now, I’m living in this beautiful recovery stage.
Could you share a valuable lesson you’ve learnt from Aura?
Firstly, I’m grateful to have stayed with Aura all these years, because sometimes I had doubts about whether to continue with the Programme or to do something else in my life. I decided to continue — something made me carry on — even when at times perhaps I didn’t want to.
Because sometimes being part of a group isn't so easy, sometimes it can be uncomfortable.
But I’ve now learnt that it is all an important part of the process.
It’s been beautiful thinking about all the different possibilities for recovery. Particularly, the process of healing for black women living in a racist patriarchy with all the dangerous things happening in society today. Discussing and sharing our thoughts together in a group — about different possibilities for community, healthcare and society was so valuable. It’s helped me to keep going and to see the world through different eyes, with different possible futures.
I feel that if we live in diversity, we will all be OK. When people with different worldviews and different backgrounds come together, we can’t help but create deep, deep change.