Elisa Maria Campos grew up in Praça Seca, in the periphery of Rio de Janeiro. At 13, she founded her school newspaper. 

On weekends, she joined her family’s community work in the surrounding favelas, visiting families living in extreme vulnerability, as the family’s response to her grandfather’s murder in front of their home.

It was in those visits, witnessing people living in invisibility and pain, that she first understood what it costs to be unseen.

That experience shaped everything that followed. She became a journalist, specialised in information for social change, learned six languages, programming, and different technological tools. 

She lived in Brazil, Italy, South Africa, India and Germany, and worked with the UN and humanitarian organisations across 12 countries including the US, Finland, Thailand, Malawi, Mexico and Mozambique.

Today, she designs solutions that give excluded communities visibility, voice and power in the systems that shape their lives.