Born in Beja, her family has deep roots in the Algarve’s interior, extending from Alcoutim and Martim Longo to Castro Marim. In this land of salt pans was where we met her on a hot August day in her role as head of Odiana, an NGO focused on developing the Baixo Guadiana and undertaking commendable work in favour of the local, inland Algarve communities.
She talks about her role with all the passion she discovered after volunteering at a rescue centre in Faro while an undergraduate Sociology student at the University of the Algarve. After her graduation, she had not yet decided what to specialise in and so took a sabbatical while continuing to work for the Portuguese Red Cross, where she ended up coordinating the centre's services. That's what first sparked her interest in Human Resource Management. “I thought this would be my path and so decided to take a master's degree in this field,” says this 34-year-old sociologist, who has since added a second master's degree in Community Development and Entrepreneurship to her curriculum vitae.
Catarina Cavaco serves as the executive director of Odiana, an association that has been striving for over a decade to promote and enhance local communities.
Seeking to reach still further, her next goal is a PhD, possibly in the field of Psychology, the Sociology of Organisations or Business Management, a ‘sleeping’ dream that still remains on her list of future objectives: “Maybe in 2025 but it's a question of opportunity. There's just a little bit further to go,” she states categorically but while also laughing.
From rescue and emergency care to social work and teaching
After switching from rescue and emergency care to the social sector, Catarina has spent the last decade building this new career dealing with all the different challenges she always embraces with enthusiasm: she’s worked for Alcoutim Town Hall, contributing towards setting up the local Senior University, and then at the Faro Employment and Vocational Training Institute, before returning to Alcoutim Town Hall to work on the Local Social Development Contract project. She never actually finished this project because she was invited to join Odiana in 2022. Here, she leads a small team of just 11 employees divided between administrative and field work. Hence, she does whatever it takes to properly implement all the association's projects, whether managing the structure and its human resources or monitoring and carrying out activities directly with the population.
Last year, she was invited to teach two degree subjects - Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management for Hospitality on the Marketing degree at the University of the Algarve, more specifically at the School of Management, Hospitality and Tourism, “a unique opportunity that I couldn't miss out on.”
Bringing people and places to life
Odiana works mainly on projects spanning the areas inherent to developing and promoting the territory it covers, which includes operating a network of hiking trails and the Grande Rota do Guadiana (a walking trail extending from Vila Real de Santo António to Alcoutim) as well as the recent cross-border river cruise network (in partnership with Spain). Also on this list is the backing given to locally grown agriculture – with examples including Castro Marim salt, carobs and almonds - and, among other projects, Vilas em Movimento (Towns in Movement), launched in 2023 in partnership with the Galp Foundation.
Whenever possible, Catarina Cavaco directly accompanies all the activities carried out with the local population, such as the sewing workshop held at the Martim Longo Mobility Workshop in this particular case.
This project, aimed at the entire Municipality of Alcoutim, covers two different areas: mobility, through setting up and running a shared bicycle system in the town of Alcoutim, and social, where we’d highlight the redevelopment of the Martim Longo Mobility Workshop that combines physical exercise and health/physical rehabilitation with workshops on a wide range of topics to stimulate creativity, arts, crafts and cultural traditions while also building the social well-being of the community, with session focusing on sewing, basket making, weaving and flowers as well as information sessions tailored to the local population. “We organise activities practically hill by hill as the scope of this territory is very large. Furthermore, the population is correspondingly highly dispersed and the elderly don't find it easy to get around. This also serves as a means of combating their isolation. For example, we enlist the help of the police force - we are currently holding sessions on burglary and theft with their support - the Fire Brigade, the Health Centre and other entities. Whenever possible, we also stage cultural activities, such as cinema and theatre sessions, and we're considering others, such as magic performances. So far, it's going very well, we're attracting increasingly large audiences, between 400 and 500 people, and getting very positive feedback,” she explained.
Having consolidated this first phase, Vilas em Movimento is now preparing to reach other audiences, with the 2025 plan of activities designed with not only the ageing segment of the population in mind but also their younger counterparts, including schools and intergenerational social activities. “The objective is to progress towards environmental education and other themes, not only with children but also with the elderly together, with activities compatible for both groups. For example, the younger can teach the older all about the importance of sustainability and ‘green’ energies and, in turn, the latter can pass on to the former everything they know about the arts and crafts of yesteryear, which are now at risk of getting lost,” says Odiana's executive director, with the glow in her eyes of someone truly proud of her contribution to this transformative project.
A professional and personal trajectory in a rural heartland
No one day is the same as any other but they are all very busy. When she does manage to switch off, the little time she says she has for herself is largely devoted to sport. This may be at home, where she has the facilities for exercising, or out hiking (sometimes running) along one of the region’s trails managed by Odiana.
