Isabela Souza, 19 years old, changed her own life story once she became aware of the power of technology within the support of women who had suffered from gender-based violence around the country. After she herself had been a victim of this kind of assault, along with two colleagues, they idealized a prototype of an App Mulheres Unidas/United Women during the course “ First steps for application development” offered by the Committee of Informatics Democratization in partnership with CIEE-RJ (School-Corporation Integration Centre).

The prototype which offers support and useful information about a social protection network available to these women was an award winning finalist among 30 other projects in the Recode Acknowledgement program during 2015. Isabela´s idea achieved widespread repercussions from the media and henceforth inspired a protagonist attitude among other young people.

However, her greatest personal achievement was to realize that the project´s success reinforced her vocation towards entrepreneurship. “I had the greatest pleasure in seeing a project idealized with a great deal of simplicity and compassion being acknowledged. This was only the first step on a long path in which I am bound to follow”, she says.

Isabela is an undergraduate degree student at the Rio de Janeiro State University and she has already taken part in the UERJ Entrepreneur Students Movement (MOVE UERJ), she has recently been shortlisted by both us and by Microsoft to participate in a global mentoring program in management and leadership taking place in Brazil by The Aspire Foundation and dedicated to the empowerment of women in the work market.