Success stories

 COVID-19 stories 

Luana Loria, started her exchange on 3^rdof February at "Ler Por Ai", a bookstore in Lisbon. On 13^thof March, the Portuguese government imposed the lockdown to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. Since then, Luana and Margarida have been collaborating remotely.

"I started my Erasmus exchange at the bookstore but due to the lockdown, Margarida and I had to find a different way to continue our collaboration. Hence we agreed on remote working instead of interrupting the exchange”. "I also decided to stay in Portugal as I was concerned about my safety travelling back to Italy during the pandemic” says Luana.

Margarida and Luana have been keeping in touch daily using WhatsApp, email and the phone. As the commitment had to be readjusted to fit the situation, Luana focused on the activities that can be performed from a distance.

For example, Luana is building a database of writers, professors, journalists, and academics to invite to their future events (Thursday's events "Noites de Prosa"). She is also looking for new books by theme and geography notably Asian female writersand Lusophone African writers to find and present the "book of the month” and prepare future related events.

This way, she could continue learning about events organisation in the book sector, presentations, and literature's talks. Yet as the lockdown will continue being eased overtime, Luana will be able to go back to the bookstore and fully focused on getting experience and skills on managing a business.

Unsurprisingly, like many other business owners, Margarida has been financially struggling and continues seeking support from the state. In this regard, Luana has been of great help in supporting her with the search for other direct financial support and loans; they are constantly in contact to talk about the activity’s updates and the news from the possible financial aid.

Trying to cope with this unusual situation, the two women put in all efforts to make the remote cooperation as productive and easy possible.

"I believe that it is normal to find some difficulties and to take sometime to organise ourselves in a more productive way, since we are crossing a real exceptional historic period. I also believe that creativity and technology will be very helpful tools to reinvent and to concretize new ways of working. We will try to use them to share our ideas and opinions suggest new professional experiences in this critical time” says Luana.