World Viewing:
Portugal

Speaking on Portuguese cultural movements, there isn’t much to talk about since we are a very pacific country and most of the movements we create don’t have the same impact as others around the world that gather several people.
In opposite to many other countries, in Portugal there aren’t many cultural movements created on social media.
Although not for cultural movements purposes, social media is widely used in Portugal, numbers are increasing all the time. Our present relies a lot on social media.
Most of the cultural movements created on social media in Portugal are for solidarity purposes. Most of the times, for people with rare diseases who need to raise money to pay for hospital bills and costs. In these circumstances, people gather around and actually make a difference.
There’s the case of Nonô (Leonor), a 4-year-old child who was diagnosed with cancer. Social media came to rescue when the work colleagues of her mother created a Facebook page to raise funds for the child’s treatment. It earned thousands of followers and donations. Concerts with the same purpose where being made and online platforms where making a difference.
Despite all the efforts, the poor child didn’t resist the treatment. Portuguese social networks were grieving. Everyone who had accompanied Leonor throughout her struggle, were changing their Facebook profile colour to pink since it was her favourite. Nonô was an inspiration to all Portuguese people for her strength and positivity as she would always see the bright side in everything.
The case of “Bebé Matilde” was similar to Nonô’s. Once again, a baby with a rare disease trying to raise money via Facebook to pay for her treatments. Mankind came together one more time and made a difference. A lot of money was raised, even more than needed, so the child’s parents decided to use the extra money to help other kids who were in the same situation as Matilde. Two birds were killed with one stone, all thanks to social media.
So as we can see, online networks can change the world for the better. Human kind has proven that together can make a difference for better. When needed, people still know how to use social media for the best and that’s the point.