Alessandra Orofino founded Meu Rio, Rio de Janeiro’s largest mobilization network.

After working as a field researcher in Brazil and India, interviewing young girls who had been victims of domestic violence, Alessandra Orofino founded Meu Rio in 2011. The organization has fueled bottom-up local politics using a combination of on-the-ground actions and custom-designed online and mobile platforms and apps.

Orofino, who's 25 years old with a degree in economics and human rights from Columbia, is a believer in participatory politics and in cities as the ideal locus for reinventing representative democracy, and with her team she has designed Meu Rio as a catalyst for youth activism. Among its 140,000 members are tens of thousands of millennials, identifying common issues, pooling ideas for solutions, and pressuring decision-makers to adopt new policies and practices.

Hailing from Rio de Janeiro, Alessandra Orofino is the Executive Director & Co-founder of Meu Rio, a Purpose partner that is developing tools for civic engagement and participation in Brazil.

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