The Lisbon Project
From a video by The Lisbon Project
Gabi Fariah went to Guinea Bissau in Africa as a youngster with her dad and saw for the first time poverty, inequality and injustice. She couldn't unsee what she had seen. When she graduated university, she was sure that God would take her to a developing country where she would be able to use whatever she had learned and dedicate her life to addressing the poverty.
However, doors kept closing.
She was in Lisbon, Portugal when two friends from church approached her and said, "Gabby, have you noticed the migrant and refugee situation in Portugal? Do you think that you should actually stay in Portugal and see if there's anything that you can do?" She takes up the story:
I immediately shut down the conversation. I said, "No, absolutely not. I'm sorry, I'm not staying in Portugal. Maybe speak to somebody else because it's not me."
At the same time, I started meeting a few families in Portugal from Nepal and Iraq, seeing the poverty that they were living in my city that supposedly everybody's comfortable and has access to basic needs. So I realised that something was missing.
I was invited to go to a global leaders' summit and a speaker was just finishing his session talking about a lady named Gabby. She had intentionally decided to add value to other people's lives. The speaker looked in the camera, as if he was looking straight into my eyes, and asked who's going to be the next Gabby?
That's where I really decided that I wanted to be the next Gabby.
I knew God was calling me to work with migrants and refugees in Portugal in the city of Lisbon. I decided to take the step - the Lisbon Project. We got the space, focused on people, trusted God for provision. Migrants, refugees started coming but I didn't have a team. I didn't have anyone to provide the services and I had to be a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher. I had to be everything that I could.
I'm trying to do all this by myself but where's the people that God's going to bring? I felt a bit alone and then slowly volunteers came. I started getting volunteer teachers, doctors, nurses, lawyers in less than a year. We grew so quickly. Now we're a team of five full-time with over a hundred registered volunteers.
We planted a church alongside the Lisbon project so we grew quite a lot.
Having a language barrier is a huge problem to finding employment. It's how you make money. It's how you sustain yourself. People come, they don't speak Portuguese. Take Mohsin. He is originally from Iraq where he knew the reality of war. He was alone. He had no parents, no family in Portugal. He spoke very little English so communicating was a little bit difficult. He was very up and down with his mood. He hadn't spoken to any of his family for a long time. He didn't see any future for himself. He would come in completely sad and depressed.
We have a partnership with a local grocery store chain in Portugal. We made a deal for him to work the night shift. He could work with a team in the evenings to start improving his Portuguese but at least he could start somewhere. Ever since he started working, it changed his world. He was empowered. He was taking steps forward. Last month he finally got his residency card and that gives him five years to be in Portugal.
At the Lisbon project, we do a lot of culture celebration every month. We choose one of the countries that are represented in our community and we celebrate that country. We celebrate their music, their dance, their food. This shows people that these migrants are just people and many times they have great things to add to our community.
When we open our eyes to a certain injustice, it just takes willingness for God to use us because God is a God of justice, a God of leadership. If there's anything we lack, He's the provider. This is not how I thought I was going to use my life but this is how God wants to use me.
There is change waiting to happen with your name on it. And the only question you have to ask yourself is: What will you do?
Watch this 6 min video:
Retweet about this article:
From a video by The Lisbon Project, 11/02/2025