Project & context
The Association of Free Russians in Portugal is a grassroots community of Russian expatriates who:
- Oppose the war and support democratic values.
- Need reliable information, coordination tools, and ways to integrate in Portugal.
- Operate without grants and rely on volunteer time and skills.
I helped build and grow this community from zero, applying my technical and organizational skills to create its online presence, tools, and communication channels.
Challenges
- No initial funding or infrastructure: everything had to be built from scratch with volunteer effort.
- Need to communicate and organize across three languages (Russian, Portuguese, English).
- Coordination of over 190 public events and rallies, including international actions.
- Building and maintaining trustworthy communication channels in a sensitive political context.
- Helping community members learn languages and stay informed through curated news.
What I did
1. Community building and operations
- Co-founded the association and helped grow it into a large, self-sustaining community of Russian expats in Portugal.
- Organized and supported 190+ anti-war and pro-democratic rallies, including international events in coordination with other groups.
- Built relationships with international organizations and similar societies in over 100 communities worldwide.
2. Online presence & communication
- Created and maintained the website and social media in three languages (Russian, Portuguese, English).
- Led PR and advertising efforts, resulting in:
- Over 20,000 subscribers across channels.
- More than 80 media publications.
- Over 1,000,000 views per year of our content.
- Coordinated messaging around key events, memorials, and calls to action.
3. Language learning tools
- Developed tools to help community members learn languages (primarily Portuguese and English), such as:
- Simple web-based exercises and resources.
- Structured materials and links integrated into the association’s online space.
- Focused on making it easier for newcomers to integrate into Portuguese society, learn Portuguese culture, access services, and communicate.
4. Telegram AI-based news aggregator bot
- Created a Telegram bot that:
- Aggregates news from trusted sources relevant to the community.
- Uses AI/LLM-based processing to:
- Summarize articles.
- Classify topics.
- Highlight the most important updates.
- Provided community members with timely, curated, and accessible information without them needing to track dozens of news sites.
Results
- The Association grew into a visible and effective civil-society organization, recognized by media and partner communities.
- The online presence and tools helped:
- Coordinate large numbers of people for events.
- Keep the community informed and engaged.
- Support members in learning languages and integrating locally.
- The Telegram AI bot and language tools reduced information overload and practical barriers that many expats face.
Tech & responsibilities
- Role: Co-founder / organizer / technical lead
- Technologies: Website/CMS stack (PHP/JS), social media tooling, Telegram Bot API, LLM/AI-based summarization and classification, internal tools for language learning
- Scope: Community building, online infrastructure, PR and media support, language-learning tools, AI-based news aggregation bot
If you’re building a community or advocacy project that needs robust communication tools and automation, I can help design and implement the technical backbone while keeping things accessible to non-technical volunteers.
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