Dina is back, phone down

After our first guest episode with Dina de Freitas, we got so many questions about her and her community that we had to invite her back. Last time her phone kept ringing and she eventually had to dash off, so this time she promised to put it away. Six weeks later, she kept her word.

If you missed episode 6: Dina started her community on Madeira's east coast in late 2020. The idea was simple. Bring people together to experience everything Madeira has to offer, without feeling you have to do it all on your own. Hangouts, lunches, dinners, hikes, fitness. For Dina, it's a passion project. She just loves connecting people.

Games on the beach in Machico

The day after our first recording, Mark was walking home along the beach in Machico when he came across a group of grown-ups playing games together, with Dina right in the middle of it. It was one of the community's "out of your comfort zone" afternoons: simple games, nothing but human interaction, no phones or tools.

These happen about twice a year, whenever the facilitator is free and the weather allows, because the beach is the best spot. Everyone is welcome, children included. Not everyone feels comfortable joining in, and that's fine too. As Catherine put it, the more vulnerable we let ourselves be with each other, the more connected and supported we feel. She'd love to join the next one.

Learning the digital nomad world from scratch

Dina built a community in a world she knew very little about at first. When she started, Ponta do Sol was becoming known worldwide as a digital nomad village, and with the backing of Startup Madeira she had a platform to bring remote workers together on the east coast. But she wasn't a techie. She had a laptop for her Airbnb and Booking.com work, and that was about it.

So she asked questions. Lots of them. Her curiosity made it easy to learn what everyone did: programmers, people in IT, social media marketers. Whenever she got stuck, whether with WhatsApp groups or anything else, someone in the community was patient enough to help or explain. Her own digital skills have come a long way thanks to those people.

Who's in the community today

Remote workers come to Madeira for a week, a month or three, and then the island works its magic and they keep coming back. When the community had a free workspace in a great spot in Machico, there was a lovely mix of locals and foreigners. Once that ended, the group mostly grew with foreigners. For the last 18 months, Dina's focus has been on bringing more locals back in, because you can read about Madeiran culture and traditions online, but it's not the same as learning them from a local.

Some events do that well. At the first board games evening in a while, three of the nine players were local. Dina estimates the community today is roughly 70% foreigners and 30% locals.

Plenty of members have started businesses here, and many of them are aimed at the island itself. A couple recently launched Tisserio, an app that connects people on Madeira with reliable local businesses, from plumbers to housekeeping. Another member built a platform just for construction, after listening to lots of people's frustrations with delays and quality. These are online products, but they're made for anyone who lives on Madeira. In both cases, Dina says, the idea came from a need the founders felt themselves, just as her community grew out of her own loneliness.

Digital nomads versus remote workers

Catherine brought up a debate you see online: digital nomads stay a short time and take more than they give, while expats stay and give back. Dina sees the island filter people. The most transient nomad scene is in Ponta do Sol. People who want to explore a bit longer try Funchal. And the ones who end up in Machico have usually had enough of city life. They're self-driven, often entrepreneurs, and they want somewhere to settle and feel like family. Of those who only pass through, she says about 95% come back.

That's also why she rarely uses the term digital nomad any more:

I prefer the word remote worker. The people are choosing to live on the island; it's only their jobs that are remote.

Mark agreed that it's a different mindset. When you live somewhere, your surroundings are your future, so you want to look after them and make them better.

Newcomers, long-term members and what support looks like

Does it feel different to arrive as a newcomer? Not really, according to Dina. Most hangouts are small, around 12 to 15 people, so you quickly see familiar faces. When someone checks into one of Dina's rentals for a fortnight, she adds them to the chats for fitness, hikes and questions, with no expectations: join when you like, leave when you like. In six years, she hasn't experienced any awkwardness. The few people who feel it isn't their tribe simply drift off.

Mark knows this first-hand. A self-employed friend of his spent six weeks on the island, joined a community dinner in Machico on her first week, and kept going to events after he'd left. It felt like family, even for six weeks.

The numbers are impressive:

  • Around 40 members have bought or are renting full time on the east coast.
  • More than 100 residency applications Dina has helped with, and she has never charged for it. "Who knows? Maybe I'm going to need help one day."
  • Real-life help: when one member posted that she had to move house, people turned up at her door with their cars to carry the furniture.

Friendships, best friends and even marriages have come out of the community, often behind the scenes. Dina's favourite example: two members, one from Belarus and one half Israeli, half Czech, once sent her a photo from a hire car in Cape Town, on their way to Namibia. As a South African, that one went straight to her heart.

Working with the municipality

This was a harder topic. At the start, with Startup Madeira and Digital Nomads Madeira behind the project, there was a lot of enthusiasm and goodwill. Over time, Dina feels, people didn't expect the community to last. Projects come and go. But hers stayed. It kept growing, people kept settling, and members kept opening businesses.

She doesn't want to badmouth anyone, and she says the people themselves are great. But many of the promises stayed words, and as it's all volunteer work, the community's impact has gone largely unnoticed. Now is when they need support most.

Why a physical space matters

The community's first workspace, offered by the municipality, was in the historic fort in Machico. Over 18 months it grew to 67 people, but they outgrew it, and there wasn't enough shelter from the weather. They then got three months in the Forum Machico building. In those three months they went from 67 to 387 users, with 8 to 18 people working there every weekday. All they had was internet, tables, chairs and a few monitors, and people connected over lunch, a fitness session or a yoga class.

The space also became a stage for members. A coach ran sessions after hours. An artist who had married a local from Machico taught classes Dina has never seen anywhere else on the island: making mini gardens from tree bark, polymer clay earrings, and even basic Indian cooking.

Catherine remembers how the space connected the whole island. People came from the west side and Ponta do Sol for the events, fire shows included. It gave Machico a platform to show off.

Dreaming bigger: a hub, schools and funding

Dina's dream is a hub that is open to everyone, not only remote workers: a place for ideation sessions, focus groups for entrepreneurs, and free workshops for local schools. Imagine software engineers, 3D designers or people who do 3D printing showing students what their work looks like, so young people can see what their own future could be.

Funding has been frustrating. Their applications kept missing a deadline, or weren't considered "cultural enough", or didn't quite fit the model. Nadia from Madeira Impact Collective, who knows how EU funding works, has helped. But that money is tied to specific projects, not to renting a space for a year. The community has now set up an association, and it's exploring a small monthly membership, around €10 a month, to cover rent, bills and hopefully a local person to run the space.

Slow, positive change

Catherine pointed out the changes the town hall might not notice. Machico's food festivals were all about local food for years. This year, for the first time, there was a pizza stand run by an expat, mixed in with the traditional stalls. It's slow, but the change is creeping in in a positive way.

There are no courses on how to build community. You just need a love for people and the kindness to understand that everybody's different.

Dina is going to keep on keeping on. And if you have questions for her, or want a part three (we do!), let us know in the comments or by email.