In Loving Memory of Nathália Urban
1 October 2024
It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of our former employee and friend, Nathália Urban.
Nathália, a renowned journalist, joined NUM as our first NUMbrella Lane Coordinator and worked with us for just over 2 years, from March 2022 to April 2024. She dedicated her time and talents to help launch our Scotland wellbeing centre, ensuring that there was a nonjudgmental safe space for sex workers in the region. Despite challenges, Nathália not only established the framework for support services in Scotland, she also provided direct support to migrant Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish-speaking sex workers, not just nationally, but Europe wide. With her language skills and passion for justice, she facilitated the reporting of harms from this marginalised community and provided much needed support and comfort to those with barriers to accessing health, police and other public services. She created a community of safety around her for NUM members in a context of xenophobia, racism and toxic politics.
Nathália described her work at NUM:
‘I’m always available to provide wellbeing, friendship and a fresh cup of tea for our thriving local community. I do activism on rights and visibility for migrant sex workers, and fight for everyone to have access to healthcare, respect and safety in their work regardless of their immigration status.‘
Nathália’s passing has hit us very hard and we join current calls for an investigation into her death by the President of Brazil and others. We will be arranging a vigil with more details to come. We are observing 30 days of mourning in respect of Nathália’s proud Brazilian culture.
We honour Nathália’s contribution to NUM and to the broader community and share a quote from her favourite author Anaïs Nin: ‘Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.’
Nathália indeed bore a new world within everyone she encountered, may she rest in power.
Related articles:
[English] – Tributes pour in after death of journalist Nathália Urban | The National
[English] – Brazilian journalist dies after being pulled from water below Forth Road Bridge | The Scottish Sun
[Portuguese] – Nathalia Urban: what is known about the death of the Brazilian journalist (correiobraziliense.com.br)