LIONESS WEEKENDER COVER STORY
Centro de Fisioterapia Ana Carolina, a centre of excellence in physical and mental rehabilitation in Angola
Dynamic, resilient, proactive, and determined, Paula Cristina Cardoso de Morais, founder of Centro de Fisioterapia Ana Carolina in Angola, is an entrepreneur of recognized merit. Inspired by the health condition of her daughter and believing in the power of overcoming, Paula is focused on making her contribution to the humanization and evolution of health services in her country, with a particular impact on special children and their families.
Born on September 5, 1978, in Luanda, Angola, where she grew up, Paula de Morais graduated in Marketing Management and completed post-graduate studies in Brands Strategic Management in Portugal. Being an art collector, she attended the Floral Arts course in Portugal and the Plastic Arts course in Brazil. She is a member of The Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa program, having participated in 2019 in the leadership development program as The Obama Foundation Leaders Africa: Luanda. She is part of the WIA54 Africa 2020 program, with the Women In Africa (WIA) Initiative. She won the Merit and Excellence Award in 2020, from ZAP TV – ZAP Globes. In 2016, she founded the Ana Carolina Foundation, of which she is currently President. Paula C. de Morais started her career in the IT sector in Luanda, where she had the opportunity to deepen her skills and knowledge linked to management and to customer relationship. Working in the banking area, she developed, in a very significant way, her hard and soft skills in the administration, management and marketing areas. These skills made an enormous contribution to her success in the business area in which she would come to invest.
Lioness Weekender spoke to the truly inspirational Paula de Morais about her journey to becoming a game-changing entrepreneur in the field of physical and mental rehabilitation in her country and her aspirations for the future.
When did your start your business?:
The first Centro de Fisioterapia Ana Carolina in Angola opened in 2014, and in August 2020 I opened the second centre in downtown Luanda. Today, the business employs 49 people.
What does your company do?
Ana Carolina Physiotherapy Centres (www.centroanacarolina.co.ao), in downtown Luanda and Benfica neighbourhood, provide services of excellence in physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, consultations, occupational therapy, speech therapy and other treatments. We focus on user satisfaction through the multidisciplinary offer in the physical and mental rehabilitation area, the bet on technology, the qualified professionals, and humanized care.
What inspired you to start your company?
With the birth of my daughter, Ana Carolina, in 2010, I was forced to stop working. Ana Carolina born with a neurological health disease and required constant care. This problem prevented her from having a normal life, due to long periods of hospitalization, frequent visits to doctors, and successive treatments, which motivated us to leave Angola in search for solutions. I spent four years traveling between Brazil, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Portugal, searching for medical specialists, treatments, and answers, and observing and learning how best practices are developed in the areas of treatment that she needed. So, we decided to return to Angola because there she was in a more stable condition and, thus, could enjoy the family closeness. Based on the significant learning obtained until then and being faced with the need to have solutions at the level of the therapies my daughter and other children in similar conditions, me and my family decided to open the clinic.
Why should anyone use your service or product?
Beside all the investment we did, equipment and infrastructure, I know from experience that health professionals and all people that work in health sector, with child or seniors, need to have extra care, empathy and responsibility. We are people that take care of people.
Tell us a little about your team
Our team consists mainly of Angolans, has mainly women in the leadership team, and health professionals committed to changing the paradigm of health services in Angola.
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
I've always wanted to open a business since I was young. My first business was in 2007, a store selling gifts and magazines. When I opened the first clinic I had to choose to abandon the other businesses that I had given the responsibility that the clinic implied. I've always been close to entrepreneurial women like my mother and aunts who, even though they had their jobs, sold cookies to co-workers made at home. Maybe that's why I did marketing management and a postgraduate degree in brand management, and as soon as I could, I opened my company.
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
We intend to deliver more and more quality in health services. I am thinking of expanding the clinics at this time to include more services such as diagnostics and others that still need to be offered in the Luanda market. Then why not have a unit in each province of the country and perhaps in Africa?
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
To be able to serve others, to improve as a person, and to contribute to a better Angola.
What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
Love what you do and trust the process.
To find out more about Paula de Morais’ work at the Centro de Fisioterapia Ana Carolina, send her an email to admin@centroanacarolina.co.ao or visit the company’s website and social media platforms:
