Patricia Cardona broke her silence for the first time at a poetry event in Amsterdam. It was not an act of calculated bravery — it was a test. She wanted to know how her literary circle would react, how the world would receive her. She felt self-loathing and needed to see what she would find on the other side of the words.
What she found transformed her. They called her brave. And then something unexpected happened: people in the audience began to approach her to confess their own experiences, many of them for the first time. At that moment, she understood something fundamental — sharing her story was not just about freeing herself. It was about opening a space, a breathing room, for other survivors to speak, feel accompanied, and recognize themselves in someone like them. Since that day in 2019, she has turned her voice into a tool for prevention, awareness, and real change.
She is an expert in child sexual abuse prevention, an activist, and the founder of Protege con Patricia. A telecommunications engineer and survivor, she has transformed her story into a deeply social mission: to educate, raise awareness, and drive real changes to protect children and support those who have experienced abuse.
She created the L.A.B.O.R. method, with which she trains families and professionals in prevention and early detection, and gives talks and workshops in educational and institutional settings. For survivors who are ready to take the next step, she has developed the ‘From Pain to Purpose’ program, a support system to transform lived experience into a source of meaning and inner strength.
She collaborates with European movements and institutions to ensure the survivor’s voice occupies the place it deserves in the construction of public policies. She is a member of the Brave Movement, author of Phrases You Should Never Say When Faced with Sexual Abuse, and the only survivor representing all European survivors as a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group for the Network for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse.
Her purpose is as clear as it is brave: to break the taboo of child sexual abuse and bring survivors out of the shadows, so they can live with dignity, truth, and strength.
You can read her poetry here.