Two months after the beginning of the sea voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, that connected Lisbon to the city of Praia, arrived in the capital of Cape Verde, the ambulance and the goods and equipment raised by four institutions in Mértola.
The event was led by the Humanitarian Association of Volunteer Firefighters of Mértola (AHBVM) and had as recipients the São Francisco Xavier Home and Senior Residence.
This initiative emerged within the scope of a protocol signed in March 2023, between AHBVM, the Holy House of Mercy (SCMM), the Volunteer Center and the “Falcões das Muralhas” Motorcycle Club and the Cape Verdean institution.
The initiative emerged in May last year, after an internship carried out for a month and a half at the Fire Department and Santa Casa, by Gilson Cabral, social worker and head of the Cape Verdean home, based in Achada São Filipe, with the four Mertolen institutions starting the campaign to collect goods and equipment from the population of the municipality.
Beds were collected, mattresses, wheelchair, wanderers, clothing and hygiene products, firefighters having carried out an overhaul of one of their oldest ambulances, having everything destined for the São Francisco Xavier Home and Senior Residence. To send the container to Cape Verde, the promoters had the support of a port company in Santa Iria de Azoia, Loures council, who bore the cost of the maritime operation.
On social media, those responsible for the São Francisco Xavier Home and Senior Residence, showed their gratitude to partners from Mertolen, justifying that “when people of good will come together for a noble cause, things really happen, and the border is not a limit”, adding that Mértola's NGOs “with a gigantic heart spared no effort to make it happen together. Together better services for seniors, the people and communities we care for”, remataram.
Jorge Santos, commander of the BVM, highlighted the “enormous spirit of solidarity of the municipality’s population”, remembering that cooperation with various institutions in Cape Verde does not stop here, since “in the first quarter of 2024, the commander and two firefighters from the corporation will head to Cape Verde to provide training to professionals from the São Francisco Xavier institution and the local firefighters”, concluded.
Mértola and Cape Verde have long been linked by cooperation
The “Vila Museu” and its firefighters, They have long been linked to Cape Verde and have benefited positively from the cooperation between the Government of that country and the Alsud Professional School, with the arrival of students to Mértola. The BVM has two firefighters who have been salaried for over a decade and three Cape Verdean interns.. Also through the same cooperation, but with Guinea-Bissau, in the Command Corps, as attached, is Mussá Embaló, although with dual nationality, he became the first foreigner to be part of the command of a corporation in Portugal.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
