Algarve Situation Report Wednesday 19^th January 2022

“Electrão Schools” in the district of Faro have already collected more than 1 ton of electrical equipment

Eight educational establishments in the district of Faro that joined the “Escola Electrão” campaign have already collected 1383 kilos of used electrical equipment this school year, between September and December 2021.

Most of the used electrical equipment collected in the campaign corresponds to small appliances, such as cell phones, computers, microwaves and lamps, which make up a total of 1063 kilos. 236 kilos of batteries and 84 kilos of light bulbs were also collected.

The 11th edition of Escola Electrão, which runs until June, involves 236 schools nationwide. Overall, in this first period, participating schools across the country collected a total of 73 tons of used equipment. The campaign, promoted by Electrão – Waste Management Association, aims to raise awareness of the correct disposal of unused batteries, lamps and electrical equipment.

Each participating school can receive prizes depending on the amount of used batteries, light bulbs and electrical equipment collected. One point is awarded for every 100 kilos of used electrical equipment, 10 kilos of light bulbs or 10 kilos of batteries delivered. For every 10 points accumulated, at the end of the school year, the school receives a gift voucher in the amount of 75 euros to use in the purchase of new electrical equipment.

Over the last 10 editions, the “Escola Electrão” campaign allowed the collection of more than six thousand tons of electrical equipment used in the various participating schools, from north to south of the country.

Faro approves support for the creation of new vacancies in Medicine at UAlg

The measure will allow the creation of 96 vacancies by 2025.

The Faro City Council approved, at a council meeting on 5 January, the allocation of a total amount of 317,090 euros to the University of Algarve (UAlg) to reinforce and expand the vacancies of the integrated master’s degree in Medicine.

This transfer, which results from a program contract signed between UAlg, the Association for the Development of the Academic Centre for Biomedical Research and Training of the Algarve (AD-ABC), the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, through the Directorate -General of Higher Education, and the associated municipalities of the Intermunicipal Community of the Algarve (AMAL), will allow the increase of up to 96 places in the Medicine course by the year 2025.

The Program Contract «Extending and modernizing the teaching of medicine and biomedical research at the University of the Algarve» provides for the allocation of 6 million euros to the University of the Algarve, over five years (from 2021 to 2025), and is also financed by the Ministry of Health. Science, Technology and Higher Education and by AMAL.

For this purpose, the municipality will contribute with annual transfers in the amount of 63,418 euros.

According to the municipality of Faro, «the signature of this program-contract embodies another additional investment by the municipality in promoting quality in health care provided to the population, as well as in the reinforcement of educational offers within the scope of higher education».

Algarve Municipal Libraries provide free access to digital newspapers and magazines

As of January 18, readers of the Intermunicipal Network of Libraries of the Algarve (BIBAL) will have free access to more than 7,000 online publications. The availability of this service, acquired by AMAL – Comunidade Intermunicipal do Algarve, represented an investment of around 20 thousand euros.

BIBAL readers will have access to the PressReader service, a digital platform that gives access to online newspapers and magazines. There are more than 7,000 national and foreign publications that, through this innovative and free service, can be read at the moment or downloaded for later reading.

PressReader is a digital platform, distributed in Portugal by WECUL, which provides direct and full access to periodicals from more than 150 countries and in more than 60 languages, through an interface with several functionalities, including searches by title, country, language or category. Access to the platform is possible in several ways, with library user credentials. All information is available at each of the municipal libraries.

The mayors of the Algarve believe that this initiative universalises and democratizes access to information and knowledge, while encouraging reading.

In a statement, AMAL recalls that the acquisition of this service was unanimously approved at the Intermunicipal Council meeting in July last year. «On the occasion, all the presidents recognized the importance of the measure for the communities in the region and decided to support this expense, thus guaranteeing the availability of the service in the network of municipal libraries belonging to BIBAL (with the exception of Aljezur, the only municipality that has not yet has a library).

Access to the platform is possible in several ways, including a Whatsapp, using the library’s user credentials. All information is available at each of the municipal libraries.