Algarve Situation Report Wednesday 24th November 2021
Number of people supported by Refood Faro quadrupled compared to 2019
The number of people benefiting from food support through the Refood volunteer movement has quadrupled in Faro compared to 2019, a number which is expected to continue to rise due to the end of the tourist season in the Algarve.
“We have already far surpassed the 400 people who are being benefited, between children and adults there are more than 165 families. There are many households for a city like Faro, with 50 thousand inhabitants», told Lusa the coordinator of Refood in Faro.
According to Carlos Reis, the number of people supported rose from 114 in 2019 to more than 400 in November 2021, an increase accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and, now, towards the end of summer in the Algarve, a region marked by seasonal employment.
“The months of July, August and September were stable, but then, starting in October, orders started to increase a lot and now, in November, then, it has been much more”, he reported, attributing the increase to the seasonality of employment.
After a busy summer, “in September people started to lose work and the prospect is that in December, January things will get even worse”, he stressed, noting that just last week 12 families joined Refood.
“These 12 families correspond to about 30 people, it’s a very large increase in the space of a week”, he says, estimating that the number of beneficiaries “may reach 500 in a few weeks or a month”.
In addition to the fact that requests for support do not stop growing, there is currently “a big difference” in the profile of people who turn to Refood: some are graduates, have a job, but still cannot make ends meet.
According to Carlos Reis, they are people «with completely structured lives who, from one moment to the next, find themselves in ‘lay-off’ or dismissal processes and who, for the first time in their lives, in a very embarrassed and very difficult way, they had to ask for food support”, he notes.
“These are people who would never think they would be in a situation where they asked for food support. Food is a basic need and it’s one of the last things we think we won’t be able to have and, above all, we won’t be able to give it to our children», she emphasizes.
Municipality of Portimão returned to honour centenary citizens
After the break in 2020 due to Covid-19, Portimão returned this year to pay tribute to the centenarians residing in the county, with memories and messages of appreciation and recognition being sent to ten citizens, aged between 100 and 104, on behalf of the Mayor, Isilda Gomes.
The first tribute paid by the Municipality to the centenarians was held in October 2019, on the occasion of the International Day of the Elderly, and involved seven seniors residing in the municipality, who participated in a lunch held in the decabeço room of the Portimão Museum.
Due to the current pandemic situation, and in compliance with the health regulations in force, the municipality decided that the tribute should be held this year in homes where six of the centenary citizens are located (Support Centre for the Elderly, Aldeia de S. José de Alcalar and Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Alvor), with the participation of accordionist Humberto Silva.
As the municipality explains in a note issued, each of the centenarians was given a small “garden of succulents”, “symbol of life and growth, in a demonstration of affection and admiration that also involved the remaining four honourees, to whom they were given in the their homes the memory and the personalized message of the Mayor”.
Book tells the urban history of Loulé
The work focuses on the urban history of Loulé over more than seven centuries and is essentially the result of the author’s master’s thesis in Algarve History.
The book “The urban evolution of Loulé: from the medieval period to the end of the modern era”, by the researcher Jorge Filipe Palma, is presented this Saturday, 27 November, at 17:00, at Palácio Gama Lobo, in Loulé.
This edition, printed by Edições Colibri, with the support of the Municipality of Loulé, will be presented by José Eduardo Horta Correia.
The work focuses on the urban history of Loulé over more than seven centuries and is essentially the result of the author’s master’s thesis in Algarve History.
“It contributes to clarifying the image of Loulé’s public space and highlights the metamorphoses it underwent, from its foundation to the end of the modern period, focusing on the genesis of the city, on its evolution as an Islamic city, on the transformations suffered after the reconquest, in the expansion and consolidation during the medieval Christian era and in the growth in modernity», says Câmara de Loulé.
Jorge Filipe Palma has a degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Algarve (2001) and a Master’s in Algarve History from the same institution (2016).
He is the author of several publications, highlighting the books “Toponymic Dictionary – Cidade de Loulé” (2009), “The house of the captain-mor of Alcoutim – Subsidies for its history” (2012) and “The national consecration of Duarte Pacheco – The construction of the monument of Loulé” (2013). He was a member of the Commission for the 450 Years of the Sovereign Mother (2003) and has been a member of the Municipal Commission of Toponymy of Loulé since 2007.