"HOPE TO BEGIN AGAIN"

Work with drug addicts has gradually come to occupy an important place in the Centre. In the beginning we only had one or another case in the recovery phase, while they were waiting for a vacancy at a therapeutic centre, we occupied them in various activities.
Now this area has grown and the Centre has to invest more work in it. Not only young people but also their families and friends and even other institutions contact the Centre requesting help.
The Centre has always worked in the area of primary prevention. At the moment we are not only concentrating in primary prevention and construction of positive life styles, but are also acting in the secondary and tertiary area as well.
We counsel, recommend and accompany the cases presented to us by the addicts themselves, their families or friends. Each case presents a different situation.
All of the drug addicts who come to the Centre are homeless, having broken up with their families. In the Centre they can have a bath, shave, change clothes and have a meal. There is also a room where they can meet, have a coffee, a cigarette and chat with the staff and the volunteers.
Whenever they need to go to the doctor or to solve other problems volunteers accompany them.
When they show any interest in giving up drugs, we provide all the support they may need to find the necessary treatment.
This work demands permanent collaboration with other institutions, health Centres, Hospitals and the families. At the moment we are also accompanying people with positive HIV and Aids.

INTERVIR PROJECT

As in other countries, Portugal also has a Food Bank to combat hunger by distributing food to those most in need.
In 1992 the Food Bank in Lisbon begin sending us food. We then started to work directly with the underprivileged people of the community who live in precarious conditions, be they professional, social or educational.
The aim of this work is to ensure and satisfy the basic needs of the people, and seek to integrate the individual in the family, at work and the Community.
It is a varied population – Africans, from Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea, people from Timor, gypsies and other. All live in degraded neighbourhoods and the majority is unemployed or have uncertain work.
A team of volunteers of all ages carries out the various tasks that need to be done in this area. Each has his particular task to do and all are co-ordinating by the social worker.
Different tasks:
- Personal interview with home visits, and bringing them to see the doctor when necessary.
- Fetching the food products once a month from the food bank in Lisbon and now and again at other institutions.
- Storing the products after classifying and counting them.
- Distributing the food to the families twice a month.
- these families are given personal attendance on three levels: economic, social and cultural.
We also teach adults how to read write and help the children, with their schooling.