The University of Algarve (UAlg), following the collaboration it has been maintaining with the Global Platform for Emergency Academic Assistance to Syrian Students, an initiative promoted in Portugal by the ex-president of the Republic Jorge Sampaio, is now a partner of Refugee Support Platform (PAR).
As part of its educational and outreach mission, including the voluntary aspect, UAlg offers to contribute to the reception of refugees who may be welcomed in the Algarve, namely by offering courses in Portuguese Language and Culture and others similar initiatives that can help to integrate this numerous group of suffering people.
Faced with a civilizational and humanitarian crisis of such serious dimensions, the UAlg rector considers that "it is up to public institutions to place themselves, without hesitation, on the side of those who have been dispossessed of their home, their property and perhaps even their family, in short, of the minimum conditions of social and human dignity, being, because of the war and the destruction and the deaths it causes, forced to move in order to manage (to survive)”.
António Branco also argues that “such an expression of solidarity, arising from an exceptional situation, should in no way be confused with the need, as a society, to give an increasingly firm response to poverty and other social imbalances that already exist among the Portuguese population. – nor does it replace it in our daily quest for a fairer society.”
“University support is essential for PAR. It is important that we feel that we have a strong educational network involved in combating this humanitarian crisis. It is essential that we contribute to the education/training of refugees arriving in Portugal, namely through the teaching of the Portuguese language, so that we can carry out a better integration in our society”, concludes Rui Marques, coordinator of PAR.
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