The donations collected by the “Algarve pela Vida” campaign, destined to the refugee camps on the island of Lesbos, Greece, were already loaded yesterday, Wednesday, in a container, to be taken by truck between Lagos and Setúbal and from there, by sea , to the Greek port of Piraeus near Athens.
Volunteers who participated in the donation collection campaign – winter clothes, shoes, blankets and blankets, toys – spent the entire morning in a warehouse next to the old pools of the Lagos Volunteer Fire Service, carrying the boxes to store them in the container.
In addition to donations in kind made by the populations of Aljezur, Lagos, Monchique, Odemira and Mexilhoeira Grande, the initiative also collected around 2500 euros, which will be spent on payment for the transport of the container between Portugal and Greece. From Piraeus to the port of Mytilene, on the island of Lesbos, transport will be made free of charge by the Greek company ARKAS Hellas SA. This company will ensure the delivery of the container to the local partners of the “Algarve pela Vida” group, the RefuGEN and PIKPA/“All Together” Village groups.
The promoters of the initiative recall that, «during the month of January, the Lagos Volunteer Firefighters, the Lagos Red Cross and the São Gonçalo Parish Council were important strategic partners in this challenge. In the various work sessions of sorting and packaging the donations, we had the energetic participation of about forty volunteers».
This campaign was born from the awareness-raising initiative for the German community in Aljezur to welcome refugees, launched by Raban von Mentzingen last September.
This intention did not materialize and “the desire to receive families was transformed into raising clothes”.
As the platform explains, “the German community and the International School of Aljezur then mobilized many families and collected a large volume of donations. Then, the Youth Volunteer Bank of the Gil Eanes de Lagos Secondary School joined this movement and intensified the collection of donations».
In December, “several attempts were made to find a local partner who was available and able to receive and channel product donations. We also make contacts in the Balkans and even in refugee camps in Lebanon», adds “Algarve pela Vida”.
However, «everything proved difficult, expensive and uncertain, until it was possible to locate, on the island of Lesbos, Greece, RefuGEN and PIKPA/“All Together” Village».
For its part, the Lagos Red Cross provided the bank account to raise monetary donations, which allowed “to raise sufficient funds to pay for the container's maritime transport”.
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