A course to train at least 15 people as Geriatric Auxiliaries, paid for and taught by the Employment and Vocational Training Institute, and with guaranteed employment at Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Silves and other IPSS in the municipality. This will be one of the first measures of the “O Bairro é meu!” project, which aims to support the integration and enhancement of the Caixa D'Água and SAAL neighborhoods, both located in Silves.
Bairro D. Sancho I, which everyone in the city knows as Caixa D'Água, was visited yesterday morning by the Secretary of State for Internal Administration, who began by inaugurating the mural by the authorship of the street artist Algarvian Bamby, painted on the gable of one of the buildings.
The mural, with a huge child's face and the word «Together», which is the project's motto, has a blue background full of giant bubbles, to evoke the water tank that gives the neighborhood its name.
"The look of this child expresses well the joining of efforts that characterize this project", would emphasize the Secretary of State Isabel Oneto.
Then, at the multi-sport, which was completely renovated in a record time of less than three months, the headquarters of the “O Bairro é Meu!” project was inaugurated, which will have three interns to provide support.
Soon, a children's and recreational park will also begin to be created, in a land that is now half landscaped, half abandoned, as he revealed to the Sul Informação Jorge Ponceano, head of the Sports and Social Action Division and also project manager.
Sporting events will also be promoted, not least because the project already has monitors in this area working with the youngest – and there are many – in the neighborhood. Yesterday, to culminate the visit of the Secretary of State Isabel Oneto, there was even a game at the multi-sport, to demonstrate how much work will now be done.
Among what remains to be done is the task of naming the streets of Bairro da Caixa D'Água, which is now 40 years old. «Here some time ago, there was the intention of naming the streets, but giving them names of Portuguese-speaking countries, such as Mozambique, Angola, Timor. But many of the original inhabitants of this neighborhood are people who came from Africa, after decolonization, and who still harbor regrets from those times, so they rejected the names» said Luís Santos, deputy provider of Santa Casa da Misericórdia, the project's managing entity .
“What we are going to do now is involve people, residents, in choosing the names of their streets. They will suggest and choose these names», he guaranteed.
The project, which is part of the Local Security Contract signed between the Chamber of Silves and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, is precisely aimed at involving residents in solving the problems of their own neighborhood. “The ambition is that, with the implementation of this project, the residents will take to heart the neighborhood that made them, they!”, explain the promoters. «And that, on every corner, in every building, in any house, “The Neighborhood is Mine!” be, now, more than ever, theirs».
Last April, during a meeting in Silves with Secretary of State Isabel Oneto, she launched a challenge. «We were challenged one day to present a project the following week», revealed Rosa Palma, mayor of the local Chamber.
“What's going on in this neighborhood? Young people drop out of school, miss classes. What's wrong with these students?, we thought. What about older people? Why is there unemployment here? What message does this send to the younger ones? And we decided to make a diagnosis to find out what the yearnings of the younger and less young people," explained the mayor to the Sul Informação, telling the genesis of the project.
«We want to have the collaboration of the residents, we want this to continue and not just for this presentation on the day of the visit of the Secretary of State, that it is not just the mural and the walls of the multi-sports center painted, we want it to come alive, for the people get involved. The idea is for people to feel that the neighborhood is theirs!” added Rosa Palma.
Luís Santos, deputy provider of Misericórdia, insisted on ensuring that "all the money received for this project will be effectively spent on improving this neighborhood and the lives of those who live here." After the "ambitious plan" presented, "much remains to be done here," he added.
After visiting the multi-sports room, which now also houses an ATL for children, Isabel Oneto and Rosa Palma, with the help of young Micael, a resident of the neighborhood, unveiled the usual plaque.
The secretary of state said: "congratulations to those who managed, in such a short time, to put this project to life."
This is not, however, the first project that Bairro da Caixa D'Água has experienced. Therefore, stressed Jorge Ponceano, it is now necessary to regain the trust of people, who are quite fed up with inaugurations without much follow-up.
For now, that person in charge hopes that the professional training course in Auxiliary Geriatrics, which will be given at the Silves pole of the IEFP, a short distance from the neighborhood, will start operating next September, with at least 15 trainees (the minimum number for the course to advance), from 18 to 35 years old. «The course is paid and employment is guaranteed, in the area of the municipality, in the IPSS that need people with this type of training», he explained. «Not even that we have to go knocking from door to door, explaining what the course will be and its advantages»…
Rosa Palma, who was a teacher and therefore lives with great intensity the problems of the youngest inhabitants of the neighborhood, concluded in her statements to the Sul Informação: “we started in this neighborhood, but we will extend this type of project and intervention to other neighborhoods”.
Consortium of entities:
Silves City Council – promoting entity
Brotherhood of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Silves – managing entity
Silves Children and Youth Protection Commission
Silves Parish Council
Parish of Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Silves
Religious Institute of the Sacred Heart of Mary – Silves
Silves School Group
Institute of Employment and Professional Training – Silves Training Center
Partner Entities:
Silves Health Center
Friends of the Little Ones of Silves – IPSS
Silves Football Club
Humanitarian Association of Silves Volunteer Firefighters
Silves Delegation of the Red Cross
Association of Retired Persons and Pensioners of Silves
Enxerim Sports and Cultural Group
CAFAP - IPSS "Castle of Dreams"
Silvense Philharmonic Society
CNE Group 181 - Silves
St. Augustine Conference of the São Vicente de Paulo Society – Silves
Photos: Elisabete Rodrigues | Sul Informação
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