The Catholic Religious Moral Education (EMRC) teachers, in the Diocese of Algarve, involved around 240 students from three schools, on the 30th of April, in the “Com Monchique no Coração” initiative, in the context of the fire that affected the mountains Algarve in 2018.
“The students in Monchique need to have boys their own age who haven't been through this trauma with whom they can share the experience; Talking about the traumas we are experiencing helps us to overcome them,” said Lúcia Costa, EMRC teacher in Monchique.
The Monchique fire, which broke out on August 3, 2018, destroyed nearly 28 hectares of forest and agricultural land, in addition to dozens of houses and also affected the municipalities of Silves and Portimão.
In the information sent to the ECCLESIA Agency, by the diocesan newspaper 'Folha do Domingo', Lúcia Costa stated that her students “had a great need to speak” to convey “the feelings, what they experienced and the emotions they felt”.
“When I arrived at school, at the beginning of the school year, all my 92 boys had a different story to tell about the fire”, he recalls, adding that “they still get emotional”.
In addition to around 240 students from three educational establishments – the EB 2.3 Dr. Joaquim Magalhães and D. Afonso III Schools of Faro joined the Manuel do Nascimento de Monchique Basic School – 'With Monchique no Coração' also mobilized 24 teachers from various disciplines.
The EMRC teacher Rosária Pacheco pointed out that, in addition to a "day of sharing", they took the opportunity to "raise awareness of environmental problems", so that students "become more and more sensitive to this theme of fires".
«The objective is to bring the “heart” to Monchique and tell this population that we are here, that they are not forgotten and that we were sensitive to everything they went through. This contact with the population is sought, bringing joy and love, which is another form of solidarity, not just with material goods», he developed.
“Com Monchique no Coração” ended with the planting of a strawberry tree at the Manuel do Nascimento Basic School, as a symbol of the importance of reforestation in the mountains, and the placing of the activity's nameplate. Emphasis is also given to the “human heart” that the students formed and their participation in the human blue tie made at the end of the Month for the Prevention of Mistreatment in Childhood and Youth.
The newspaper 'Folha do Domingo' adds that the students started the day at the municipal heliport, then were distributed by groups identified with an indigenous species of flora and carried out a dynamic of personal knowledge and contact with the local population and five entities – volunteer firefighters , parish, Community Care Unit, Parish Council and Platform 'Ajuda Monchique'.
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