For a year, Carla Almeida decided to change her teacher's suit for that of Civil Protection in Portimão. He abandoned teaching, but not schools: until June he will travel around the county to teach everyone, from the 1st to the 12th grade, the importance of having appropriate behavior in risky situations, such as earthquakes or tsunamis. A work that, he guarantees, «has been very interesting».
This time, it is EB1 de Alvor to receive the entourage of Firefighters from Portimão for yet another awareness-raising action. At the Library, students are already waiting anxiously. Second commander José Sousa, who this time accompanies the session, is the one who does the honors of the house.
“So tell me: what do we do? What is our job?” he asks. The answer is not long in coming: "you save people from fires and put an end to terrorists," the audience says.
Dialogue turns out to be a metaphor for this entire program of the Municipal Service of Portimão. Its main objective is to instill, from an early age, the need for all of us to protect ourselves from possible situations of catastrophe or mere emergency.
It's just that issues as basic as asking for help, calling 112, can often be a real problem. In the session in Alvor, this same theme is explained by Carla Almeida to an audience of young students from the 2nd and 3rd year.
This year, the program, which was born in 2014, has the great news of having a teacher dedicated exclusively to these sessions. A teacher for 24 years, Carla Almeida decided to leave the classrooms until June. She is even the only teacher, in the whole Algarve, assigned for a year to carry out these awareness-raising actions.
«There was the intention to improve a little what was the pedagogical part, arranging new strategies, other materials. The challenge was given to me and here I am», he explains, smiling, to the Sul Informação.
The actions began in September and will cover a total of 467 classes, reaching nearly 10 students. "We start in pre-school, from a very young age, and go up to the 12th grade, passing through homes and community centers, whether in the private or public sector," he says.
As for the topics covered, they vary. “It's a little bit of everything. We talk about how to ask for help, what to do in case of emergency, the area of Basic Life Support, tsunamis, as well as rail and road risks», he adds.
This year, the program had, with the entry of Carla Almeida into service, a upgrade, but the main objective remains the same: «to create a more resilient population, capable of having adequate – and safer – behaviors in the face of risk».
As the teacher emphasizes, the entire Algarve is an area «with a probability of some risky situations», such as tsunamis, earthquakes or fires. Hence, this is a work "of the greatest importance".
What is certain is that Carla Almeida already notices that the younger people are awake to these issues.
“The big fires we had brought these issues more to the table even in the media. There was a great concern for all of us to be able to mitigate and prevent what could happen. That's the only way we will have a population that really thinks about environmental and social issues», he considers to our newspaper's report.
In parallel, the fact that the program has existed since 2014 is already bearing fruit. «We are picking up students who remember some procedures spoken in previous years, for example», he illustrates, with a smile on his face.
Little Bruna, who watched attentively throughout the session in which Carla Almeida taught what to do when calling 112, has no doubts: “I liked everything a lot!”. It's because? "We have to help others," he tells the Sul Informação.
By June, the goal is that, throughout the municipality of Portimão, Carla Almeida will be able to convince many Brunas.
«It has been very interesting to see the school from the other side, after 24 years of seeing it only from one side… I have noticed how rich it is because children are aware of these issues. They notice that it concerns them. After all, we are talking about something from day to day, which is achievable and can happen», he concludes.
Photos: Pedro Lemos | Sul Informação
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