The Mar Shopping Algarve shopping center gathered 450 items to donate to the GATO association, responsible for managing and equipping two housing and social reintegration projects for the homeless, in Loulé.
The donations were made by visitors to MAR Shopping Algarve, store employees, employees of service providers and members of the Algarve shopping team.
Some brands at the mall also volunteered to provide additional support.
Donated items included kitchen utensils, decorative items, lighting, furniture, tablecloths, bed sets, various appliances (coffee machines, toasters, magic wands, among others), clothes racks and other everyday items that will help equipping the “Shared Apartments” project and the “Casa Ajuda” project, as part of the national Housing First initiative.
Both are social responses that are being activated in the municipality by Associação GATO in collaboration with the Municipality of Loulé and which, in total, aim to support 15 homeless people.
The mall's brands also supported the initiative. My Pastta has already donated pasta and food products, while Farmácia Silveira will directly donate items for first aid kits and Aromas hygiene products.
«It was very gratifying to collaborate with Associação GATO in this raising of goods and to see that excellent results were obtained, which will make it possible to improve the lives of the people who are part of these initiatives. The entire team, employees and visitors, whom we thank, were mobilized to support these housing projects», says Ana Antunes, director of Mar Shopping Algarve.
“Our objective is to continue to collaborate with the association whenever possible in similar initiatives”, he adds.
The objective of the two temporary "Shared Apartments" and the "Housing First" initiative, pioneering in the Algarve, is the reintegration and integration of homeless people into society, promoting independent living and being monitored by a technical team, which focuses on areas such as health, education, work, hygiene and home management.
These projects stem from protocols signed between the Social Security Institute and various associations at the national level, under the National Strategy for the Integration of Homeless People. In the Algarve, two of these protocols were signed with the GATO – Group for Helping Drug Addicts, an IPSS that has existed for over 30 years in the Algarve, headquartered in Faro.
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