Laura Ayres, a doctor, researcher, pedagogue and professor of public health, from Loulé, was honored by the Municipality of Loulé on the occasion of its centenary celebrations.
The idea came from the doctor Rui Lourenço and was embraced by the Municipality, which decided to start the activities on June 1st in a session that brought together, in the Municipal Assembly room, people linked mainly to the health area and who lived closely with Laura Ayres, either professionally or in a more personal way, leaving testimonies.
«Laura Ayres is a motto for the construction of the sense of belonging and citizenship that this territory so needs», underlined Rui Loureço, who also spent time with this Louletana student in the 80s.
This was followed by an intervention by the former Minister of Health, António Correia de Campos, who in the last 20 years of Laura Ayres' life accompanied her, collaborating with her on several projects but also maintaining a personal relationship of friendship.
«Charming for her smiling figure, disciplined and tolerant energy, for the contagion of her joy of living and working, for the rigor of analysis and above all for the courage to make decisions that are almost never easy, her critical motherhood, the exoticism of some of her positions and, above all, the formidable ability to create teams and keep them organized and usefully occupied, always with a view to public service», he said.
Correia de Campos also highlighted the doctor's fearless personality, recalling the "permanent and imposing use of her emblem of the Democratic Electoral Commission - CDE, a political movement that brought together various oppositions to the Salazar and Caetano regime, created in the 69 elections of the then National Assembly". National".
The former minister also spoke of the fact that it was "premonitory", when he focused on research in the areas of legionella or AIDS, when the world was still beginning to wake up to this disease. But also in his studies that already pointed to the pandemic that the world has experienced in the last two years.
"Forty years ago, it seemed to predict the future when enunciating sociocultural factors, population movements inside and outside the country, rejection of vaccines or other control measures by individuals or population groups", he said.
After viewing a documentary on the life and work of Laura Ayres, there was still time for a roundtable where, in addition to Correia de Campos, the honoree's son, ambassador in Budapest, Jorge Ayres Roza de Oliveira, Francisco George, former director general of health, public health doctor and student of the honoree, Francisca Avillez, former deputy director of INSA, Ana Jorge, former Minister of Health, current president of the Red Cross and colleague of Laura Ayres at the School of Public Health, and Jorge Torgal, former president of INFARMED.
After the name of a school, in Quarteira, of a street, in Loulé, and of the Regional Laboratory, in Parque das Cidades, the Municipality intends that the new congress center - "Meeting Center" -, integrated in the ABC - Algarve building Biomedical Center, which is planned for Vilamoura, dedicated to aging, will also be named after Laura Ayres.
The mayor of Loulé announced during this session that he will present the proposal to ABC and the organizations that constitute it (Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve and Universidade do Algarve) but believes that it will be welcomed “with great joy”.
“There is no better way than to recover the memory of Dr. Laura Ayres than to make a center for the production of public scientific knowledge”, said the mayor.
As for the honoree, António Aleixo praised her «human wealth, her civic side capable of embracing causes in difficult times, always ahead of her time».
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