CARITAS PAROQUIAL DE Nª SRª DA CONCEIÇÃO
OF VILA VIÇOSA
STORY
More than 25 years ago, a group of good people from Vila Viçosa, motivated by Mrs. Cremilde Vermelho, decided to set up this project of social assistance, always linked to the Church and which gradually gained great dimension. With no home or space to carry out its actions, the institution was born with the idea of supporting the most needy population and, little by little, it developed and grew.
Since 1995, through a Project to Fight against Poverty (1995-1997), it was possible for Cáritas to acquire a building that became its headquarters. There, a Community Center was created to promote an integrated development of the local community in a participatory and solidary way. The dynamic that emerged from the creation of this Community Center meant that all the activities of Cáritas de Vila Viçosa underwent a major transformation, increasing not only the number of users covered by its activities, but also a diversification of the Institution's areas of intervention.
The institution's first valence was the SAD, which is still the largest in the institution, with 120 users, despite only 87 being registered. At the same time, the institution also advanced with the ATL, a value that the institution managed to keep for many years, but which in 2007 was closed. The institution later took up this response, but only during the school holidays, and gained the name of «Cáritas Brinca», involving around 50 children.
In addition to these social responses, Cáritas Paroquial de Vila Viçosa has a crèche with 21 children, Social Centers, an ERPI with 19 beds and a Social Assistance and Support service through which it supports more than a hundred families. Today, it is already one of the county's biggest employers, with a team of 60 employees.
At the same time, Cáritas currently distributes food to all schools in the municipality, with a protocol that was initially free, but through which there is now a monthly contribution from the municipality.
It encompasses and guarantees, together with the various institutions of the municipality, social support for a population of around seven thousand inhabitants, located in one of the currently economically most depressed areas in Portugal.
In order to be closer to the people, Cáritas Paroquial decentralizes the Social Centers, which operate in the four places of the municipality: Pardais, Bencatel, S. Romão. With around 20 users in each, the institution maintains this option despite only two of the Social Security Centers being registered with Social Security. Due to the lack of a working place, it is not possible for us to open the Vila Viçosa social center at this time.
At the moment, Cáritas is, in Vila Viçosa, an institution with a very large development dynamic, playing an increasingly important role in the fight against social exclusion among the most marginalized populations in the municipality.
