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When, a little less than a year ago, I proposed to the people of Portugal a civic commitment for social inclusiveness, I was fully conscious of another Portugal that did not benefit from the attention of the political or media priorities.

It was a Portugal that was slightly forgotten, almost always unheard of, which only made the news for the worst reasons. It wasn’t a far distant Portugal. We lived with side by side with it, we went past it resignedly ignoring its existence and its problems.

It was for this reason that on April 25 I spoke to the Portuguese, of a Portugal with two speeds, with very marked contrasts, in which images of progress and modernity lived next door to those of backwardness and exclusion. One of the indicators revealed in this dual situation is the inequality in income distribution.

We are all aware that we are facing a deeply rooted problem of Portuguese society, a problem that cannot be resolved solely with good intentions or in the short term.

We are also well aware that, without economic growth, it will be very difficult to assuage the social sores that still persist. We equally know that, if we cannot make a quick and sustained advance in the qualification of the Portuguese, any and all efforts carried out will not be sufficient.

Two postures are thus left us: either we resign ourselves, or we muster, and, with the resources within our reach, anticipate a fight which is our common concern.

I knew that the theme of social inclusiveness was not an easy challenge, but that it had to be urgently faced.

I was also well aware that this was a propitious area for pessimism, for the denunciation of material and moral misery, for the public grievance of our evils.

It would be easy to hold the State responsible for all the solutions required. After all, we have long been used to blame the State for all evils and demand that it be the source of all the cures.

But first of all I trusted that the people of Portugal would provide an answer and it was the Portuguese that I asked for this civic commitment for social inclusiveness, as an expression of their responsibility, of their endeavour and of their spirit of fellowship.

The four campaigns of the Route to Inclusiveness that I undertook were the path for the rediscovery of an enormous potential of experience, goodwill and competence, ready to be mustered towards the aim for greater social cohesion.

My first steps were in the poorer interior regions, where the means are scarcer, where greater difficulties are felt and where the perspectives for development are unclear. Conditioned by the pronounced ageing of its populations, by the degraded means of production and by the risk of desertification of its territory, these regions face the greatest of threats: their disappearance as communities.

These are regions which urgently require the reorientation of their productive basis, to value the limited human and material assets which are still available, and to cherish the well-being and the dignity of those who, while still resisting, were excluded from the benefits of progress.

I encountered experiences, such as Montes Altos Social Centre or the Fratel Philharmonic Society, where the people’s initiative was able to defy the fate which had seemed drawn for them long before. The secret of success was simple enough: they were not resigned to their future! And, with the support of the local authorities and of the government, were able to convert each problem into a new opportunity. They undertook to create wealth, multiplied employment and brought back hope and confidence to the communities.

I am certain that, if we are able to repeat these experiences in other interior villages or towns, we will advance with the social development of our Country. We must be organized in our work, mustering and diversifying contributions, correlating and strengthening the cooperation amongst institutions.

The role undertaken by local authorities is highlighted where private initiative is scarcer. I had the opportunity to view how arduous is their task, especially in the outlying areas. But I was also able to witness the availability of those responsible for the local authorities to shoulder new skills and new responsibilities, mainly in the social and educational areas, as well as their efforts in the re-launching of the productive base of their Counties.

Once the more enthusiastic building of infrastructures was over, the time has arrived to open a new page in the history of Portugal’s municipal authorities: social development, bolstering of economic activity, sustainability of well-being and of the people’s quality of life.

This requires, on the one hand, an affirmative will for decentralizing and, on the other, a greater sense of cooperation amongst persons responsible for local authorities. We cannot continue to demand that Central Government take the responsibility for issues which, with a faster and more effective response, could be dealt with by local communities. We cannot continue to multiply the already existing equipment when common sense advises us to share it.

The decentralization towards the Municipalities of new competences, such as in the social and educational fields has, however, to be accompanied by a new intervening posture, in which some local authorities muster local resources to intensify the initiatives of citizens and of non-governmental organizations, and to coordinate the strategies of social development.

I was able to verify, in the various Municipalities I visited, the potential represented by social networks and by the local committees of social activities, as areas where their communities may verbalize the strategic objectives for local development.

I am very confident of the contribution that citizens and their associations have been providing in favour of the cause for social inclusiveness, as well as a greater certainty in the role that the future reserves for them.

We have long undervalued this role, mistaking social responsibility for charity, civic participation for protagonism, voluntary work for assistance.

I am proud of this vast voluntary activity practiced by men and women which represent, with their work and dedication, the foundations of a civic culture which must be asserted and given its proper value. It would be difficult to imagine what could be the social reality of our country without the inestimable contribution of voluntary activity.

The same may be said of thousands of civic organizations, many of them represented in this Conference, to which I want to signify public recognition for the work that is being undertaken for social inclusiveness.

During the four campaigns of the Route, my attention was focused on the diversity of social vulnerable groups: from children to youths, from aged to unemployed, from retarded citizens to homeless, from prostitution to victims of domestic violence, from pregnant women to immigrants, from the impoverished to so many other marginal groups.

I witnessed cases of good practices and examples of success, but I equally received reports of difficulties, of limitations to provide aid for grievous social situations. In all institutions I noted the undeniable goodwill and dedication of all who work there.

The challenges placed by the new social dynamics demand improvement in the organization and management of the resources provided for this type of institutions. I know that some voluntary workers offered their collaboration, but gave up due to the lack of planning for the activities to which they could contribute.

On the other hand, since the financial resources provided for the institutions of solidarity are already quite considerable, these must accept the principle of a regular and rigorous rendering of accounts to the public bodies and donating institutions, which will certainly want to know where and how their money was applied.

It was in this context that I became interested in the work of associations such as “Entrajuda”, whose mission is to enable the capacity of institutions of solidarity, through the voluntary rendering of consultancy services.

A good management of resources allows the qualification of services rendered and to spread these over a larger number of needy persons. The fight against wastage is exemplified by the “Banco Alimentar Contra a Fome” (Bank for Feeding the Hungry), not only due to its altruism, but mainly its organization, its capacity to convert problems into opportunities, to apply efficiency and good management criteria to the economy of the donation and voluntary work, thus resulting in an improved service for an ever greater number of beneficiaries.

Social economy has, nowadays, a dimension and a dynamism which could not be imagined fifteen or twenty years ago. Solidarity organizations have come to learn and to adapt to the new demands. Some of them have found extremely innovative solutions which I am well pleased to recognize.

This is the case of enterprising organizations which have become increasingly freer from the exclusive dependency from public subsidies and which have decided to create wealth and thus to gain greater autonomy and a greater capacity to answer the demands of social inclusiveness.

Please allow me to mention, as mere examples, two institutions which I had the opportunity to visit: the Association for Development and Professional Training of Miranda do Corvo, and ARCIL, located in the neighbouring county of Lousã. Both dared to convert institutions of charitable assistance into bases for professional insertion, either providing training, or setting up insertion enterprises. They thus combined their calling for providing assistance with capacity for inclusiveness through the creation of wealth.

I was extremely sensitized by seeing dozens of retarded persons working in those enterprises, valuing their professional skills and contributing to the benefit of others suffering from greater difficulties. This is an example to be followed: as important as giving a subsidy or any other financial contribution is to provide an opportunity for retarded people to recover their status as full citizens and deserving of dignity.

The example of retarded people may be extensive to other social groups which are either excluded or impoverished. To youths in the process of social re-insertion, to long term unemployed, to beneficiaries of social insertion income, to the homeless, to prostitutes. What could these persons be worth, should we provide them with an opportunity!

Finding opportunities and combating resignation will cause the feeling that the contribution of these persons is indispensable for the Country and for the communities, making them participate in this effort to create wealth and well-being, and are aims which are in our power and which we cannot spurn.

From a first examination of the results of this Route to Inclusiveness, there are two concerns which I would wish to share with you.

The first is connected with one of the more decisive causes of these situations of poverty and exclusion: the low educational and qualification levels of a significant number of the people included in these circumstances.

The school has been and continues to be the most relevant tool for social inclusiveness, the decisive opportunity that is at the disposal of youth to fight social determinism and to break with the deficit in qualification of previous generations. It is through the school that we conquer the future; it is in school that we build the foundations of a society that is more cohesive and open to the world and to knowledge.

That is the reason why I worry about the thousands of children and youths that annually abandon our educational system without having attained the indispensable skills for a proper inclusion in the labour market. The precocious entry into the labour market without any professional qualification is a very dearly paid illusion.

I also worry about the risk behaviour, occurring ever earlier, without the most adequate prevention instruments being found. Prevention continues to be more urgent than remedial measures, and all the investment made in this domain will certainly never be a bad investment.

We all have to make an effort to increase expectations and the educational aims of the new generations. We have to be more demanding and, at the same time, more ambitious when we speak of the future of our children and younger people.

For this reason I was very interested in watching the initiative of a large group of Portuguese entrepreneurs that joined together with the aim to help families and schools to overcome this deficit in qualification. The project they built can be a decisive contribution so that, with systematic work, capacity to cooperate and much persistence, we may yet see some thousands of young people once again find the significance of the school and to build paths of success for their lives.

But it is as well that we do not forget that these initiatives, of entrepreneurs, schools, public and private institutions, citizens in general, however well intentioned, and notwithstanding the quality of the results obtained, cannot dispense with the decisive role of the family. Without this, without its function of promoting and developing mutual understanding, it will not be easy to achieve successful results from the efforts taken for the purpose of inclusiveness.

Many of the cases of poverty, isolation and marginalization of the aged, of abandonment and ill treatment of children, of school failure and risk behaviour are mainly caused by the exclusion propitiated by lack of the principles governing the family.

I believe it is time we abandoned the attitude of forgiveness to which we have been used and to repeatedly query the situations of responsibility of parents for their children and younger people and the responsibilities of offspring towards their older predecessors. The first foundation of society must be precisely based on the family. Without this basic effort, we will always remain outside the ideal level of social cohesion for which we had craved.

The second worry that I wished to share with you is the humanist dimension of this fight for inclusiveness. This is not just a case of understanding this fight as an expression of altruism and philanthropy. There is a larger dimension to the problem which should guide us: the defence and the improvement of human dignity.

In 33 years of democracy our country consolidated the principles of respect and defence of fundamental rights. But we cannot be satisfied with the formal expression of such rights. We must accentuate their moral dimension and the necessary association of the responsibilities of each citizen towards the society in which he belongs. I am less worried about an eventual surfeit of rights than by an effective lack of duties.

In the four Routes already completed, I was able, as earlier referred, to encounter good practices and, simultaneously, to single out the main problems of the more vulnerable social groups: the communities in the interior part of the country that wither, the isolated elderly people subdued by solitude, the abandoned and ill treated children, the victims of domestic violence, the immigrants excluded due to illegal situations, the women object of human trafficking, the retarded persons who are denied opportunities.

To all of those I wanted to leave a word of solidarity and a sign of hope.

And to all those that, day after day, help materialize that hope, I wish to express my deepest recognition for their work and their dedication and to show them the unshakeable confidence that, with the example of their civic diligence, we will be build a fairer society and a better Portugal.