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In Lusíadas, Portugal’s foremost literary work, Camões wrote,

I saw, I have clearly seen, the live fire
Mariners hold as holy.

The poet was referring to the natural phenomenon known as St. Elmo’s Fire, that mariners viewed from on board the vessels that had sailed from the Tagus estuary, a few meters short of where we are today.

Camões’ epic poem already evinces the relevance of vision as a witness to the prodigious. The authenticity of the story is provided by the direct view of what can be seen, what can clearly be seen.

The belief in a supernatural dimension was not sufficient for the humanism which characterized the Renaissance. Scientific experimentalism which was then in its first steps demanded observation, the vision of terrestrial realities, their empirical evidence.

I believe that this excerpt of the Lusíadas singularly summarizes what brings us here today: the importance of vision, the triumph of science and, after all, the evocative powers of the sea not just in our common past, but also in the present and the future.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am greatly pleased to once again preside at the award ceremony of the Champalimaud Vision Prize. This year, the jury decided to distinguish the joint work of the Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO), the SEVA Foundation and SEVA Canada.

Today’s prize winners are an instance of the application of integrated strategies, of joint work in the adaptation of local organizational models with growing success and long term sustainability.

The launching of the ambitious “Vision 2020” global action plan, an initiative of the World Health Organization and of the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness, was the foremost promoter of this practice of collaboration and of joint work amongst worldwide institutions.

And it was done with a common objective: the universal reduction of avoidable blindness, preventing it or restoring lost vision. The objective is clear and unquestionably meritorious: it endeavours guaranteeing that an ever greater number of human beings are able to say, as in Camões’ poem, I saw, I have clearly seen.

This is an admirable humanitarian work, resulting from the alliance between action programmes for the communities prepared by SEVA and the capability of their application, development and expansion by the Ophthalmologic Centre located in Moshi, Tanzania.

The combination of efforts amongst the three institutions who were distinguished today resulted in the implementation and dissemination of good organizational practices in the offer of health care, in the widening of the multidisciplinary training of teams and in the disclosure of this organizational model to several other countries in Southern and Eastern Africa, some of which with the highest rates of blindness in the world.

Ninety per cent of world population with blindness problems live in developing countries. This is a dramatic situation for millions of people in dozens of countries. And here lies the special relevance of this Prize, which, similarly to earlier editions, brings aid to initiatives carried out with those that are needier, to the human beings in the less developed countries, to those who have already been named as the silent people of the world.

The “Vision 2020” programme, that supports this prize, considers avoidable blindness a global public health issue, and thus launched the challenge to ensure that everyone, in all the continents, have access to ophthalmologic rehabilitation services comprised in the respective health services, through the implementation of national, regional or local plans.

Since it was launched in 1999, this programme aroused a notable international mustering of financial, human and technological resources, strengthening capabilities in the offers for care, above all in developing countries.

Today’s prize winners materialize the combination of volitions that the World Health Organization is accompanying through its several regional structures, and which has already resulted in a positive development of health indicators, which is interpreted as optimist regarding the target set for 2020.

I have had the honour of presiding at the award ceremony of the Champalimaud Vision Prize for nine years. We are delivering today the largest prize in the world to organizations that contribute towards the prevention or global treatment of vision diseases.

Whilst President of the Portuguese Republic, I want to very warmly extoll the unique contribution that, arising out of Portugal, these prizes have provided towards the worldwide fight against blindness.

I congratulate the three prize winning institutions: I am certain that this Prize will bring inestimable, effective and sustainable progress to the treatment of millions of people.

I equally congratulate the jury for their rigorous selective work and for the prestigious wisdom the have placed at the service of this cause.

In the face of this further initiative of the Champalimaud Foundation, I very particularly salute its President, Ms. Leonor Beleza. Through her I also salute the scientists, the researchers, the physicians and all the teams that work, produce and apply science and knowledge for the good and the quality of life of all of us.

I am able to witness, to all and sundry, that I have seen, that I have clearly seen, throughout these years, the results that Ms. Leonor Beleza and her team have been able to achieve, with extraordinary success, from the legacy bequeathed by an exceptional Portuguese citizen.

This Foundation has known how to honour the memory of its founder, showing it is able to measure up to the visionary dream of António Champalimaud.
I thus salute all those that were able to materialize the dream that helped – and continues to help – millions of human beings all over the world.

I am thus justifiably proud, as a Portuguese and as President of the Republic, to assert that, in the future, the Champalimaud Foundation will still further extend its ambitious mission.

On this day when the Champalimaud Prize is being awarded, a prize that distinguishes humanitarian causes the world over, and facing the tragedy that is striking thousands of people, I fervently appeal that Europe stands out, once again, for the defence of the values and principles of human dignity. To those that are seeking Europe fleeing from war, Portugal must show its deepest solidarity and, within its possibilities, create conditions for their being harboured in order that, with their families, they can begin a new life. This is a moral imperative, which characterizes us as European citizens, a quality we must preserve on behalf of a better world.

Thank you very much.