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Ladies and Gentlemen,

The difficult times that many Portuguese are going through has greatly evinced the notable work, almost always silent and discreet, carried out by a large number of social institutions.

They count with the support of many anonymous citizens and with the valuable help of thousands of voluntary workers, in an effort demonstrating great generosity.

I have contacted, throughout my mandates with many hundreds of organizations and individualities that daily dedicate themselves in providing aid to the most fragile of our society without looking towards any recognition, just with the aim to be benevolent.

I emphasize, moreover, the role of institutions which I had already the opportunity to distinguish, such as the Food Bank against Hunger and the Portuguese Union of Almshouses, recognizing in the latter the hundreds of Almshouses which exist all over the country and whose role must be lauded.

It is my wish, in this ceremony, to stress the indispensable contribution of these six institutions in the work carried out against social exclusion in their respective areas of influence.

The Life and Peace Community celebrates this year its 25th anniversary. With hundreds of volunteers, it searches for the homeless or people in a situation of social vulnerability, provides them with shelter and helps them to recover their dignity and to rebuild their life plan.

The CAIS Association, with a very visible presence with the Magazine that is sold in the streets, has endeavoured to promote the capability of the homeless or of persons at risk of economic penury, through a set of innovatory social intervention projects adapted to the needs.

The Portuguese Association of Deficient Persons, with national coverage, has defended the interests of deficient people in Portugal, endeavouring to expunge the physical and psychologic barriers which are the cause of a feeling of exclusion for the deficient.

The Boy’s Home shelters, cares for and educates boys who have been removed from their families, with the objective of helping them in differing features of their lives and of eventually allowing them to return to their home or to their family.

The Portuguese AIDS League, the oldest institution in this area, provides support for persons infected or affected by HIV/AIDS, developing actions of social, psychological, juridical, nutritional and health care support.

SAOM – Maria Organizations Assistance Services provide various services within the scope of social reinsertion and also of social support for young and aged people. It supervises a project of professional training that aims to socially insert the homeless or people under serious risk of social exclusion.

All these institutions have endeavoured – with innovation, new projects and new ideas – to be a reference of hope for thousands of people, who are touched by the generosity and the altruism of all with whom they collaborate.

Taking into account the imprint they leave with Portuguese society in the dignifying of the Human Person and due to the self-denial that its volunteers reveal in favour of the community, I have decided to attribute to these institutions the title of Honorary Member of the two Portuguese Honorific Orders that aim to recognize this work and this generosity.