Welcome to the Official page of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

We are all here today to deal with a very simple matter: to paint a rainbow in a Blue Sky.

When questioned on what kind of world they wished for, the children insisted in this view of a coloured rainbow which shows up, in the sky, the old Alliance between God and Man.

We all have on our wrists, through Tempus International, the Perfect World swatch of this campaign, which is going to help the Movement in the Service of Life in the refurbishment of the house that Lisbon County Council has made available for this beautiful project. Our best thanks are due for this great kindness.

But beautiful and simple projects are normally born from less beautiful and much more complicated causes.

Since everything can be resolved, that is the reason we came here today: to tell these people who contribute with their work and their keenness towards a better, friendlier and brotherly world, that we are available to help them to materialize their dream.

A dream which, after all, is a collective dream, a joint ambition of the equitable community which we want to be and which we also feel socially obliged to become.

This is an ambition full of promise since its target is a world filled with promise.
When we mention the future this much we already want to talk about children.

In the Routes to Inclusiveness, my husband stated many times:

“A people that do not take good care of their children have no future”.

This house will be a temporary welcoming centre for children and young persons at risk, precisely since there are many of us that want Portugal to be a country that takes good care of its children.

The Movement in the Service of Life only went slightly farther in its ambition to simultaneously comprise children at risk and their respective families. Certainly not an easy task, but which they will not give up.

We well know – and this is a reality which we are unfortunately facing ever more frequently – that much which is bad happens in the families, due to so many destructive causes which are becoming more and more frequent in modern life. Specifying them is unnecessary since we all know what they are, and, after all, this is a day of joy, we really only want to talk about pleasant things.

To give children at risk an institution which will provide them with a homely environment, health care, schooling, training at all necessary levels for a healthy, material and affective growth.

To give them, after all, a happy future.

And it is perfectly understood that, in these circumstances, comprehensive measures must be endeavoured.

In this future, the original families must be included.

Because the belief exists that what is bad can be improved.

Because the task to restructure family ties must be privileged.

Because families must be supported, helping them to better accomplish their parental duties.

Because the belief exists that, at times, the ties have only become fragile, not totally cut off.

Because the belief exists, after all, in the strengths of affection.

And we are here today, with our affection as well, to help that all this comes to fruition.

These special moments, and happily these are becoming more frequent, during which we meet with common objectives, lead me to believe that, after all, it is possible “to give this all a turn”, an expression which we use when, from the bottom of our hearts, we want to implement deep changes.

After what I have heard and seen here today, I have no further doubts.

With the endeavour to which I have already referred, added to the good, nay, the fantastic news just given us by the Luis Figo Foundation, with the guarantees that the Media, especially RTP, have given us that this beautiful and important moment will not be left in limbo, I depart here with great satisfaction.

When reading an interview about this project with Dr. Pedro Sottomayor some time ago, when he was still missing many thousands of euros in order not to lose the building that the Lisbon County Council had made available to the Movement in the Service of Life, there was a phrase which reminded me of Mother Theresa of Calcutta, who believed in God, but also in men. To the question if he believed that the financing for the repairs to the building would be found, the answer was:

“– Of course! I believe nothing else.”

We are all here today because we also believe, Dr. Pedro Sottomayor.

Since half the timetable has been completed, we can state that we have come more than half way.

It will be through linking our wills and through the message we knew how to pass on to those around us, so that they, as well, paint a coloured line on this rainbow, which we will stride towards an ever more Perfect World.

When, in September 2008, we all meet again at the official opening of the Blue Home, we will be happier than we are today, because we will have done what we should to bring light into these children’s lives and provided the tools for them to conquer a perfect world, each in his own way.