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

Here we are once again hoping that our solidarity will assist the Magic Glow Worm to fly to the highest levels. .

I would first like to congratulate him – the magic little creature – because this year he had the audacity to be trendy and arrived in a purple outfit.

He didn’t have to take all that trouble to attract our attention.

After all, we have known him for many years – more than twenty – and we have a great regard for his campaign.

It is never too far to point out how much has already been achieved in the area of the needs of intellectually handicapped people. But we also have to remember a possibly not very pleasant truism: there is still much to “be done”.

And if the poet says “What remains to be done is just God’s will” we know, since our popular wisdom thus taught us, that we should have faith in the Virgin, but that we should also race to accomplish what is due from us.

The Magic Glow Worm does not really have to race, since he has flown and shone for a long time, and has become a likeable symbol that the young and the old have easily adopted.

He is part of the family, so to speak.

And throughout his already long life we have never tired of him, neither has he become tired, every single year during all those years, of appealing to our generosity to help our friends

With his nice looks and bright eyes, changing his colour but remaining as before, he calls us to back his cause with the arrival of Spring.

Many little things have been achieved with the Magic Glow Worm Campaigns.

Little things maybe, but which made a big difference to the gruelling day to day life of people whom we all have the duty to support.

I do not doubt that once again we will comply with the motto that our Magic Glow Worm chose for this year.

We are going to provide help to the many that work in the field to provide dreams with colours, because we know that such dreams can only come true due to our small donations.

This year we are celebrating the European Year of Creativity and Innovation. We all know how these special citizens of ours, with whom we must always be concerned, and not just today, are creatively rich.

Let us celebrate with them this creative and innovative spirit that makes the world go round.

I have said so every year: there is no pain attached.

It is just one more step in the building of the world which we want to leave to our children and grandchildren.