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

The book that was launched here, today, The Tiniest Warrior of All, by Nicola Maher, ends with the following sentence: “Miracles also happen”.

Had I doubted this I would have started to believe it today. For all that I have seen and experienced here I feel as though I were a very special visitor. I believe we all like to make visits. Human contact, a few hours of good conversation, getting to know about one another in an age when people live in the same building for years and don’t even call each other by name. When we visit it is to establish bridges of affection.

I hope that you will like having me here today, for I can say that I have liked coming here very much. I also think it won’t be my last visit. Many years ago when my husband was prime minister I came here with him. And we still have good recollections of the many things that were being done here. A concrete example of the work being done here so long ago is a hand-woven Arraiolos rug displaying the black and white stone pavements of Lisbon’s streets. It lies in the entrance to our house in the Algarve, my favourite spot in the whole world. This is just to say that I have never forgotten what I found here.

Now, many years later, I find much more. For no one has given up and everyone is still committed to building a better world. And such a world demands that we keep a watch over those who need our help.

Just as in the book that I have just finished, I can see many “tiny warriors” here, even though they are big, though they are day by day conquering life with the only weapon that is worth using: love. Only love can give us the strength to overcome all the obstacles.

The certainty that others care for us, that we are important to someone, can make us invincible. I have found here that everyone knows he is important, that they all feel they are able.

The League has supported people for over 50 years people who might have fallen by the wayside were it not for the work done at this house. Those able to do more help those able to do less. Together they will achieve far more than if each stood aside. And this is what solidarity is: to be together and to walk hand-in-hand. In a world that many believe dehumanised, there are many who stubbornly insist in providing it with a soul.

Today, the Association is taking yet another step along the path it has travelled during more than 50 years. Society is more aware in its acceptance of difference and in its understanding of the place that is occupied by the disabled.

However, conquest always brings new responsibilities in their wake. I now know that the dream that is under way is one of a home for the elderly who need different attention. With what they have done so far I don’t doubt they will succeed. Those that don’t give up always succeed.

I would like to take the opportunity to wish everyone a Holy Christmas. I like Christmas a lot. It is a time of year when miracles happen more often, and we are more watchful over the “tiny warriors” who need us.