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We are meeting here today for the laying of the corner stone for “Caçula” (Youngest).

But corner stones are no longer what they were.

When we went to a corner stone laying ceremony we were faced with a stone, or a brick.

In short, something solid, concrete.

The stone was laid with mortar or cement and we felt that it was the real beginning of a building which, on that exact moment we could imagine with the help of the architectural plans.

The corner stones are now very “high-tech”, to use an expression that I heard given last week to such a sophisticated corner stone that I even asked myself if, for the first time in my life, I would be laying a virtual stone.

It wasn’t quite that, but very nearly so.

In the case of the Swatch Social Responsibility projects this story of the corner stone is just a friendly pretext for us to get together during an afternoon’s gathering and express a few encouraging words for those who are working on the job.

The nucleus of all the Swatch projects is a house. A house for a School in East Timor, a house for babies in “Ajuda de Berço” (Cradle Help), a house to accommodate sick children in Gil’s Home, a house to accommodate children at risk in “Casa das Cores” (House of Colours). Why? Maybe because every human being feels that his house is his first world, where he is built up as a person and from where he wants to depart to build his life.

A project starts out with a dream, later a search is held for a half ruined house that could be adjusted to the dream. As such, when we start, there are many stones already laying around. Laid about, completely disorganized, but many, so many indeed that, instead of helping, they confuse. They have to be correctly laid out, carefully supported and then told, for encouragement “Let us all work together to turn you into a beautiful house”.

And the stones, the first and the last, when well laid out end up as a house.

And that is what we are all doing here, today, once more, on behalf of one more beautiful and necessary cause. Another Swatch house. Another four walls and a ceiling to make up a cosy shelter.

In this house, the “ruin”, allow me to use this traditional expression, is already well on its way to achieve its refurbishment, and our meeting is just to check, on site, how the work is getting on.

“Caçula” is already on the way to its destination: to become a welcoming harbour for the children and youths that ask us to shelter them from a world that persists in treating so badly those who never meant it any harm.

Portugal, through all these partners who have gathered together for this objective to be achieved, is fulfilling, in the 21st century, the vocation to which it was born many centuries ago and to which it has given body and soul, better or worse, throughout the ages.

A country open to the sea and the world, inventor of the first global village, Portugal wants to be a welcoming refuge.

The “Caçula” House will be a small spot of departure for the welcoming refuge we want to provide to the young people that need our help to find their place in the world in peace.

The refugee is always someone who is deeply unprotected and, unfortunately, our very civilized times are an age of many unprotected people due to so many differing reasons: natural catastrophes, wars, climate change, inhuman policies.

When very young one has less defences and everything seems more and more difficult, and abandonment is very hard to stand.

Numbers are difficult to establish with any certainty, but there are more refugees than ever in the world, and the very young are also increasing.

The “Caçula” House is a first step in the right path to provide help for these youngsters that lack support. A small step but taken with the certainty that we are on the right course and that the example could be very fruitful.

Since the Swatch projects are punctually completed, we can already set the date for a next meeting to celebrate the opening of “Caçula”.

There and then we will have a party. You are all invited and, as Zeca Afonso sang, bring along a friend.