The president of the Portuguese Red Cross (CVP) has announced the launch of the #APortaAoLado social awareness movement. This initiative follows an evaluation by the organization, which utilized the latest statistical data from 2023 indicating approximately 500,000 elderly individuals living alone in Portugal.
António Saraiva highlighted that Portugal holds the highest percentage of elderly population within the European Union and ranks fourth globally. He emphasized that these figures should be a societal concern.
“In 2024 alone, our teleassistance center received nearly 33,000 calls, 57% of which aimed to alleviate social isolation and provide companionship, to hear a voice,” he disclosed.
The CVP proactively made 145,000 calls to check on the well-being of these individuals, as requests for assistance from the Red Cross rose by 126% over the past two years.
“These are alarming statistics,” Saraiva asserted, “as the demand for essential goods in 2024 has increased by 62%, and support for the homeless between 2022 and 2023 has surged by 80%.”
Saraiva explained that these statistical indicators are the catalyst behind launching the #APortaAoLado movement.
“This is a national initiative involving the distribution of around one million messages in mailboxes, posing the central campaign question, ‘How many neighbors do you know by name?’ to raise social consciousness and community closeness,” he elaborated, noting how often “the neighbor from the second floor doesn’t know the one from the first floor or has no neighborly relationship.”
The initiative, according to Saraiva, is “primarily an invitation to rethink community cohesion, empathy, the role each individual plays in reconstructing the social fabric,” with the Red Cross intending to position itself as a medium to foster “empathy and action in a society and time civilizationally marked by exclusion often hidden behind closed doors.”
Saraiva stressed that “the emergency is real,” citing the figures as evidence, and called for societal sharing, social consciousness, and the need for people to move away from living in “social ghettos.”
He also pointed out that besides the approximately 500,000 elderly living alone, there may be hidden realities behind closed doors, such as poverty, mental illness, or other issues that require attention and assistance.
For the CVP president, he hopes the messages placed in mailboxes will prompt individuals to realize that “the neighbor might be living in hidden poverty,” encouraging people to knock on doors, learn names, and discern what they might do within their neighborhoods to help.
António Saraiva shared that the CVP’s 147 chapters, located across mainland Portugal, Madeira, and the Azores, have already received the pamphlets, with distribution by volunteers expected to be completed within two weeks.
