"When we fix it ourselves, we value it more"

Community

Paintbrushes in the air, buckets of paint scattered across the floor and a hundred people hard at work at the Quinta do Cabrinha Children’s Playground and Sports Centre in Alcântara. The initiative, organised by the Galp Foundation, brought together 120 volunteers – including employees, partners and local associations – to restore a children’s play area that had recently been vandalised and to provide better facilities for the neighbourhood’s children.

The day before, the initiative had taken place in Marinha Grande, in an environmental protection project that brought together over 70 participants. In Alcântara, the number almost doubled. In total, over the last two weeks, the Galp Foundation has mobilised around 600 volunteers.

Here in Alcântara, whilst some volunteers painted walls and replaced the paving, others carried out minor repairs and restored the flowerbeds scattered throughout the park. “We really wanted an open space where we felt we were looking after our neighbourhood,” explains Sandra Aparício, Executive Director of the Galp Foundation.

Valuing the neighbourhood

Sara Correia swapped the stage for paintbrushes and helped paint one of the walls at the Quinta do Cabrinha nursery. Amidst improvised flowers and drawings created on the spot, the fado singer – who says she is proud of her neighbourhood roots – joined the volunteer initiative to leave a message for the little ones.

“I think young people are too attached to the internet. If I can spark even a little bit of that empathy for neighbourhoods and people, it’s already worth it,” she says. For the artist, taking part in the regeneration of these spaces also changes the way we view them: “When we fix it ourselves, we value it more.”

Restoring a space for children

The choice of the Quinta do Cabrinha nursery was no accident. The Galp Foundation works closely with the Alcântara Parish Council to identify local needs, and when the playground was vandalised around three weeks earlier, the choice became obvious.

For the Parish Council, the proposal presented an unusual logistical challenge. “It’s not easy to find places where you can have more than 100 people working at the same time,” says Mauro Santos, chairman of the Alcântara Parish Council.

The Quinta do Cabrinha playground and sports centre offered the ideal conditions: it was spacious, there was plenty of work for so many hands, and there was a real need. “It was in a very poor state; it needed painting, and some of the equipment that posed safety risks, as well as the flooring itself, needed replacing,” explains Mauro Santos.

The situation had reached the point where some of the equipment had been closed off as a precaution. The children continued to visit the park, but could not use everything. “We will end up with a park that can be used to its full potential and that will not pose any kind of risk,” says the parish council chairman.

Rolling up one's sleeves

Inês Barbosa, 44, works in Galp’s Brand Experience department and regularly takes part in the Foundation’s volunteering initiatives. She has read stories to children in schools, helped to renovate spaces in the Ajuda neighbourhood, and has now joined the initiative in Alcântara.

The proximity to the community was a key factor in her decision. “We’re talking about the Alcântara community, which is very close to us and which we hear about every day in the corridors,” she explains. For Inês, volunteering is also a way of building connections between colleagues and strengthening team spirit. “It’s a bit like team building,” she sums up. “We end up getting to know colleagues we don’t work with on a daily basis and seeing the other side of people, which is also very important.”

Volunteering that opens up to the community

Among the volunteers were Galp employees, partners and local associations. In Alcântara, one of the organisations present was the Associação Vida Autónoma (AVA), which supports people who are homeless or in the process of becoming independent. Some of the service users took part in the park’s restoration work, side by side with the other volunteers.

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Catarina Santos, an intern at AVA, accompanied the group throughout the day and explains that this type of initiative ultimately has an impact far beyond the work carried out on the ground. “It’s a real asset. It’s a chance to socialise, but also to actively participate in a space that is part of their daily lives and which they use regularly,” she says.

She also highlights the importance of these experiences in strengthening the participants’ independence, confidence and social relationships. “It’s also important because it gives them the chance to spend time with people they wouldn’t normally meet, but above all because it makes them feel useful and realise that they can do things for themselves,” she adds.

Everyone counts

Maria Madalena Alves is 56 years old, a pensioner, and lives in one of the homes run by the Associação Vida Autónoma in Alcântara. She agreed to take part in the Galp Foundation’s volunteering initiative after being invited by the association.

She knows the area well and says that the park serves as a meeting place for many local residents. “People come here to chat, sit on the benches and socialise,” she says. “I see this often when I come to Quinta do Cabrinha to practise Tai Chi.”

Four initiatives to strengthen local impact

The initiative in Alcântara forms part of a series of four volunteering initiatives open to the community, promoted by the Galp Foundation as part of a wider programme that also included a conference dedicated to the impact of volunteering. The series brings together areas affected by Storm Kristin, where the Foundation is carrying out projects to restore and strengthen resilience, and communities where Galp maintains a continuous presence.

The first event took place in Marinha Grande, at Vieira de Leiria Beach, and brought together 74 volunteers, with the support of the Red Cross, the Marinha Grande Parish Council and young migrants and refugees from the Lisbon Humanitarian Centre. After Alcântara, the programme moved on to Leiria, for an initiative in the National Forest which attracted 200 registrations, before concluding in Sines with the restoration of the Municipal Stadium.

Energy to help

Luís Carvalho is 62 years old, worked at Galp for 42 years and has been retired for two. Full of enthusiasm, he has been taking part in the company’s volunteering initiatives for many years because, as he says, “I really enjoy helping people and communities”.

In Alcântara, he joined the “pink team”, responsible for painting the changing rooms. “We’re giving it our all,” he says, proudly. His enthusiasm is such that he has already been invited to the next event in Leiria, but he is still trying to work out whether he can fit it in with the Tax Authority’s choir rehearsals. “If they guarantee I’ll be back in Lisbon by 6 pm, I can do both,” he jokes.

Volunteering as part of the Galp Foundation’s culture

These initiatives reflect an ongoing strategy of the Galp Foundation. Every year, more than 2,000 company volunteers take part in projects carried out with partner organisations in different communities. In Alcântara, for example, there are teams that regularly collaborate with the Food Bank and others involved in projects to restore spaces throughout the year.

“We promote our values and our culture through volunteering,” says Sandra Aparício. “It is a way for us to get closer to people and understand what really matters to them and to the areas where we operate.” According to her, volunteering is part of the Foundation’s social impact strategy and helps to forge a closer link with the work carried out by partner organisations in each community.

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