To mark National Day of Volunteer Service, the diocese of Faro (Algarve) has inaugurated the portal www.solidus.pt, with the aim of improving relations and links between the national institutions and those who wish to dedicate themselves to volunteer service. “We have tried to create a central coordination to which everyone can have recourse, knowing they will be able to find on it all the useful information they need – said project coordinator José António Cruz – but at the same time our aim has been to give emphasis to and help stimulate the culture of solidarity”. “The main objective is to reach out to and help as many people as possible, in other words help form a human network optimised by the website: the portal will compile a database of institutions, and post invitations for volunteer service and requests for assistance that will facilitate reciprocity between demand and supply in a rapid, effective and concrete way”, said Monsignor Manuel Quintas, in expressing the hope that the ambitious project would be rapidly extended to all the dioceses of Portugal. He also recalled that “the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference, already in 2001, had published a pastoral letter called Volunteer Service: open door for the humanization of society”. “Volunteer service, suitably organized – maintained the bishop of the Algarve – is a hidden resource capable of assuming a really impressive force if it is able to direct the skills and specializations of each person to the common objective of gratuitous service”.
