The wife of the President of the Government of the Azores appealed to union and solidarity as a way to combat “the growing dehumanisation of our societies in a world terribly marked by the social dynamics of individualism, competitiveness and by the pursuit of profit.”
Luísa César, who spoke in the Canadian city of Winnipeg during the 1st Gala of the Solidarity League of the Portuguese Women of Manitoba – where she was a guest of honour – stressed this tendency that has lead to “a general sense of crisis which is affecting the reality and apparently solid institutions, such as the case of family, religions, traditional companies, the environment and natural resources, and the state itself; nothing seems to last – neither peace, nor the economy, nor employment.”
Defending that all citizens of the world have the obligation to intervene, the speaker emphasised the role played by volunteer work as well as by non-governmental organisations and gave her personal testimony of the action undertaken by an institution that she chairs, the Azores Food Bank Against Hunger.
Before almost three hundred and fifty ladies, Luísa César pointed out that women are an essential tool in search of solution for the complex challenges of our time, “our sensitivity, the emotions we convey, the historical legacy of our fight for emancipation and human rights, have placed us in the forefront of the ambition to restore justice so that we may fight for those who do not have access to it.”
Concluding, Luísa César evoked as an example the purpose of the gala – fundraising for the fight against breast cancer – and praised the initiative as it also represented an alert for the prevention a disease whose early detection is fundamental for its cure.