Project Zé Luís Solidário delivered more than two thousand basic food baskets in Cape Verde

The Zé Luís Solidário project, known for developing social actions to help the most vulnerable people, has so far donated more than two thousand basic food baskets collected and delivered to Cape Verdean families in all the islands of the country.

The founder and president, whose name was attributed to the project, Zé Luís Martins, informed that in addition to the traditional basic food baskets, he has already transferred a total of 38 people for treatment in Senegal and Portugal, adding that there are currently 12 people in care. of the project.

“We have four people undergoing medical treatment in Dakar, and we have three more who are going to travel soon. We also have some undergoing tests in Cape Verde, in total there are 12 patients under our care. As for evacuations, there were 34 people for Senegal and four for treatment in Portugal”, he explained.

According to the same source, the aid is distributed with the aid and through actions of representatives of the project "who make the connection between Cape Verde and the United States" where most of the donation campaigns made by the association are centralized, noting that "if need support, they should go directly to the representatives or the official website Zé Luís Solidário”.

“People should look for project representatives, according to their needs, and one of the big problems we have is that they send requests directly to the president when there are representatives in Cape Verde. Anyone who needs support has to look for these representatives”, he warned, informing that the campaigns are carried out on the official page and applied in the diaspora.

Focused on helping the most disadvantaged families to overcome obstacles related “most of the time” with health problems, he explained that the project has made its contribution in areas such as education and housing, the latter having rehabilitated six houses and built “from scratch ” four houses on the islands of Santo Antão, Fogo and Brava.

Despite the advances, Zé Luís Martins warned that, due to the high number of requests, the project "is not able to attend to everyone", due to the "meager resources", adding that they depend on people's help, mainly emigrants.

In one day, he said, they have already received 100 requests, the majority, as expected, for general consultations, ophthalmology, Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT), which cost 10,000 escudos at Hospital Agostinho Neto (HAN).

Higher amounts for “payment of tickets” for internal evacuations, between islands, and the most requested, requests for support for travel to Senegal, from which, he stressed, they must guarantee “stay, food and consultations” for patients and family members.

“We have given our maximum, within our possibilities, a sacrifice, because it is not easy, no matter how much we help, more people show up” he lamented, praising the partners who have helped “in this sacrifice”.

“We have partners in Cape Verde and in the USA, we are collaborating with an association in France, but the biggest partner is the Nilsa Varela Foundation and the Social Solidarity Association in Brockton, which provide space to store the materials we send to the country” , he added, noting that the project, set up in 2020, is headquartered in Brockton but has correspondents on several islands in the archipelago.

“In Cape Verde, we have partners like Opticalia, in the acquisition of glasses with discount percentages, and other companies that have shown interest in working together, for example the private clinic Medicentro, installed in S. Vicente, and also doctors have been interested in in helping the association and churches, however most of the donations are from emigrants and from the Nilsa Varela Foundation”, he asserted, pointing out the exemption of the customs fee as one of the obstacles.

“Our expectation is to become an organized association, based in Cape Verde and create means for representatives and volunteers, and the main objective is the exemption of the customs fee in the name of the association, starting with the City Council, so that we have less bureaucracy”, highlighted.

Zé Luís Martins said that, although the project had done a “great job”, the Government did not recognize it, regretting the fact that it had met with other associations giving support to them and “neglected the work” of the Zé Luís Solidário project.

He also recalled that he survives through donations from third parties and that he needs to “create means to guarantee sustenance”, therefore, to “change this scenario” he appealed to the Government to “help” the association to meet the necessary conditions.