Loures. Dozens of volunteers and technicians clean up the neighborhood

Dozens of civil society volunteers and technicians from various public services began a clean-up operation this Saturday morning in the Talude Militar neighborhood , where rubble replaced 55 precarious homes demolished this week by the Loures municipality.

There are too few hands for all that needs to be done, but fifty volunteers responded to the call made by the Vida Justa movement to go to Talude Militar and help clean up the debris left by the demolition.

The “action of solidarity,” the “act of brotherhood,” intended to “give a little of the dignity that was taken away [from the neighborhood’s residents]” and, at the same time, “try to keep the area clean, remove what the community no longer wants and (…) also help to organize the belongings of the people who were left here to fend for themselves,” explains José Pina, a volunteer at Vida Justa.

One group is responsible for collecting the trash, another for separating the undamaged materials, namely zinc sheets and wooden strips, which can be reused.

Under a beach umbrella, a team manages the food donations received and provides meals to the dozens of men, women, children, and babies who remain on the Military Slope, spending the night in tents erected in the places where they once called home.

The Loures municipality began on Monday an operation to demolish 64 precarious homes, where 161 people live.

In two days, 55 were demolished, before operations were suspended by order of a Lisbon court, following an injunction filed by 14 residents.

The residents of Talude are receiving a lot of help, says Carla Santos, a resident of the parish and one of the coordinators of food and water distribution, noting that what is most needed at this stage are ready-to-eat meals, because there are no cooking facilities on the land.

At the nearby recreation center, residents can store any belongings they want to keep and have access to changing rooms so they can shower at the end of the day, which is essential for being able to go to work the next day.

“Most of them work (…), there are even people who work in companies that provide services to the City Council, (…) people who work in companies like Carris Metropolitana, (…) people who work in homes that care for our elderly”, describes Kedy Santos, municipal deputy for the CDU in Loures who volunteered to help with the cleaning.

"These people are not here by favor, they are not here almost waiting for a subsidy. (...) If there are two people here who depend on subsidies, it's a miracle, they don't even have the capacity to resort to it," he emphasizes.

"We have many children in the school system, and the truth is that we're on break, and parents have to work," adds Carla Santos, noting that local associations are offering activities for the children.

Civil society was joined by “around 40” technicians, in a joint operation by SIMAR (municipal services of Loures and Odivelas) and the Municipal Council of Loures, which was joined by the parish councils of Santo António dos Cavaleiros and Camarate, Unhos and Apelação.

The operations are using a backhoe, three crane trucks and three others without cranes, and a 20 cubic meter waste container, two SIMAR technicians on the ground explained to Lusa, adding that they separate materials and waste.

Stressing that they were “well received” by the population, they consider that the operation is “quite difficult”, risking that it could take “ two days of work , if it goes well and with all the resources available”.

“But so far it’s going very well,” one of them said, adding that the technicians were only “mobilized yesterday [Friday] night,” after Vida Justa had scheduled the voluntary cleanup action.

Kedy Santos believes that the technicians sent to the neighborhood have shown "empathy" towards the situation and emphasizes that residents and activists have always wanted to talk to find a solution.

"We've already agreed with them that they'll be the ones to remove the trash," he adds, thanking the municipal employees who, "in a very arduous way," are collaborating in the cleanup operations.

“There was no need for us all to be here, almost like crazy people, doing this work (…), if the demolition was done in a controlled, appropriate way, not in an almost arrogant and disproportionate way”, he criticizes.

On the other hand, there is “no information from the Government”, which remains “silent, in the valleys of misfortune”, he laments.

For the municipal deputy, “we all have a responsibility, not just the municipality,” which he continues to criticize for not offering “adjusted solutions.”

Some “candidates for deputies, for mayor”, “lied (…) when they said they spoke to people”, he points out, criticizing “some who didn’t even get close to these people, who think they don’t exist”.

They are “unknown gifts,” describes Carla Santos, “born and raised” in the area and who began supporting Talude Militar in the 1990s.

"Even considering the path we have to take, only those who live here, only those who have friends here, know the place, the territory, otherwise people pass through the parish and don't even know it exists," the anthropologist points out.

"Structural problems are solved with structural solutions, and there are many social problems here, not just housing. There are many other issues inherent here that require solutions, and we're mixing them all up," he warns.

"In Portugal, what we do is collective care in social intervention," he laments, calling for "political will" and the intervention of "robust" social organizations.