O Centro de Alojamento Temporário de Tercena é uma Instituição da Santa Casa da Misericórdia que acolhe actualmente, 58 crianças e jovens em situação de perigo, confiadas pelos Tribunais de Famílias e Menores. É uma Instiutição aberta ao relacionamento com a comunidade, procurando o seu envolvimento no projecto.
Os voluntários tem tido um papel na dignificação do espaço de forma a proporcionar a estas crinças um projecto de vida condigno, tendo em vista uma desinstitucionalização segura e autonomia bem sucedida.

O voluntariado tem constituído uma mais-valia, seja através da concretização do projecto das “ Famílias Amigas“, seja através do apoio dado por professores de ginástica, de dança ou de capoeira que têm dinamizado o espaço do ginásio (oferecido por voluntários) com diversas actividades, seja através de grupos de jovens que ao fim de tarde, aos fins-de-semana e nas férias, realizam diversas actividades de tempos livres com as crianças ou dão apoio na realização dos trabalhos de casa.

A missão d CATT nunca está completa e é sempre possível criar novas parcerias, abrir novos horizontes.

Foi nesta perspectiva que 8 voluntários disponibilizaram um dia de trabalho (24 de Fevereiro) para dar uma pequena ajuda na pintura de diversas áreas comuns e quartos do CATT.

Kitesurf na Lagoa de Albufeira no dia 21 de Fevreiro de 2010.

O racismo promove a noção da existência de raças humanas superiores a outras, valorizando as diferenças biológicas entre seres humanos de forma a justificar a escravidão e o domínio de determinados povos em relação a outros.

Eu vivi no Apartheid. Um regime de segregação racial adoptado legalmente em 1948 na África do Sul, segundo o qual os brancos detinham o poder e os restantes povos eram obrigados a viver separados dos brancos, de acordo com regras que os impediam de ser verdadeiros cicidadãos. Este regime foi finalmente abolido por Frederik e Klerk em 1990 e em 1994 realizaram-se eleições livres.

Segundo o regime do Aprtheid, os não-brancos eram excluídos do governo e não podiam votar. Aos negros (70% da população) eram proibidos diversos tipos de empregos e jamais poderiam empregar brancos. Existiam áreas (que incluíam as grandes cidades) designadas para brancos, onde era vedada a não-brancos a possibilidade de manterem negócios ou práticas profissionais. Os negros só podiam trabalhar, mediante um passe que era concedido a quem tinha trabalho aprovado. Quem trabalhasse sem esse passe estava sujeito a prisão imediata, julgamento e deportação.

Nos transportes, repartições estatais, cinemas, restaurantes, bibliotecas, piscinas, praias e restantes locais públicos, existiam áreas exclusivas para brancos. A educação e a saúde dos negros custava ao estado um décimo da dos brancos. Educação superior era impossível para a maioria dos negros.

O sexo inter-racial era proibido. Os policias negros não podiam prender brancos. Os negros não tinham autorização para comprar bebidas alcoólicas. Um negro estaria sujeito à pena de morte por violar uma branca, mas um branco que violasse uma negra recebia apenas uma multa leve. Um branco que entrasse numa loja seria atendido à frente de negros que já lá estavam, independente de qualquer outro factor.

A minha família foi obrigada a fugir para este país devido à guerra colonial em Moçambique. Eu era criança (vivi lá dos 3 aos 8 anos) e não entendia essa "coisa" do Apartheid. Fui obrigado a aprender a falar a língua Africâner numa escola de brancos. O contacto com os negros era algo a evitar, por medo das consequências que isso traria para eles. Lembro-me dos negros serem sempre tarados duma forma humana, justa e igual lá em casa. A situação mudava quando se ia para os espaços públicos, pois passava a existir uma "farsa" simulada. Aqueles negros com quem dividíamos diariamente a comida, vivíamos e brincávamos com os filhos … tinham de ser tratados como "seres" de condição inferior.

A realidade diária era totalmente diferente, mas publicamente esta era a única mensagem possível de transmitir! A segregação racial era de tal forma imposta, que bastava a denuncia dum vizinho ou alerta anónimo à policia contra um negro, para lhe ser retirada a permissão de trabalho e dar direito a prisão.

O sonho de Nelson Mandela para uma África do Sul próspera e reconciliada com o passado está longe de se tornar real. De qualquer forma valeu muito a pena a longa luta dos sul-africanos de todas as raças por um país livre da discriminação e da exploração baseada na cor da pele!

When I seem to get lost, I come back to where I need to be and read these quotes. Thank you Mr. Bach for assurances throughtout my life. Your books have been timely... every time.


"We're not dust...WE'RE MAGIC."

"There is no such place as far away."

"Coincidence - the humour of the Universe."

"Ah mortals. They love to forget."

"Can miles truly separate you from friends? If you want to be with someone you love, aren't you already there?"

"Don't be dismayed by good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends. "

"Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time."

"Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you."

"A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we’re pretending to be. Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we’re safe in our own paradise. Our soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction. When we’re two balloons, and together our direction is up, chances are we’ve found the right person. Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life."

"We're the bridge across forever, arching above the sea, adventuring for our pleasure, living mysteries for the fun of it, choosing disasters triumphs challenges impossible odds, testing ourselves over and again, learning love and love and LOVE!"

"In order to live free and happily, you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy sacrifice."

"People who love the same things are never strangers even if they have never met."

"That which for the caterpillar is the end of the world, for the Master is a butterfly."

"Don't believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you'll see the way to fly."

"Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of the fake messiah."

"When you have come to the edge of all the light you have, and step into the darkness of the unknown. Believe that one of the two will happen to you. Either you'll find something solid to stand on or you'll be taught how to fly!"

"Anger is always fear; and fear is always fear of loss."

"Overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now. And in the middle of Here and Now, don´t you think that we might see each other once or twice?"

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however."

"I cannot tell you any spiritual truth that deep within you don't know already. All I can do is remind you of what you have forgotten."

"All the things that truly matter — beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace — arise from beyond the mind."

"All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness."

"Emotion arises at the place where mind and body meet. It is the body's reaction to your mind — or you might say, a reflection of your mind in the body."

"Love, joy, and peace cannot flourish until you have freed yourself from mind dominance."

"Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within."

"Pain is inevitable as long as you are identified with your mind."

"Nobody’s life is entirely free of pain and sorrow. Isn’t it a question of learning to live with them rather than trying to avoid them?"

"The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life."

"The pain that you create now is always some form of non acceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is. On the level of thought, the resistance is some form of judgment. On the emotional level, it is some form of negativity. The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to the present moment, and this in turn depends on how strongly you are identified with your mind."

"Where there is anger, there is always pain underneath"

"The psychological condition of fear is divorced from any concrete and true immediate danger. It comes in many forms: unease, worry, anxiety, nervousness, tension, dread, phobia, and so on. This kind of psychological fear is always of something that might happen, not of something that is happening now."

"An emotion is the body's reaction to your mind."

"Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. True power if within, and it is available to you now."

"The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you."

"Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to die before you die — and find that there is no death."

"Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be."

"Nothing ever happened in the past; it happened in the Now. Nothing will ever happen in the future; it will happen in the Now."

"The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future — which, of course, can only be experienced as the Now."

"Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry — all forms of fear — are cause by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of non forgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence."

"To be free of time is to be free of the psychological need of past for your identity and future for your fulfillment."

"Be at least as interested in what goes on inside you as what happens outside. If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place."

"Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally."

"You cannot find yourself by going into the past. You can find yourself by coming into the present."

"Words in themselves are not important. They are not the Truth; they only point to it."

"Don't get stuck on the level of words. A word is no more than a means to an end. It's an abstraction. Not unlike a signpost, it points beyond itself."

"At the deepest level of Being, you are one with all that is."

"The ultimate purpose of the world lies not within the world but in the transcendence of the world."

"Relationships do not cause pain and unhappiness. They bring out the pain and unhappiness that is already in you."

"As far as inner transformation is concerned, there is nothing you can do about it. You cannot transform yourself, and you certainly cannot transform anybody else. All you can do is create a space for transformation to happen, for grace and love to enter."


Thank you Mr. Bach!

Hoje li um parágrafo, escrito pelo escritor Paulo Coelho e fiquei a pensar como é que eu navego na minha "nave" espacial?

"Using navigation as an example, we can divide people in "Compass" and "Radar". "Compass" is a person who is always heading towards the direction he/she elected, even if sometimes life is hard. "Radar" is a person who is always sending signs and checking for feedback, before deciding where to go. Let's choose and... move forward, instead of reflecting the wishes of others".

Cheguei à conclusão que a minha "nave" é navegada recorrendo ao sistema VFR (Visual flight rules)!