Society

The University of Porto and Santander Universidades will provide an early celebration of International Volunteering Day, on 4th December. This day, as recognised by the United Nations since 1985, is celebrated on 5th December; however, the UP will observe this day tomorrow morning with a webinar scheduled for 11am, with the presentation of the four winning projects of the Santander UNI-Covid19 Prize.

The Clérigos Tower and Museum will close to public access till 31st January as improvement works get underway. In 2021, the landmark monument in Porto will be restored to the city in all its splendour and with new contents to discover.

Porto City Hall will hand out 150 thousand discount vouchers to the city traders to compensate them for the pandemic distress. As such, for each 20 euros spent in street trading, traditional trade and local trade, customers will be granted a 2-euro direct rebate.

Applications for the Concurso Montras de Natal 2020 [Xmas Windows Contest 2020] have been extended till today, 2nd December. The closing day was 30th November, however, owing to the grant of day-off by the Government, the Municipality of Porto extended applications deadline for today, 2nd December.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the President of the Regional Government of Galicia stated that “Porto has taught us a lesson in cosmopolitanism, openness, internationalisation, culture and tourism and for that it is the most relevant of the euroregion”. This statement was proffered on 27th November, the day Braga launched its application for Braga 2027 - European Capital of Culture.

Although in a different year, celebrating Xmas is more important than ever, and even if there will be no Xmas tree standing in the Avenida dos Aliados this year, there will be plenty of light in the streets to celebrate the jolly season, as this is “the season to be merry!”. In addition, Porto City Hall, via Ágora created the “Adventário”, a project targeted at the younger audiences and whose goal is to celebrate Xmas, this time in the digital platforms.

The Townsman Office (Gabinete do Munícipe) offers the Intercultural and Municipal Mediation service, which is available upon prior appointment. The Municipality of Porto had already launched the project that involves the implementation of intercultural assistance within the city, with four intercultural mediators, in 2019; thus, three mediators work with the Roma community, and one mediator offers assistance to migrant communities.

This year, the usual collection of food is not possible, owing to the sanitary context; as such, the campaign “Partilhar o Natal” [“Sharing Xmas”, free translation] is aimed at making up for that and advocates for companies and people to donate food and other items.

The Ó! Galeria joins Porto Planetarium to present a collective exhibition themed ‘Cosmos: Uma Nova Odisseia Ilustrada’ [“Cosmos: A New Illustrated Odyssey”, free translation], based in the iconic TV series by Carl Sagan. The exhibit is already available online at Porto Planetarium website.

Porto features the highest proficiency in English at national level, for the second year running, according to an EF- Education First study that discloses Porto not only as the best English speaking city in the country but also the 9th best in the world. The EF English Proficiency Index 2020 Report analysed data from 2.2 million non-native speakers of the English language, in 100 countries and regions.