Porto wants to be a protective home for all people

Gypsies, migrants, Catholics, Muslims, the homeless, the intellectually disabled, more or less vulnerable. All from Porto, whether from birth or through belonging. At Inclusion Week, everyone's home - the City Hall - welcomes them to make sure they are part of the city of tolerance.

'It's very important that you feel that the city is yours', emphasised the councillor for Social Cohesion at the reception on Tuesday morning for the first group visiting the Porto City Hall (there will be another visit this Wednesday). It was the first time they had been there and heard the stories that have shaped the city where they live.

Fernando Paulo shared the message that 'we have to awaken the need to be more inclusive and protective of each other in the community. Make room for participation so that everyone can be an active part of building the city and is a citizen with full rights'.

The councillor recalls that 'Porto is a city of encounters', where more than 23,000 migrants are registered, and that it's already participating in the drafting of a charter of religions, for example.

Although 'we've tried to make everyone feel at home in the city and that they have a role', Fernando Paulo assumes that more can always be done for inclusion: 'The law is further ahead than our mentalities', he says.

'Showing openness and tolerance allows for the acceptance of diversity and, as a result, inclusion', says the head of Social Cohesion, ending with the message that in the 'capital of freedom, of democracy', it is important that the whole community contributes to the feeling of belonging, to the protection of the most vulnerable and excluded.

'We all want the same thing: to be happy', he concluded, with words that echoed equally in every smile.