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Mostrar mensagens com a etiqueta Fundação. Mostrar todas as mensagens
Mostrar mensagens com a etiqueta Fundação. Mostrar todas as mensagens

quarta-feira, julho 20, 2011

Entrevista de Mário Crespo sobre a Fundação

Entrevista de Mário Crespo ao Eng. Aristides de Sousa Mendes (neto),
Presidente do Conselho Geral da Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes

"A casa que pertenceu ao cônsul português Aristides de Sousa Mendes em Cabanas de Viriato (concelho de Carregal do Sal, Viseu) tem de ser recuperada para evitar a ruína, devido ao seu avançado estado de degradação. A Câmara e a fundação não se entendem e a obra está parada."


sexta-feira, março 04, 2011

Casa do Passal classificada como Monumento Nacional

O Conselho de Ministros aprovou a 3-Março-2011 um decreto que nomeia oito Monumentos como Nacionais.

A Casa do Passal, residência onde o diplomata Aristides de Sousa Mendes em Cabanas de Viriato, Carregal do Sal, onde ele viveu e onde recebeu dezenas de refugiados da II Guerra Mundial, também faz parte da lista de monumentos agora classificados como nacional.


O Conselho de Ministros teve em consideração «o valor científico, patrimonial e cultural de cada um dos bens agora classificados», assim como a autenticidade, originalidade, raridade, singularidade e exemplaridade, tendo escolhido os que se destacaram pelo «excepcional interesse nacional».
A Casa do Passal é um sitio de excepcional interesse local, nacional, mas também internacional.
A Casa do Passal é propriedade da Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes desde 2001.


Excerto do comunicado do Conselho de Ministros:


Aprovado o "8. Decreto que procede à classificação como monumentos nacionais da Casa do Passal, dos Concheiros de Muge, da Igreja do Carmo, do Terreiro da Batalha do Ameixial, do antigo Convento dos Eremitas de São Paulo da Serra de Ossa ou de Jesus Cristo, incluindo a cerca, do Sistema de Abastecimento de Águas à cidade de Braga no Século XVIII, designado por Sete Fontes, da Casa de Chá da Boa Nova e das Piscinas de Marés de Leça da Palmeira
Este Decreto procede à classificação como monumentos nacionais de um conjunto de imóveis que se revestem de excepcional interesse nacional.
O valor científico, patrimonial e cultural de cada um dos bens agora classificados, aliado aos critérios de autenticidade, originalidade, raridade, singularidade e exemplaridade, revelados pelo modo como foram apropriados pelos cidadãos e na relevância simbólica que adquiriram, como lugares das artes e da memória histórica e política, justificam que sejam classificados como monumentos nacionais, os seguintes imóveis:
  • Casa do Passal;
  • Concheiros de Muge;
  • Igreja do Carmo;
  • Terreiro da Batalha do Ameixial;
  • Antigo Convento dos Eremitas de São Paulo da Serra de Ossa ou de Jesus Cristo incluindo a cerca;
  • Sistema de Abastecimento de Águas à cidade de Braga no Século XVIII, designado por Sete Fontes;
  • Casa de Chá da Boa Nova; e
  • Piscinas de Marés de Leça da Palmeira.

terça-feira, dezembro 14, 2010

Boas praticas de governação de fundações

O Código de Boas Praticas do Centro Português de Fundações apontam a melhor forma de gerir uma Fundação de interesse público, aplicando os principios básicos de dedicação ao bem comum, transparência e responsabilização.

Ver o resumo ao lado, com tradução para inglês, e o obter o texto completo aqui.

Tal como na governação de organizações, também há "boas praticas de governação na gestão de projectos", que são especialmente importantes em projectos complexos, de grande dimensão e visibilidade internacional.

As boas praticas de gestão de projectos passam pela Gestão Estruturada de Projectos, incluindo conceitos fundamentais de planeamento e controlo tais como a definição precisa do âmbito, objectivos desejados, tempo e calendarização, organização da Equipa de Projecto e comunicação com as Partes Interessadas, qualidade, mobilização de recursos humanos, materiais e financeiros, e controlo de custos e riscos, avaliação de resultados...

sexta-feira, dezembro 10, 2010

Transição nos orgãos sociais da Fundação ASM

Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Portugal

Conselho Geral

Comunicado

A 19 de Outubro de 2010, realizou-se em Lisboa uma reunião do Conselho Geral da Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes presidida pelo Eng.º Aristides Manuel de Alpoim de Sousa Mendes (neto), eleito para esse cargo pela Família Sousa Mendes, de acordo com os Estatutos da Fundação.

Aristides Sousa Mendes substitui como Presidente do Conselho Geral o seu tio Pedro Nuno de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches, filho de Aristides e de Angelina de Sousa Mendes, que faleceu em Junho 2005.

Nos termos do ponto 2 do art. 17º dos Estatutos da Fundação, o Presidente do Conselho Geral designou Mariana Abrantes de Sousa como Presidente do Conselho de Administração da Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes, com efeitos imediatos.   

A missão da Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes, criada em 2000, é honrar e divulgar a figura e o Acto de Consciência de Aristides de Sousa Mendes, o que passa também por recuperar a Casa do Passal, em Cabanas de Viriato, Carregal do Sal, e criar nela um centro museológico dedicado à causa da tolerância e dos direitos humanos.

A Casa do Passal está agora em situação de ruina iminente pelo que a primeira prioridade é angariar fundos para financiar uma cobertura provisória, que permita posteriormente proceder à recuperação do imóvel e à criação do museu. 

A Fundação conta com os apoios dos muitos amigos de Aristides de Sousa Mendes para a realização deste projecto importante.

Lisboa, 25 de Outubro de 2010 

Aristides Sousa Mendes

Presidente do Conselho Geral da Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes

Contacto (Contacts): 

Aristides Sousa Mendes, Presidente  do Conselho Geral (President of the General Council) 

Algés ,  Portugal

 Mariana Abrantes de Sousa, Presidente do Conselho de Administration (President of the Board) 

Beijós e Algés, Portugal

http://fundacaoasm.planetaclix.pt/,

Contacto:  fundasm.pt@gmail.com

 

English version

 

Fundation Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Portugal

General Council

Press Release

A meeting of the General Council of the Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes (Foundation ASM) took place on October 19th, 2010, in Lisbon, presided by  Engº Aristides Manuel de Alpoim de Sousa Mendes (grandson),  who was elected to this position by the Sousa Mendes Family, in accordance with the By-Laws of the Foundation ASM.

Aristides Sousa Mendes replaces, in the position of President of the General Council, his uncle    Pedro Nuno de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches.  He was the son of Aristides and Angelina de Sousa Mendes and died in 2005.

In accordance with article 17 of the Foundation By-Laws, the President of the General Council has designated    Mariana Abrantes de Sousa as President of the Board of Directors of the Foundation Aristides de Sousa Mendes, effective immediately.   

The mission of the Foundation ASM, which was created in 2000, is to honor and to disseminate the figure and the Act of Conscience of Aristides de Sousa Mendes.  This also includes the recovery of the family home of  Casa do Passal, in Cabanas de Viriato,  Carregal do Sal, to house  a museum and study center dedicated to the cause of tolerance and human rights.  

The  Casa do Passal mansion is currently in a state  of imminent collapse, so the first priority is to raise the funds  needed to finance a provisional roof cover, and then to proceed with the recovery of the building and the creation and installation of the museum.  

The Foundation ASM counts on the support of the many friends of Aristides de Sousa Mendes in order to carry out this important project.

Lisbon, 25-October-2010 

Aristides Sousa Mendes

President of the General Council of the  Foundation Aristides de Sousa Mendes

 

quarta-feira, novembro 10, 2010

Intervenção na Casa do Passal

Património

Casa de Aristides de Sousa Mendes vai ter obras para não ruir

09.11.2010 - 16:59 Por Lusa

Público:  A Casa do Passal, em Cabanas de Viriato, onde o cônsul Aristides de Sousa Mendes viveu e recebeu dezenas de refugiados, vai nas próximas semanas começar a ser alvo de uma intervenção que a impeça de ruir.

Luís Fidalgo, administrador da Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes, avançou hoje à agência Lusa que o Instituto de Gestão do Património Arquitectónico e Arqueológico (Igespar) já deu autorização para que seja feita “a intervenção de suspensão e de preservação” do edifício. A casa encontra-se em risco de ruir e os buracos cada vez maiores no telhado e nas paredes tornam difícil perceber como seria nos seus tempos áureos.

“Será colocada uma cobertura autoportante para preservar o edifício das chuvas e serão cintadas as paredes, para evitar que caiam”, explicou. O processo já deu entrada na Câmara Municipal de Carregal do Sal “e deverá ser despachado em poucos dias, podendo as obras começar de imediato”, disse o também vice-presidente da autarquia.

Segundo Luís Fidalgo, esta intervenção será “quase inteiramente feita por um mecenas”. A Casa do Passal foi classificada Monumento Nacional em 2005 o que, segundo Luís Fidalgo, obrigou a esperar pela autorização do Igespar para a realizar.

No entanto, a Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes não tem conseguido ter os benefícios fiscais decorrentes desta classificação, pagando anualmente cerca de 400 euros de Imposto Municipal sobre Imóveis (IMI). “Fui às Finanças pedir isenção, mas disseram-me que não a podiam dar, porque apesar de a casa ser sido classificada como Monumento Nacional, com despacho homologado, a verdade é que não houve publicação em Diário da República”, contou.

Luís Fidalgo disse temer que, “atendendo à intenção do Governo de alterar o reconhecimento dos monumentos nacionais”, a Casa do Passal possa ainda vir a perder essa classificação. Recentemente, após uma visita à Casa do Passal no âmbito das jornadas parlamentares realizadas em Viseu, deputadas do Bloco de Esquerda questionaram o Ministério da Cultura se a publicação em Diário da República será feita “antes de 31 de Dezembro, de modo a prevenir a caducidade do processo e consequente perda de protecção legal”.

Depois de vários bloqueios no que respeita ao projecto de requalificação da Casa do Passal da responsabilidade do Ministério da Cultura, a Fundação não pretende ficar de braços cruzados. “Estamos a articular no sentido de avançar com um projeto fora desse âmbito. Já há duas ou três possibilidades”, referiu Luís Fidalgo. 

Era na casa de Cabanas de Viriato que o cônsul - que em Bordéus (França) salvou milhares de refugiados do Holocausto - costumava passar férias na companhia dos 14 filhos e da primeira esposa, Angelina, tendo aí também vivido alguns anos antes da sua morte com a segunda mulher, a francesa Andrée Cibial.

____


TSF: A família do antigo cônsul português Aristides de Sousa Mendes, que salvou milhares de pessoas do Holocausto, quer perpetuar a sua memória através de uma casa-museu em Cabanas de Viriato, no concelho de Carregal do Sal. Contudo, a falta de dinheiro está a ameaçar este projecto.
A repórter Sónia Santos Silva falou com o neto do antigo cônsul Aristides de Sousa Mendes sobre as dificuldades da família em concretizar este projecto, (ouvir audio

No dia em que o Parlamento Europeu assinala o Dia Internacional Contra o Anti-semitismo, a TSF recorda um nome incontornável na História de Portugal: Aristides de Sousa Mendes.

A família do antigo cônsul português decidiu perpetuar a sua memória através de uma casa-museu na aldeia de Cabanas de Viriato, onde viveu Aristides de Sousa Mendes.

A casa foi comprada em 2001 com a ajuda do Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros.

Uma empresa de construção civil de Lisboa também já ofereceu obras de recuperação do edifício, mas ainda falta dinheiro para terminar este projecto.

Na casa-museu, a família quer expor todo o tipo de testemunhos (documentos, fotografias, etc.) de um homem que salvou milhares de pessoas do Holocausto.

Fontes:  http://www.publico.pt/Cultura/casa-de-aristides-de-sousa-mendes-vai-ter-obras-para-nao-ruir_1465147

http://tsf.sapo.pt/PaginaInicial/Vida/Interior.aspx?content_id=1706485  

domingo, outubro 17, 2010

Sousa Mendes saved more lives than Schindler so why isn't he a household name too?


With the Nazi invasion of France came an order from Portugal that no Jews or dissidents be granted passage. But one man stood tall against the decree – and in issuing visas for 30,000 people, Aristides de Sousa Mendes was to risk everything. Seventy years on, the people whose lives he saved are battling to restore his honour...
By Christian House for the Independent, London
Sunday, 17 October 2010
Aristides de Sousa Mendes, at the time of the Nazi invasion of France, when he was still Portuguese consul to Bordeaux, a job he was destined to lose
© COMITÉ SOUSA MENDES, FAMILLE DE SOUSA MENDES
Aristides de Sousa Mendes, at the time of the Nazi invasion of France, when he was still Portuguese consul to Bordeaux, a job he was destined to lose
Standing in front of 14 Quai Louis XVIII, I am struck by the beauty of the placid Bordeaux scene. The September sun sinks into the honeyed stone and the topaz sky spreads over the wide waters of the Garonne. Bordelais society parade the esplanade. It is une scène tranquille. Yet it was here, in this distinguished apartment building, during a week in June 1940, that chaos reigned. And it was here that one man performed the greatest act of rescue by an individual during the Second World War. One that even surpasses Oscar Schindler's bravery. Seventy years on those actions are now having their final repercussion.
Aristides de Sousa Mendes was an unexpected hero. At the time of the German invasion of France he was the Portuguese consul to Bordeaux, a Catholic gentleman of aristocratic origins in late middle age. Born in Cabanas de Viriato in July 1885, he was the twin brother of the foreign minister and had for three decades loyally served Portugal as a diplomat. It was a career that had telegrammed him out to Kenya, San Francisco, Zanzibar and Brazil. After nearly a decade stationed in Antwerp, he was eventually appointed Portuguese Consul to Bordeaux, housed in his second-floor residence on the quay.
In photographs from his early years as an attaché he appears both brooding, with his inquisitive brow, and welcoming, thanks to a measured smile. He looks directly at the lens, as assured and poised as his formal, high-collared diplomatic attire. He and his wife, Maria Angelina, had 14 children. As war broke out Aristides de Sousa Mendes was a man with plenty to lose.
The Nazi advance through France made Bordeaux a powder keg. Its population ballooned as millions fled south in an exodus from Paris and the northern departments. A mad scrum of spies, politicos, governments-on-the-run and refugees jostled for a way out of the country. They huddled, struggled and bartered in the face of dive-bombers and mass hysteria. And Sousa Mendes was expected to provide yet another hurdle. In appeasement to Hitler, the Portuguese dictator, António de Oliveira Salazar, issued his "Circular 14", decreeing that no Jews or dissidents were to be granted passage to Portugal.
To Sousa Mendes the dictate contravened the traditional principles of his country. His friendship with a rabbi added further impetus. He took to his bed in a two-day crisis of conscience after which he rose determined. "I cannot allow all you people to die," he announced to the consulate staff, who made note of his historic statement. "Many of you are Jews, and our constitution clearly states that neither the religion nor the political beliefs of foreigners can be used as a pretext for refusing to allow them to stay in Portugal. I've decided to be faithful to that principle, but I shan't resign for all that. The only way I can respect my faith as a Christian is to act in accordance with the dictates of my conscience."
On 17 June a production line was set up, at which he issued 30,000 visas, passports and travel documents. (After two days at the consul, Sousa Mendes continued at the border towns of Bayonne and Hendaye until stopped on 23 June.) Twelve thousand of those helped were Jews. Others who found salvation include the last Crown Prince of Austria, Otto von Habsburg, the Hollywood actor Robert Montgomery and the entire Belgian cabinet. The stateless and the desperate queued around the clock, outside, on the stairs and inside his flat, just to be seen.
On the day Sousa Mendes took his stand a few hundred metres away on the Allées de Munich another man of principle was fighting his own campaign. General Charles de Gaulle was billeted in the Hotel Splendide where the French government had set up base and where a struggle was underway between the pacifiers and the crusaders in the cabinet. That night, as Sousa Mendes sat outside the consulate authorising visa after visa, De Gaulle flew out of the city in an RAF Dragon Rapide to set up the Free French Forces in London. Behind him he left Marshal Philippe Pétain to capitulate and doom France to a humiliating and compromising occupation.
After further defying his government, by assisting at the border, a seething and upstaged Salazar hauled Sousa Mendes back to Lisbon declaring him mentally unfit. "Even if I am dismissed," said Sousa Mendes, "I can only act as a Christian, as my conscience tells me."
Dismissal was the least of it. He was stripped of his diplomatic status, his pension and his right to practise law, his original profession. No one, the state ordered, was to reach out to him or his family. He was declared "a disgraced non-person". People crossed the road in his presence during those years of domiciled exile. All but one of his children left the country in order to start anew. Some of his family turned ' on him in anger. For 14 years the honourable consul was a pariah, marooned in his family home of Passal in the heartland of Portugal. He died in 1954, six years after Maria Angelina, in abject poverty in a Franciscan monastery.
This June I Googled a gem. Utah's Salt Lake Tribune reported a daughter's unusual birthday gift to her father. Olivia Mattis introduced her father Daniel to Ari Mendes. A lifetime ago on a dusty French street eight-year-old Daniel, sheltered from the eye of the storm by his parents, was handed a visa signed by Ari's grandfather. The family, at that time named Matuzewitz, had the key to a long corridor that took them over the border, through Spain and Portugal to Brazil and finally through the doors of the US.
I contacted Olivia Mattis and learnt of the ripple effect of the drama. "Prior to getting to know the family, I viewed the Sousa Mendes story as my father's experience, his memory and an event that happened to my family decades before I was born," Mattis told me. But coming face-to-face with them has been a shock. Here are people who have suffered terribly: poverty, exile, slander – you name it – just so that my own family and other families like mine could live." Mattis introduced me to her online network of far-flung members of the Sousa Mendes clan and the families of those saved. This disparate group's mission is alive on Facebook as they campaign to further honour his deeds.
Many of those helped took up the baton of kindness held up by Sousa Mendes. Lissy Jarvik has forged a career in psychiatry and is now Professor Emerita of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA School of Medicine. However, in the summer of 1940, she was a frightened 16-year-old girl. "My parents, my 14-year-old sister and I were living in Amsterdam," she remembers. "We made our way to Paris, tried to leave for England from Calais but ships would take only British passengers, even Dutch ships. Years later we found out that we tried to cross the Channel during the Dunkirk evacuation. We went back to Paris and eventually made our way down to Biarritz. It was the end of the line and we decided that if we could not escape before the Germans conquered France, we would go into the sea and swim out as far as we could in the general direction of England. One day, one of my father's friends came running with the news that the Portuguese government was giving visas and to bring all the family's passports and quickly come to Bayonne."
It was there that Sousa Mendes' signature allowed their passage. "We were on what turned out to be the last train leaving France with refugees aboard. Our train was sent to Figueira da Foz, where the Portuguese population of the village, who had never seen a Jew, warmly welcomed us. They were totally surprised that we looked like normal human beings," says Jarvik. Sonja, Jarvik's sister, summed up the familial importance of the story. "Aristides de Sousa Mendes saved my life. He enabled me to have a family that includes professionals whose lives are very much dedicated to helping humankind. In that way the value of his sacrifices has increased exponentially in succeeding generations."
During my stay in Bordeaux I visit the ramshackle office of Hellen Kaufmann. She runs the AJPN (L'association Anonymes, Justes et Persécutés durant la Période Nazie). This shoestring charity has created a dizzying database of individuals who assisted those targeted by the Nazis. It is an extraordinary catalogue of human salvage covering every town in the country. She shares the room with Manuel Dias, président of the Comité Français Aristides de Sousa Mendes. Together they aim to complete a full list of every person saved that summer.
Kaufmann is a petite, black-haired firebrand. Smoking her rolling tobacco and sipping her espresso, she settles into an armchair, knees tucked underneath her. What she tells me puts a more expansive light on the events. Kauffman believes that Sousa Mendes' actions were pivotal to the reconstruction of Europe after the war. It's not just the amount of people he saved but who many of them were. The governments of Belgium and Poland, the royal families of Luxembourg and Austria, along with political activists from throughout the continent. These were to be responsible for rebuilding the framework of Europe when hostilities ended. "We had real people and honest people who escaped in June 1940 and came back after war to start again," says Kauffman. What is extraordinary, she points out, is that Sousa Mendes had no knowledge of the holocaust to come but acted on intuition.
In the mid-1980s Otto von Habsburg wrote to Antonio Moncada Sousa Mendes, one of Sousa Mendes' 39 grandchildren, who is a teacher and sits on the board of the Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes in Portugal. "I wanted to say to you in writing how eternally grateful I am to your grandfather," stated Habsburg. "At a time when many men were cowards, he was a true hero to the West. " It was a feeling shared by the Great–Duchess Charlotte de Luxembourg who judged that "above all, it is his merit, shown at a time of tragedy and panic, that will forever be remembered by the refugees of Luxembourg".
In 1966 Sousa Mendes was posthumously made one of the "Righteous Among the Nations", the honour given by Israel to those who assisted Jews during the war. It was the first step along the long road to rehabilitating his name and honour. It wasn't until 1988 that the Portuguese parliament officially dismissed all charges, restoring his diplomatic status and promoting him to ambassador. In death he received a standing ovation from the institution that ruined him. Yet, of the many books written in France on the events of 1940, none mentions Sousa Mendes.
Kauffman believes "The Angel of Bordeaux" wasn't acting out of character. "He did many crazy things in his life," she says. During his diplomatic service he used consulate funds to have a giant figure of Christ made for his Belgian office and had an elongated car designed, a family wagon to ferry his expanding number of children. He also accepted paternity for a further daughter by a local French woman. "He was a funny man," laughs Kauffman. "He liked the life, the sex, to eat and music and dancing."
"There are many families out there who do not know he saved them," she explains. One of these was Harry Oesterreicher, whose grandparents and father were granted a visa. After receiving an email from Kauffman he attended an anniversary visit to the consul building this June. "He had a crying week," says Kauffman.
"One could visualise the refugees waiting in the streets below, sleeping on the stairs," says Oesterreicher. "I pictured myself walking in the footsteps of my grandfather, Jacques, as I climbed the first two flights, and could almost feel the hope, and also the fear which he must have felt as he himself ascended."
The current Sousa Mendes diaspora are now looking for a final act of reparation. "The present generation of the Sousa Mendes family, that is, the grandchildren, are in the position of having the chance to compose a happy ending to their family's epic tragedy," says Mattis.
Sixty miles south-east of Porto lies the Portuguese village of Cabanas de Viriato. The Serra da Estrela peaks jag along the horizon and the surrounding landscape is ripe with the Dao grape. Among the alleys and streets one building imposes itself: Passal. A century ago it was known as o Passal , "The Palace" yet for decades the local schoolchildren have called it the "mystery mansion". '
This great 19th-century manor was the Sousa Mendes family home. At its sale, after Aristides' death, creditors found doors were missing. They had been broken up for firewood in those last years of his half-life. From thereon the estate lay as ruined as Sousa Mendes' reputation. Today it is a place of loss and the weary, faded potential for restitution. In 2000, the house finally returned to the family through compensation and donated funds from the Portuguese government. From that endowment the foundation was born. Their dream is to turn this ghost of a building into a museum to honour the legacy of Sousa Mendes and to house a human-rights library.
Speaking from his home in Portugal, Antonio, now in his sixties, still recalls his grandfather's jovial presence in the house. "I was four-and-a-half when he died," he says. "I just remember a nice figure, this nice character, he liked to laugh and make fun." Antonio's allegiance to his country was damaged by its treatment of his grandfather. "I left Portugal. I deserted the army. I was going to be sent to the war in Angola but I left the country and went to Belgium as a political refugee and then I made my life in Canada." Now he has returned to a country scarred by the Salazar regime.
"The house is now in a big mess," says Antonio. "The Portuguese government, after a time, decided that it would be a national monument, it has the highest status of the Ministry of Culture. It is protected by that but they don't give the money." He laughs at the absurdity of how the foundation has been tied up in red tape for the past few years. The initial works to make the site safe are about to begin. Once this has been achieved, 80 per cent of the development's cost will be funded by governmental contributions. Antonio and the foundation work with private donors to fill the shortfall.
They are not alone. Lissy Jarvik and Olivia Mattis have set up an American wing (US-Based Sousa Mendes Foundation) in order for draw support from overseas. The museum is set to be the only place in Portugal to commemorate the Second World War and human rights.
While trapped in a post-war state of purgatory, Sousa Mendes failed to succumb either to self-pity or regret. "I could not have acted otherwise," he declared late in life, "and I therefore accept all that has befallen me with love." Perhaps it has been harder for his family. Can there now be resolution for them with the opening of Passal as a museum?
"Yes, yes it will. Certainly," says Antonio. "The story won't finish because we want to perpetuate the memory of his actions and teach human rights and how sometimes civil servants and people with responsibilities have to follow their conscience. That's a big lesson. But certainly it will have a sense of closure regarding the punishment and the story of migration."

quarta-feira, setembro 29, 2010

New Sousa Mendes Foundation created in the US

ANNOUNCING  THE  ESTABLISHMENT OF THE US-BASED ARISTIDES DE SOUSA MENDES FOUNDATION - US! 


Congratulations to the Board of Directors of the new Aristides de Sousa Mendes Foundation US


Dr. Lissy Jarvik, President,   Sousa Mendes visa recipient
Sebastian Michael Mendes,  Vice-President, grandson of Sousa Mendes
Sheila Abranches,    granddaughter of Sousa Mendes
Miguel Avila,    Publisher of The Portuguese Tribune
Dr. Olivia Mattis, Secretary,  daughter and granddaughter of Sousa Mendes visa recipients
Harry Oesterreicher, Treasurer,  son and grandson of Sousa Mendes visa recipientes
John Crisostomo,  volunteer activist for Sousa Mendes 

Carlos de Sousa Mendes, one of the multilingual grandsons of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, has joined the Sousa Mendes Foundation as Director of Public Relations.  For questions relating to the new US-based foundation, Carlos can be reached at info@sousamendesfoundation.org

The new Foundation  was created in record time and promises to be a welcome and dynamic addition to the growing network of the 


"Amigos de Aristides" 

Please visit the  new Foundation website in  http://www.sousamendesfoundation.org/   
How can I help?  on Facebook 
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sousa-Mendes-Foundation/160723147280974

domingo, agosto 15, 2010

Sousa Mendes house at risk of imminent collapse


According to Victor Coias, a highly regarded structural engineer, Sousa Mendes’s mansion, Casa do Passal is in a situation of imminent collapse.
As president of GeCORPA, an association of architectural restoration companies, Coias says that the serious deterioration has been caused mostly by accumulated water damage due to the enormous hole in the roof.
These statements can be seen in a video available on GeCORPA website.produced by the film-maker Francisco Manso with the support of STAP. The video also shows a lovely simulation of how the Casa do Passal would look after restoration, once the walls and floors are consolidated and the roof is rebuilt entirely, in order to restore structural integrity to the building.
The Casa do Passal at Cabanas de Viriato is owned by the Sousa Mendes Foudation, a private foundation funded mostly by the Portuguese Government and by donations.
Before the Casa do Passal was classified as a Portuguese National Monument by IGESPAR in 2005, the floor were shored up and the roof was mended by the volunteers John Crisostomo e Antonio Rodrigues. This was the first tangible initiative to save the Sousa Mendes’s mansion, and it received valuable assistance from a number of local people from Cabanas de Viriato and Beijoz who gave wood beams and ceramic tiles, who helped to remove the debris, who housed and fed the hard-working volunteers, etc. In this manner, the Casa do Passal was saved from the rains, but only for a few winters.
Inevitably, the roof began to gape again since 2008, showing bigger and bigger holes as the wood beams continue to rot away and the ceramic roof tiles continue to fall.
That’s why it is so urgent to place a large but temporary cover on the Casa do Passal, which will also serve to protect the interiors during the whole of the rebuilding project. The temporary cover is estimated to cost 150.000€ and would have to be approved by IGESPAR.
On 19-Julho-2010, the 125th anniversary of Aristides birth, a campaign was launched in the blogs and in Facebook to raise funds to pay for this temporary cover. The initiative “A Birthday Gift in Memory of Aristides” aims to transform the on-line support of the 15.000+ Facebook friends into tangible donations to help repair his house.
Meanwhile, the roof tiles keep falling, more and more every day…
There’s no time to loose to save the Casa do Passal and the memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes in in home town, Cabanas de Viriato.
Join the campaign “A birthday gift in memory of Aristides" in http://amigosdesousamendes.blogspot.com/search/label/Passal
The Investment Fund of the Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Caixa de Crédito Agrícola, Cabanas de Viriato: NIB: 0045 3321 4018 5666 95578
Join the Facebook group “Salvar Casa de Sousa Mendes”
Reabilitation of the legacy http://www.causes.com/causes/476286

Casa do Passal em Risco de Ruína Iminente


Segundo o Eng Victor Cóias, reconhecido especialista em estruturas, a "Casa do Passal está em situação de ruina iminente".
Segundo o presidente do GeCORPA, o Grémio das Empresas de Conservação e Restauro do Património Arquitectónico, o estado de degradação acentuado da Casa do Passal deve-se sobretudo à entrada da água pela cobertura.
As declarações constam de um vídeo disponível no portal do GeCORPA, produzido recentemente por Francisco Manso com apoios da STAP. O vídeo mostra também uma simulação da Casa do Passal restaurada, depois de consolidar paredes e pisos interiores e de renovar completamente a cobertura, a fim de restituir a solidez e integridade estrutural ao edifício.
A Casa do Passal é propriedade da Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes, uma fundação privada de capitais maioritariamente públicos.
Antes da Casa do Passal ser classificada como Monumento Nacional pelo IGESPAR em 2005, os pisos foram escorados e o telhado foi reparado pelos voluntários João Crisóstomo e António Rodrigues. Essa primeira iniciativa tangível para salvar a casa de Sousa Mendes contou também com o apoio de várias pessoas de Cabanas de Viriato e Beijós que deram madeira, telhas, ajudaram a retirar o lixo, etc. Assim, a Casa do Passal foi poupada as chuvas de alguns Invernos.
Inevitavelmente, o telhado voltou a ruir de 2008 para cá, e vem apresentando buracos cada vez maiores à medida que a madeira dos barrotes apodrece e as telhas vão caindo.
Por isso, é cada vez mais urgente colocar uma cobertura temporária, que custaria cerca de 150.000€ e que teria que ser aprovada pelo IGESPAR.
A 19-Julho-2010, por ocasião do 125º aniversário do nascimento de Sousa Mendes, foi lançada uma campanha de angariação de donativos para este efeito no blog dos Amigos de Sousa Mendes e no grupo Salvar a Casa de Sousa Mendes que tem mais de 15.000 amigos no Facebook.

As telhas caiem todos os dias. Quantas telhas cairam hoje?

Não há tempo a perder para salvar a Casa do Passal e a memória de Aristides de Sousa Mendes em Cabanas de Viriato.
A campanha “A birthday gift in memory of Aristides": http://amigosdesousamendes.blogspot.com/search/label/Passal
O Fundo de Investimento (Investment Fund) da Fundação Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Caixa de Crédito Agrícola, Cabanas de Viriato: NIB: 0045 3321 4018 5666 95578
O portal do IGESPAR http://www.igespar.pt/