“It’s a sign that the community is helping, is attentive to this project. We’ve already surpassed the 400 thousand dollars we were aiming for, now we await the half a million,” Jack Prazeres, president of the Luso-Canadian Charitable Society, confirmed.

It was through the ‘Vola Luso Charities’ event, at the Portuguese Cultural Centres in Mississauga and Hamilton, that the institution managed to exceed expectations, raising nearly five hundred thousand dollars.

With about a thousand participants who each contributed with their donations, registering in various paid activities, from hikes to bike rides where traditional Portuguese music and food wasn’t amiss.

The amount raised will be funnelled into various existing programs in the institution’s three centres, who have a combined annual budget of three million dollars.

Meanwhile, a part of the funds raised will be set aside for residential housing projects in Hamilton and Toronto.

“In Hamilton, we hope to have the license within 6 to 7 months. Afterwards, we have to begin construction, we have families that are desperate. 2 years from now the project should be operational, with 42 to 46 rooms, plus another day centre that will fit 100 people,” Prazeres added.

In relation to the Toronto centre, it’ll be “smaller, with 26 rooms,” but it’s planned to try “satisfy a bit of the needs of Portuguese families that are already a certain age.”

This new residential centre will have users during day and night, and a family member will be allowed to stay the night, if need be.

To the Portuguese consul in Toronto, Joaquim do Rosário, actions like those of Volta Luso Charities sometimes “pass by unnoticed” not just in the community, but also in Portugal, where “the importance of this institution in Canada isn’t sufficiently recognised.”

“The solidarity of our communities throughout the world is a reality that hasn’t been fully known yet,” he highlighted.

The diplomat emphasised the “incalculable value the institution has,” as people in general “don’t have notion of the suffering of a family with a member with a deficiency.”

With three centres located in Toronto, Mississauga and Hamilton, the Luso-Canadian Charitable Society has an annual budget of 3 million dollars, and is currently over their capacity, with more than 200 families under their protection.