This programme has very broad contours, which, while it may seem like a disadvantage on the one hand, is an advantage on the other, because it allows for framing very diverse projects and initiatives related to the mission of foundations, which is to be attentive to the needs of society, seeking to find answers to its evident constraints.
In its work, Fundação Cuidar O Futuro seeks to have the theory of Care as its underlying basis, a focus emphasised by Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, which can be simply defined as “being attentive to things, events, people, society and nature”. There is obviously a philosophical foundation that cannot be developed here.
Another focus goes hand in hand with the defence of a conception of development, opposed to the merely economistic perspective, and which is based on the encompassing concept of Quality of Life.
The Foundation is committed to the notion that Quality of Life in a society requires surpassing the level of mere survival for the entire population; that international legal instruments be considered imperative; that objective and universal rights (civic, political, social, economic and cultural, ratified by almost all countries in international treaties) be fulfilled, while simultaneously working to satisfy subjective and diversified conditions.
It is from this perspective of development/quality of life, and in the face of circumstances with high levels of social imbalance and great difficulties in numerous segments of our society, that Fundação Cuidar O Futuro seeks to work.
In this regard, the action-research project can be consulted Literacy for Gender Equality and Quality of Life: Shared Leaderships which the Foundation conceived and is implementing.
In holding debates and seminars, the Foundation seeks to address current topics, while the occasion should also allow for the evocation of the intellectual legacy of Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, revisiting issues on which she worked and reflected.
These are moments of information, dissemination of thought, and articulation of new principles that postulate a new exercise of political, economic, social, cultural and environmental power.
In this regard, the project can be consulted Women, Ethics and Public Space.
The first initiative of this project was the Conference Cycle The Dimension of Care in the Re-signification of Public Space with Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo in the Background, followed by the debate cycle Caring for Democracy, Caring for the Future which took place in January 2010.
It is also worth mentioning here the Seminar Thinking the Future, held in 2005, because it was of great importance for the Foundation, since it inventoried and envisaged some challenges for the action of this institution, which are now underway.