Foundation
Cuidar o Futuro
The Foundation aims to contribute, at its scale, to a paradigm shift at all social levels, in public policies and in the collective awareness of duties, responsibilities and rights of women and men, and relies on women's contributions to address the institutional complexity in which we live.
- The Fundação Cuidar o Futuro carries out its mission as an agent of social change, as an agent for mobilizing civil society and as a promoter of dialogue, valuing pluralism and the ethics of responsibility and care in its actions. The FCF is also an agent of cultural preservation, as a vehicle for safeguarding and disseminating the intellectual legacy of Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo.
To fulfill its vision and mission, the Foundation develops, through co-financing with private or public institutions, differentiated programs and projects that promote the participation and empowerment of people in the process of improving quality of life with a view to promoting self-sustaining societies and in which the research component is fostered.
The FCF's intervention, as shown on this portal, has taken the following forms since 2001:
Operation of a Documentation and Publications Center (2004-2010); Development of research and action projects; Organization of debates, workshops and seminars; Promotion of exchanges and partnerships with other institutions.
In the context of its action, the work of processing and organizing the historical documentary collection of Eng. Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, totaling 54,600 catalogued documentary units and 12,017 made available online through the website www.arquivopintasilgo.pt.
After the donation of a considerable part of Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo's private archive to the University of Coimbra in December 2014, and following the entry into force of the Statutes of the Fundação Cuidar o Futuro revised in accordance with the Foundation Framework Law of 2012, the FCF initiated an internal reflection process that opened new paths for its action, namely: intensify and broaden the scope of disseminating MLP's thought and action; support initiatives of people, groups and institutions along those lines; relaunch intervention/research projects aimed at contributing to developing a new vision and collective action that responds to the current problems of the population; revitalize the FCF heritage designated as Alto da Praia.
The Fundação Cuidar o Futuro is born, on one hand from the logic of my public commitments and, on the other, from the dynamics of the international Graal movement to which I belong. – Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo.
In a letter addressed to the participants of the Graal movement, in July 2001, she wrote: The Fundação Cuidar o Futuro aims to develop proposals for thought and action for the future, rooted in spiritual values and strategic choices that the characteristics of the times we live in indicate as vital for the survival of society and the planet, and for the increasing humanization of people in all aspects of their lives.
The initiative to create a foundation also corresponded to the fulfillment of an idea developed since the 1990s by the initiators of the international Graal movement in Portugal, Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo and Teresa Santa Clara Gomes.
- The name Fundação Cuidar o Futuro originates from the title Caring for the Future, given to the report published as a book in 1998, prepared by the Independent Commission on Population and Quality of Life chaired by Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo between 1992 and 1997, under the auspices of the United Nations. This report was translated into dozens of languages and published in Portuguese in 1998 under the title “Cuidar o Futuro”. The research work, the direct contact with “population problems” at a global level, and the consequent development of a new vision aimed at stimulating urgent action, profoundly influenced the civic life of Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo.
The Fundação Cuidar o Futuro is a private, non-profit institution. It was founded on July 13, 2001 by the Graal association, its statutes having been published in the Diário da República (Official Gazette), 2nd series, no. 248, of 25 October 2001. The FCF was recognized by order of the Minister of Internal Administration, published in the Diário da República, 2nd series, no. 21 January 2002 and recognized as a Legal Person of Public Utility in January 2008. In response to the provisions of the Foundation Framework Law, Law no. 24/2012, a revision of the FCF Statutes was carried out. The new version was authorized by the competent authority in January 2015, published by the Diário de Notícias on 25 August 2015 and published online on the Portal da Justiça on 09/09/2015.
The Fundação Cuidar o Futuro distances itself in the composition of its bodies and in its activities from any religious denomination or party-political reference.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
Maria Paula Marques Faria de Barros – Chair of the Board of Directors and Member of the Executive Council
Degree in International Relations from the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas of the Technical University of Lisbon, Specialization in Intercultural Relations, from the Open University of Lisbon. Currently at the OEI Portugal Office – Organization of Ibero-American States.
Margarida Amélia Nogueira Amorim Santos – Member of the Executive Council
Degree in Physical-Chemical Sciences from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon and Master's in Educational Sciences from the Nova University of Lisbon. Retired teacher.
Sara Luísa Abreu dos Santos Acciaioli Gouveia – Member of the Executive Council
Degree in Law from the Faculty of Law of the Classic University of Lisbon. Work experience in Portugal and the European Union.
Maria Antónia Diniz Caetano Coutinho
Degree in Romance Philology from the University of Lisbon, Master's in Portuguese Literature and Culture from the Nova University of Lisbon and PhD in Linguistics in the specialization area of Text Theory, from the Nova University of Lisbon. Currently Researcher at the Centre for Linguistics of the Nova University of Lisbon and Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics.
Olívia Regina dos Reis
Degree in Modern Languages and Literatures, from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon; Postgraduate degree in Creative Writing from the Escuela de Letras de Madrid. Portuguese Teacher in Secondary Education.
FISCAL COUNCIL
Margarida Isabel Rolim André Zoccoli – Chair of the Fiscal Council
Degree in Biology from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. Currently attending the Doctoral Programme in Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies at the Institute of Social Sciences of the UL. She is a teacher at Casa Pia de Lisboa (Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security).
Mabel Solange de Figueirêdo Cavalcanti – Member of the Fiscal Council
Portuguese-Brazilian. Professor of Pedagogy and History (Br). Master's in Social Policy from the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas of the University of Lisbon. Art Educator. Vice-President of the Portuguese Association of Poets. Leading member of the Paulo Freire Collective Portugal.
Paulo Dinis Delgado Chaves – Member of the Fiscal Council
Statutory Auditor at Tocha, Chaves e Associados – SROC
CONSELHO DE CURADORES/AS (em nomeação)
Members of the Board of Trustees appointed by the Founder, the Graal association: Lúcia Mariano Veloso, representative of the Coordinating Council, Domingas Costeira de Vasconcelos e Lídia Martins.
Intellectual Legacy of Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo
The main Heritage of the Fundação Cuidar o Futuro is the Intellectual Legacy of Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo as she herself wrote in a letter to the participants of the Graal:
the word “foundation” is associated with an idea of financial philanthropy. But how to launch a “philanthropic” initiative if the main resource we have are ideas? It is this “philanthropy of ideas” that I have in mind when thinking of a Foundation. (…) Until the experience I gained at the “Synergos Institute” (whose Advisory Board I have been part of since its inception) and which acts as a catalyst for foundations in countries with few resources, led me to seek, as a funding principle, the guarantee of partnerships of mutual interest with other institutions. – Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo.
The Alto da Praia Property
The property was used by the Graal association from the 1970s onward, initially as a retreat and meeting place. Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, then Secretary of State for Social Security, was among those who gathered there in the summer of 1974.
The Graal association established the Fundação Cuidar o Futuro by assigning it the Alto da Praia Property as a heritage asset, the initial financial heritage of the Fundação Cuidar o Futuro.
The property designated as Alto da Praia has been used for collective activities of the Foundation itself, workshops, national and international conferences, working groups, the FCF office and archive, and also for rentals to other institutions with the aim of obtaining funding to sustain the Foundation's management and ensure financial self-sustainability. Additionally, part of the house has been operated as tourist accommodation, a secondary activity, with the same objective.
On the property grounds, the Environmental Program is underway: Transitioning to Sustainability and Care within the framework of the Foundation's objectives: Deepen and enrich the concept and practice of quality of life in its social, environmental, economic and cultural dimensions, in FCF Statutes, art. 4(2)(a).