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A bit of background....

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The refrain throughout the history of this small team is co-ordinating the distribution of goods and food from those who wish to donate, to those in need across the Algarve. 

 

Algarve Network for Families in Need began as an informal group approximately 10 years ago, in the Albufeira area, in response to the poverty suffered by many families in the Algarve who really struggled to buy the essentials for everyday life.  

 

Working through a Facebook page this work continued  for around eight years, just passing goods from those who wanted to give..... to those in need. 

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At the announcement of the first lockdown in Portugal (March 2020) group member, Bernadette, was approached by a few ladies, local to her home who appeared to be traumatised by the realisation that they would not be returning to work following the winter lay off.  These families, mostly seasonal workers, clearly had no reserves to see them through a period of lockdown and there was little or no support available to them.

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Using the FB page, Bernadette started with basic posts about the community not being able to feed their families. Almost immediately, she was inundated with responses from those who wished to donate and those in dire need and found herself talking on the phone for up to five hours a day.

 

She says "We were surprised and motivated by the offers of help that were pouring in but soon realised that we would  need help!  Another FB post enabled us to recruit volunteers in various areas of the Algarve who were happy to work when they could, collecting and delivering goods and food."

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This 16-month effort resulted in FIN managing to provide food for up to1500 people

per week ranging from a one off emergency supply to continuous weekly supplies

throughout the whole project.  One German businessman who heard about FIN

through a waitress in a local restaurant, kindly donated the massive amount of €8000

which gave a fantastic start to the appeal. Further donations were received from the

U.S, Sweden, The Netherlands along with the amazing response from the community

here in the Algarve.  Along with food donated at the seven created hubs across the

region, this helped enormously in feeding many Algarve families in need. 

 

We still find it hard to believe how people turned out week after week to donate food and other essentials and of course we are truly grateful to those volunteers who gave, so graciously, of their time and resources to support some of the most vulnerable in our community.'

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Although, initially,  most of the donations involved goods and food, the financial donations created the need for a bank account and registration as an association.  And so it was that Algarve Network for Families in Need  became a registered charity.

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In July 2021, as the country began to open up and jobs became available it was felt that the weekly distributions of food could be phased out and we should look at other ways to help families through a period of recovery.

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How we operate....

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We take great care to ensure that requests are genuine and donations are fairly distributed to those families in need.  In fact, co-ordination is the primary challenge and because trust is paramount, we are committed to the effective management of the generous donations we are offered and routinely protect the identity of both our donors and our families. 

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Background checks are routinely undertaken, whilst the threshold for support varies depending on the nature of support being requested.

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We always stipulate that it's on the acquisition of essentials that we concentrate our efforts but in those instances where special/luxury items are offered, we take enormous care to ensure that they are given to recipients we know will benefit the most from them.

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