Around 400 families on Culatra Island are at risk of losing an “essential service” due to the looming closure of the island’s Red Cross first-aid post.
According to Correio da Manhã tabloid, the organisation says it is facing huge debts which have become “insurmountable” but that it is seeking support to keep the first-aid post open.
“There are around 400 families, with children and elderly, who are at risk of being left without a Red Cross responder who is available 24 hours a day and is almost always the first person to arrive in emergency situations,” explains Sílvia Padinha from the Culatra residents’ association.
The first-aid post opened in 2009 and received most of its funding via a social development contract until 2012.
In the last three years, however, the Red Cross delegation in Faro has been accumulating around €20,000 of debt every year.
“We want to keep the post open because the population needs it, but we need support,” Norberto Martins, president of the Red Cross delegation in Faro, told CM.
Several meetings have been taking place with entities such as Faro council and regional health authority ARS Algarve in a bid to gather financial support.
Thus far, the local parish council has committed to providing a €2,500 annual grant.
