The Nossa Senhora dos Anjos Rehabilitation Center promotes social integration for people with recent blindness and low vision. Located in Lisbon, Portugal, the center welcomes people from the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, and gives back the autonomy they need to live. Patients live together for three months and their days are fully scheduled with physical and recreational activities, and psychological support to improve their social independence. They also re-learn basic skills like reading, walking, cooking and taking care of their own image.  Most patients lost their sight gradually, but there are also cases of medical errors and accidents that eventually caused blindness. Many who seek this support admit to having lost the will to live and to have ended up isolated from society until they found this center. MC

One of the great problems of the Iberian Peninsula during the summer are forest fires. This catastrophe requires governments to put in practice a common strategy in order to minimize their causes and effects. The year of 2013 was the worst year of the decade for Galicia, in the northwest of Spain; a total of 2,927 forest fires occurred between 1 July and 26 September. PA

The village of Reguengo do Alviela, in the center of Portugal, becomes annually an island during the winter period. The Tagus River waters rise, causing floods and affecting the daily lives of its locals. Some decide to leave the village during that time, but others refuse to abandon their houses, as the water levels rise and may threaten their belongings.The firefighters secure assistance to the populations by realizing innumerous trips to fulfil the needs of the locals. MC

On 24 July 2013, an Alvia train derailed in the area of Angrois, Santiago de Compostela. Eighty people died. The train travelled at 190 km/hour in a zone signposted as 80 km/hour, and derailed on a curve. The people of Angrois assisted the injured, bringing them water, blankets, giving them support, and, inclusively, taking people off the track and out of the carriages. This was one of the most serious train accidents in the history of Spain and the most dramatic for Galicia, on the eve of their national festivities. MF

In May 2011, during a very serious international economic crisis, the Portuguese government signed a memorandum of agreement, for economic and financial policies, with the European Union, the IMF and the European Central Bank. A plan of austerity measures was defined with the purpose of controlling public debt. Three years of deep economic recession and an unrestrained rise of public debt up to 130% of the national GDP was the result of these resolutions. Portugal, which reached an unemployment rate of 17,7% in the first trimester of 2013, is now an even more peripheral European Union country, where two million people are estimated to be at risk of poverty and 25,5% of the population lives in a state of material privation. The lack of social sensitivity, and the economic catastrophe which followed this “internal adjustment”, created an army of “new poor” that puts in danger the democracy and sustainability of the country. BSC

The Last Ones is a report on the daily fight for survival of 3 million Portuguese, 30% of the population, who live below the poverty line. Some of these people cannot find a job and when they do, they receive a monthly salary that is inferior to 400€. These families often live in decadent houses or garages, without electricity or running water. The troubles of these families began before the economic crisis, which only further aggravated the situation. The lack of instruction of some families, the impossibility to find work, and terrible living conditions are the signs of a system that doesn’t work. An NGO proposed to a group of families the construction of housing, for which they were only to pay for the materials by installments. These new houses don’t solve their problems, but at least secure better living conditions and the hope that things may change. TR

They are infants or children up to six years of age and cannot swim. But if by accident anyone falls into a pool, a stream or a garden lake, they do not sink to the bottom. They know exactly what to do not drown. And who thinks they are kids with an innate talent, are mistaken. Long before they can face a pool, they fall into the water again and again: from the front, back, head, sideways, with winter coats, scarves and boots, or only in diapers. They learned so, but had to be trained during four to eight weeks by Estela Florindo, the only instructor in Europe that teaches aquatic survival techniques known as Infant Swimming Resource (ISR). RC

The departure time is scheduled for 8AM but some people just can’t wait and arrive an hour earlier, when the first rays of light bring in another day. The euphoria is too big and difficult to control. Today starts the week that many residents of S. Vicente de Fora crave for all year: seven days of beach, sun and sea at the Parede beach, in the outskirts of Lisbon. That handful of people, who bring their bags filled with towels, snacks, drinks and sunscreen, are no less than 55 years of age each. Most are retired and this trip to the beach tastes like a winning lottery ticket. As the sun shines and warms their bones, they forget the low pensions. There are no cuts announced by any government in the world that will make the sea less salty or the clay exfoliate less the skin. And thus, the loneliness lived throughout the 300-something days of the year is fought. And thus, new friendships are created and neighbors get to know each other a little better. The blue sky also helped the knitted blanket grow a few more inches. The hours pass by, and so does the joy. It is time to return home. Dry and leave. It was like this every day of the week. Next year there is more to come. For those who will remain here. RC

Inspired by Leonard Nimoy’s project The Full Body, this work arises from an interest over the representation of the female figure, free of prejudices, beyond the so commonly idealized beauty cliché of the “Perfect Woman”. Freed from the concept of the ideally fantasized body, this model proudly wears her skin, rejecting the perfect and sculptural body. She respects and assumes herself just the way she is. She is, just as any other model, an icon of sensuality. Reflection of a powerful character, confidence and courage, she has provided us with these images where her body flows along nature, on a quest for the perfect image. JF

The Douro Valley landscape is quite consensual. It is said to be unique, spectacular and sublime. It has been attributed with the title “World Heritage Site”. Its consumption is a continuous desire. A two-fold portrayal of the figurative interpretation of the Douro by the locals is proposed in order to enhance its exhaustive experience, as well as the permanent commercialization of the region. SR

Photography is one of the few techniques that allow us to stop time – others would be to steal all the world’s watch pointers, breaking every clepsydra or covering up the sun. Freezing moments that are impossible to repeat, creating an inventory of the real world, is something I have been working on by documenting that which surrounds me. In this series of natural elements, there is one that stands out: water. Be it a beach in São Miguel, Azores; a block of ice outside the Mercado da Ribeira, in Lisbon; a kitchen covered in wallpaper stained from the water and rust of its old piping; or a hybrid vehicle parked outside a blockhouse harbor in Comporta, water is always present. AX

Workers of the Viana do Castelo shipyards, family members and inhabitants of the region protest against the government’s decision to privatize the state owned company, which can put over 600 jobs at risk. The workers of ENVC (Viana do Castelo Shipyards), with experience in an industry that requires a high degree of scientific and technical knowledge, learned they would be dismissed on Christmas Eve, further aggravating the already dramatic situation of unemployment of the North of Portugal. Many fear the government’s agreement with the Martifer firm may mean the closing of the only specialized shipyard in Portugal. AM

The capeia arraiana is a traditional bullfight show, typical of the area of Ribacoa, a group of villages bordering Spain. Considered ethnographic heritage, it’s a “corrida” (bullfight) with unique characteristics. It’s a tradition with ancestral origins, which was born in Forcalhos or Lageosa da Raia. BSC

Surf began in Madeira in 1970, in the villages of Paul do Mar, Jardim do Mar and Ponta Pequena. Almost all surf spots are rocky, and in the winter all waves appear to be over six meters tall. Madeira wasn’t known among foreign surfers until the mid1990’s, when several international surf magazines discovered Madeira´s potential and highlighted it not only due to these spots, but because of the natural and singular beauty of the island. Since then, main Portuguese surfers from the continent and many international surfers have recognized its excellent surf conditions, the all year long subtropical climate and the rare, natural beauty that has made Madeira known as Europe´s Hawaii. OP