The Grupo Faculdade de Ajudar (Faculty Help Group) held yet another Solidarity Day on 11 April at the Agronomy Institute (ISA).

Almost 150 years old, ISA integrated the Technical University of Lisbon (UTL) between 1930 and 2013, when it joined the ULisboa as a result of the merger between the University of Lisbon (UL) and UTL.

Located at Tapada da Ajuda in the heart of Lisbon, ISA comprehends a nearly 100-ha botanical garden that includes the Astronomical Observatory of Lisbon and a number of other infrastructure facilities such as the Lagoa Branca auditorium and the Exhibition Pavillion, ideal event venues. The botanical garden features a display of renowned flora with hundreds of different species, a unique legacy within the context of Portuguese universities, and is in a class of its own due to the way it blends in with nature.


Ours was a simple enough task: in just a few hours, a team of 35 people set out to clear a small plot of ISA land of its infesting species. We may add that this was, indeed, a well-spent day with precisely the kind of mild weather ideal for such work.

Head of Division at ISA Graça Pisarra, with whom we maintained a close liaison, embraced this idea from the very start. At ISA we were given a warm welcome by all our colleagues and our work was supervised by Professor Teresa Vasconcelos and Paulo Forte, BEng.

We spoke to Joana Godinho, a researcher at the ISA Centre for Applied Ecology “Prof. Baeta Neves”, who enthusiastically explained how honey (also produced and sold at ISA) is produced and used in medicine. We learned that several scientific studies have proven that honey is, indeed, a very rich product and increasingly used for therapeutic purposes, namely as a sugar substitute in the most appropriate dosage forms for diabetics and pre-diabetics. We also talked about propolis and its diverse medical and pharmacological uses. As for our main task, i.e. ‘getting rid of’ infesting species, we focused mainly on picking out opuntiaswhich served as the catchword for several amusing and apparently endless jokes and comments: “Are you done with all the opuntias?” etc.

This was yet another day that opened up new possibilities for personal development and learning while bringing home all the potential of our charity work.

We would like to thank all our ISA colleagues for their enthusiastic welcome and to assure them that it was a pleasure and a privilege to spend an afternoon in their company and to profit from their experience in such a unique place, at one with nature.

Life and work at ISA seem to be altogether different from all the other places we have visited and we look forward to going back there as soon as possible - all the more so as there will always be opuntias for the picking!


The Faculty Help Group, FMUL April 2014
faculdadedeajudar@fm.ul.pt