Mourão inaugurates first daycare center with direct municipal management in Alentejo

Morão, in the district of Évora, is no longer the only municipality in the country without day care and became the first of Alentejo to have one with “direct municipal management”, said the mayor today.

In statements to the agency Lusa, the mayor of Mourão, João Fortes (PSD/CDS-PP), indicated that the day care center opened in mid-September, after an investment of 1.1 million euros with support from the PRR, revealing that the inauguration is scheduled for the next day 17.

“Mourão now has a municipal direct management response for 42 children, divided between the nursery and until the age of 3 years, with cutting-edge equipment and a capable and oversized technical and operational team, including”, he said.

The mayor emphasized that the city council advanced with municipal management after the law had changed, allowing the municipalities to join the program Creche Feliz, which guarantees free day care for children born since September 1, 2021 (including).

“We did not doubt that we had the upholstery and luggage to ensure this response to parents, totally free and managed in a municipal way,” he stressed, pointing out this daycare center as “the first direct municipal management” in Alentejo.

Assuring that until September the municipality of Mourão was the only one in the country without day care, João Fortes recalled that until then the families of Mourão left their children with other relatives or had to take them to day care centers in neighboring municipalities.

“ This obviously made life difficult for those who wanted to have children”, he stressed.

According to the mayor, the valence ‘was born’ in the building that housed preschool education, which was requalified with the support of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), and those children were transferred to the headquarters of the school group.

“ It turned out to be a two in one. Not only did we create a daycare response, but we also guaranteed a new home for preschoolers,” he said, alluding to the “several pathologies and deficiencies” that the building already had.

Noting that “the financial contribution of the PRR fell far short of what this investment was,” João Fortes stressed that the plan supported with “about 520,000 euros, when the work actually cost 1.1 million euros”.

The president of the municipality indicated that the equipment now has 24 children, predicting that the number can reach 30, in January 2027, and “almost exhaust the capacity of the daycare center”, next school year.

The inauguration of the new day care center is scheduled for the 17th of this month, at 10:45, with the presence of the Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security, Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho.