The entire wall of a building in Bairro do Zambujal, in Alfragide, is now more alive. A kind of huge comic strip, talking about simple health prevention things – like doing sports, sleeping well and eating lots of fruit – is now part of the daily entertainment in one of the housing complexes on the outskirts of the capital. You don't have to be a child to like what you see in that huge mural. It's not at all difficult to understand the message. “A message that must be useful and strong, but with this childish contrast of the cartoon genre”, so as not to go unnoticed, explains artist Pedro Ribeiro Ferreira. The mural by this Portuguese design, one of those invited to participate in the Zambujal 360 project, was completed last May and is already part of the world's first urban exhibition on the 17 United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs), which are part of the UN 2030 Agenda. Hospital da Luz, alongside other national companies and institutions accepted the challenge from the non-governmental organization Ad Gentes and the CAZambujal association, and became a partner in Zambujal 360, the UN-supported project that made Zambujal the first ambassador housing complex of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Several national artists were invited to, together with residents and partners, create drawings and murals that represented the 17 SDGs. Hospital da Luz, as expected, supported the mural with the theme of objective 3, Sustainable Health, and, as Pedro Ribeiro Ferreira says, “this is the result!”. “What matters in this cartoon is that the idea is strong, has power. But I didn’t want to do anything hyper-realistic, precisely because health issues are always heavier.” Therefore, explains the artist, he opted for “more comical dolls, but with a useful message”. The sun and the importance of vitamin D, physical exercise done on the streets of the neighborhood, sleeping well, monitoring pregnancy and following the advice of health professionals, which also have their place in this cartoon, were some of the examples chosen by Pedro Ribeiro Ferreira to illustrate SDG 3, Sustainable Health. “Hospital da Luz is the sponsor, the neighborhood and residents provided input. And this is the result!”*, he concludes. To carry out Zambujal 360, a project led by Mário Linhares from AD Gentes and which aims to act as an agent of social change and promote sustainability, 17 companies and institutions were invited, each of which was associated, as a sponsor, with a of the 17 SDGs of the UN 2030 Agenda. In addition to this support, Hospital da Luz was involved in awareness raising activities for the project team and young people in the neighborhood, who will act as guides during visits to this open-air exhibition. It carried out Basic Life Support sessions and is now preparing other actions for the inhabitants of Zambujal, education and literacy in sustainable health. *statements by artist Pedro Ribeiro Ferreira taken from this video: To find out more about the project: Zambujal 360: an innovative project on the SDGs in Portugal - United Nations Western Europe (unric.org)
