Margarida Martins

In 1991, Martins came-to-face with HIV/AIDS when a friend was hospitalized in Lisbon's Egas Moniz hospital, and eventually died. At the end of 1991, she was one of a small group of volunteers who sought to provide support to hospitalized patients in the infectious diseases unit of the Egas Moniz hospital, but it was only after the death of her friend that the idea of creating an association that could help people infected with HIV was born. On 26 April 1992, which would have been the friend's birthday, she and others organized a show at Coliseu dos Recreios auditorium to raise the resources to create an association. The Abraço (Hug) Association was set up a few weeks later. By the time Martins retired in 2013, it had close to 100 employees.

Margarida Martins (born 1953) is a social activist and politician. She was a pioneer in Portugal in the development of HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, having been co-founder of Associação Abraço (Association Hug), which she presided over for 21 years.

Margarida Carmen Nazaré Martins was born on 11 July 1953 in the old parish of Socorro, now part of the parish of Santa Maria Maior, in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. Her family was very political, with her father being a communist, and other members being anarcho-syndicalists. She saw illness at first hand, as her mother was hospitalized for six years with tuberculosis. Her first job was to teach a child who was in hospital connected to an artificial lung. After leaving school, she worked for a publisher and a construction company. After marrying, she and her husband had a bar in the Lapa neighbourhood in Lisbon but she continued to work for the publisher. From 1983 to 1991 she worked at one of Lisbon's most famous nightlife venues.