The president of Cape Verde made a Sept. 29 visit to a Brockton, Mass., health center where 30 percent of the staff and an equal percentage of patients hail from, or trace their heritage to, the nation of islands off the coast of West Africa.

President Pedro Pires toured the Brockton Neighborhood Health Center — where three of his relatives work — and spoke to employees during his brief stay in the city of 100,000 about a half-hour south of Boston.

Pires thanked the center “for the services you provide to Cape Verdeans,” adding that “for us it means that Brockton is close to Cape Verde and Cape Verde is close to Brockton.”

Pires also emphasized the importance of prevention and education in fighting HIV. The Brockton health center and the Cape Verde government share information and expertise in an attempt to improve outcomes for HIV/AIDS patients in Massachusetts and on the islands.

Sue Joss, executive director of the Brockton health center, said the staff of 200 was honored and excited by Pires’ visit. It was the president’s second visit to Brockton, but his first to the health center, which moved into a new building last November.

Joss said the expansion “more than doubled our space, and we’re seeing huge increases in the demand for our services as a result.” Patient visits are up 32 percent over last year, she said. In 2007 the health center served more than 14,000 patients, who made about 71,000 visits.

The Brockton facility serves a multilingual patient base. Besides the 30 percent of patients who are Cape Verdeans — and who speak a Creole language based on Portuguese — 13 percent are Haitian, who speak a Creole linked to French. Another 12 percent of patients are from a variety of Spanish-speaking Latin American countries, while 8 percent — “and growing,” Joss said – are from Brazil, which speaks Portuguese.

“We have 11 full-time interpreters to cover the four languages spoken by these patients, and two-thirds of the staff are bilingual in English and at least one of the four languages,” she added.

Cape Verde was part of Portugal for five centuries before gaining independence in 1975, and Portuguese remains its official language. According to some estimates, as many Cape Verdeans live outside the islands as the 500,000 who remain there.

Cape Verdeans and people from the Azores and Madeira — two other uninhabited archipelagos in the North Atlantic settled by Portugal in the 15th century — have been migrating in large numbers to southeast Massachusetts and nearby areas for more than a century. The first wave of immigrants from the islands entered the area in the 19th century by joining crews of whaling ships whose home port was New Bedford, just south of Brockton. These early Portuguese communities — most of whose residents were from the Azores — later expanded into Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey, but its core remains in southeast Massachusetts.

Cape Verde President Pedro Pires, as he addressed employees of the Brockton Neighborhood Health Center.

The Brockton Health Center's new facility.

Sue Joss, executive director of the Brockton facility, gave President Pires a plaque to commemorate his visit.