During our selection processes, Fundação St Paul’s has been receiving strong support from our donors, sourcing and corporate partners. But many of them have also generously offered a wide range of help that goes beyond money and structure. Those are willing to give their time to our projects by assisting scholars and candidates in several ways.
Team effort often makes the work better. So, we started to form a very important group within Fundação St. Paul’s – now under the name of “Friends of the Foundation”. The objective of this group is to gather people from various places who share the same values and are interested in contributing one way or another with our scholarship programme.
“I believe that our work will strengthen exponentially with the direct involvement of people who want to be closer to the Foundation and give up their time, energy and knowledge to help us improve.”, states Anthony Jezzi, vice-chairman of the foundation and responsible for coordinating Friends of the Foundation’s work.
We have successfully placed our first two scholars and now focus on the progress of the current selection process, always keeping an eye on the applications rounds yet to come. There’s a long way ahead of us and to be able to count on such valuable and strong support from this network makes us feel even more certain of the positive impact our scholarship programme will have in children’s lives.
Foundation thanks supporters and partners in special event
At the heart of the foundation’s success lies our army of supporters and partners who freely donate their time, money, services and even sleeping bags! With two amazing scholars selected for 2019 and eight in preparation for 2020, it was the foundation’s turn do something for those who made all this possible.
So earlier this year, the Fundação St. Paul’s family got together in a night of celebration: partner ONGs, donors, volunteers, corporate sponsors enjoyed an evening of cocktails and nibbles – all provided by Sodexo, one of our partners. We were delighted to welcome some of our more talented volunteers to provide the ambience, with music provided by St. Paul’s Head of Music David Terry and the pupil Fernando Krakowiak, both at the piano. Wrapping up the evening, the EMESP Contemporary Music Quartet filled the room with the sounds of mellow jazz.
Check-out below some of the great moments of the night in the photo gallery.