They’re young but they’re helping others more than a lot of us older folks. And they pick challenging issues to address – education of Roma students or building bridges between different generations, to name just two. Best of all, they’re enthusiastic and their drive often leads other young people to join in and their work brings tangible results.

For the past three years Via Foundation has been supporting children and young people between the ages of 6 and 26 who raise money for good causes by putting on benefit events. With support from ČSOB bank, we were able to support 43 projects involving more than 900 children and youth through our Be Helpful program.

This year we’re launching a new round of the program with a new title: Philanthropists, Jr. We’ll choose 15 teams and give them training, advice and funding – including a grant to help with events costs and 1:1 matching of the funds they raise. Teams apply under the guidance of an adult patron (e.g. a teacher, club leader, parent) and raise money to help orphans, lonely senior citizens, disabled classmates, animals in a local shelter or other causes of their choice.

Here are a few examples from the most recent round of the program.

Theatre play for Jareček

Twenty drama club participants ages 6 to 11 from Komořany decided to put on a benefit performance to raise money for Jareček, an 11 year old boy with severe mental and physical disabilities. Over the school year they practiced their roles and created stage sets and worked on costumes, handwrote invitations and wrote letters with their parents’. The performance was a great success and thanks to the public collection and matching by Via Foundation, a total of CZK 94,550 ($4,000) was raised. The funds will cover the costs of a personal assistant for Jareček for one year.

Metal for hope

A group of friends from the North Bohemian non-profit association Metal for Hope organized two benefit concerts by heavy metal bands in Trutnov and Liberec to support autistic preschool and school children. The events and matching from Via Foundation brought in CZK 27,498 ($1,111) – enough to buy the children a piano with the money.

We’re looking forward to a new round of exciting projects starting this fall. Stay tuned for updates later in the year!