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BlogTV: A Rock Festival for the Children

Lily Dionne — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 08:00:02 +0000

Repeat

Is Santa Claus a rocker? It definitely seems to be the case in Lille!

“Père Noël est-il un rocker?” is an annual rock festival created and run by students from the Edhec Lille business school, to help share some Christmas spirit with disadvantaged families in the region. The idea is not to raise money, but presents—a new toy is your ticket to any of the concerts going on throughout the week!

Find out more about this event, as socially aware as it is culturally prominent, on this week’s BlogTV.

A New Playground for a School in Bulgaria

Krasimira Antimova — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:26:22 +0000

At an inauguration ceremony in Varna, the French Ambassador to Bulgaria H.E. Philippe Autie told the fairy tale of a school: one that has grown at a very fast pace since it first opened 3 years ago, and which has reached a high academic level. This school is called, “Charles Perrault”, the first international school in Varna, which just celebrated a fully renovated building that will accommodate 83 young pupils from 9 nationalities mid-November.

The school is very important for the black sea capital in Bulgaria. In only a couple of years, thanks to its professional team, the support of the French Embassy in Bulgaria, the French Institute Sofia, as well as the active contribution of the parents, results are visible: the excellent achievements of the pupils are the clearest evidence.

BNP Paribas has contributed to the development of this educational entity. In line with its global commitment to corporate social responsibility through partnerships in educational, cultural and social projects, BNP Paribas Bulgaria donated funds for the construction of a new playground for the younger pupils in the school.

BlogTV: Bikers’ Solidarity

Lizette Rivera — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:53:16 +0000

After a serious motorcycle accident, Claude Abejan decided to create an association called « Les Harley du cœur » (Bigheartedly Bikers)… All of the sudden it became indispensable for him to help people with a handicap or disability to offer them a little bit of happiness and….excitement!
To do so, a group of biker friends meet with children who have a handicap and take them on a bike ride on their Harleys.

Today, this association contributes to all sorts of good causes like the Téléthon, the Solidarity Days (les journées solidarité), the Shoe Pyramid (la Pyramide des chaussures), different local events, and so on…

The Bikers du coeur share, with generosity and humbleness, a bit of their time, a big smile and overall, a strong passion for biking.

The “Harley du coeur” association has benefited from the BNP Paribas Foundation’s Coup de pouce programme.

The language of money

Rosaria Galfo — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 10:04:39 +0000

What actually is money? How did it develop and how important is it in our everyday life? Since end of March 2011, the exhibition “The language of money” tries to give answers to such questions.

The exhibition is shown in the Museum for Communication in Nuremberg. It is particularly addressed to school classes and guided tours under the name “Money stories for little investors” are offered for elementary school children. Cortal Consors Germany actively financed the programme’s conception and development, as well as the entry fees for the school children.

Additionally, employees of Cortal Consors and their families could experience the exhibition in a 60-minute guided tour for free. They could see former means of payment such as coffee beans, furs and historical coins. Special attractions were the machine to print counterfeit money and a house account book of Inge Meysel, a famous German actress. The visitors were also given the possibility to participate in a money quiz and print their own personalised bank note. According to Dr. Stefan Kley, the curator of the museum, the programme sponsored by Cortal Consors Germany has been a great success.

BlogTV: Encounters for change with Mao Chan and Etoile de Martin

Mao Chan — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:34:59 +0000

L’Etoile de Martin is a French association created in 2006 by young Martin’s parents. One year long, the little boy fought valiantly against a malignant brain tumour before “reaching the stars”. Laurent and Servanne, his parents, wished to honour his memory and share their experience with other parents who have to face the same disease.

Indeed, cancer does not spare anybody: neither women, nor men and even not children. This disease is the number one cause of child mortality in France.

I only got close to this alarming reality when my own son, Benjamin, who was one and a half at the time, was diagnosed with cancer, a malignant brain tumour. Since, supported by relatives, the BNP Paribas Foundation, colleagues and my hierarchy, I have joined L’Etoile de Martin. As in the recent movie of Valerie Donzelli (“Declaration of War”), we have decided to declare war on the disease.

L’Etoile de Martin is supported by BNP Paribas Foundation’s Coup de pouce programme.

BlogTV: Holidays for everyone

Isabelle Palsky — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:11:36 +0000

“Albret Solidarité” is an association supporting needy families in the region of Albret, Lot-et-Garonne (France).

The association offers relaxing weekends, discovery days and birthday kits, and distributes toys at Christmas. It also owns a house which is freely lent to some families so they can get together for a week time.

For the children, this means relaxing and pleasant moments to share with their kin, and a lot of stories to tell their friends.

“Albret Solidarité” is supported by BNP Paribas Foundation’s Coup de pouce Programme.

BlogTV: Books and words on the street

Isabelle Palsky — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:50:52 +0000

Giving children from disadvantaged backgrounds access to knowledge and imagination: this is the aim of the Atelier du 14 association.
Following the Street Library model created by the ATD Fourth World association, members of Atelier du 14 stroll through the streets bringing words to children.

No pressure, no competition, no discrimination; just sharing through the words, stories and imagination of each person.

Atelier du 14 is a beneficiary of the BNP Paribas Foundation’s Projet Banlieues, a project that provides support to underprivileged neighbourhoods.

“Homework school” fills an educational gap

Saskiana Dotremont — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:25:57 +0000

Like the “Helping Hand” programme in France, the Belgian Help2Help programme is designed to encourage solidarity initiatives supported on a voluntary basis by the Group’s employees in Belgium.

The programme’s funds, which are distributed by the BNP Paribas Fortis Foundation, are allocated to different types of assistance such as purchasing equipment for a soup kitchen, buying a vehicle for transporting educational materials in Haiti, creating care packages for the homeless, and many more.

Thirty not-for-profit projects were selected during our recent call for applications, including the Ait-Zekri-Belgique association, which was founded and is run single-handedly by a BNP Paribas Fortis employee.

Its mission? To facilitate the integration of young immigrants by designing and developing actions and activities that foster intercultural exchanges between the different communities. The association places particular importance on children’s education and has developed a number of projects that offer tutoring and after school activities.

The establishment of a “homework school”, in collaboration with the local authority, is primarily intended to support young people (mainly residents of Molenbeek) throughout the course of their education, from primary school to the end of high school.

The city of Molenbeek is providing the premises in exchange for a modest financial contribution. The main goal is to fill an educational need – helping the children of immigrants to do their homework – which their parents are unable to provide. This simple lack is a major cause of children dropping out of school. The requested contribution will finance furnishing a study room. The association is sorely lacking in basic supplies, such as chairs, tables, a blackboard, flip charts, markers, books, dictionaries, pens, chalk, etc.

The assistance provided by Help2Help will finance fitting out these premises to enable this homework school to get off to a running start!

BlogTV : Bamboo Schools, a shelter for education

Isabelle Palsky — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:52:30 +0000

Karuna-Shechen was founded by Matthieu Ricard in order to initiate humanitarian projects in Asia.
The projects of this association deal with Health & Social Services as well as Education, mainly in Tibet and Nepal.

Interview of Karuna-Shechen members to present us in detail the Bamboo Schools programme: building inexpensive bamboo schools to provide education to children living in isolated regions of Nepal. Even today, many children don’t go to school, especially girls. Bamboo Schools give all children access to school and even to studies, thanks to university scholarship programmes.

BNP Paribas and its Foundation support Karuna-Shechen