HSBC Group donates GBP30,000 to Foundation for Educational Services

HSBC Group Chairman Sir John Bond yesterday personally informed the Foundation for Educational Services Chief Executive Nora Macelli of the Group’s decision to donate GBP30,000 in a letter presented by HSBC Bank Malta’s Chief Executive Chris Hothersall in the presence of Education Minister Dr Louis Galea.
HSBC Group has selected the Foundation for Educational Services (FES) as one of just six organisations worldwide that it will be supporting this year.
Every year instead of sending corporate Christmas cards, HSBC Group distributes GBP180,000 among various charities in various countries. This year, the Group has selected six charities and will be donating GBP30,000 to each.
Apart from the Foundation for Educational Services in Malta, the HSBC Group will be supporting Changing Faces, The Samaritans and John Groom, all based in the United Kingdom, Foundacion Amistad Britanico in Mexico and the HSBC fund set up to help victims of the terrorist attacks in Turkey.
"The work carried out by the Foundation for Educational Services, in collaboration with the HSBC Cares For Children Fund, has received a lot of attention within the HSBC Group as an excellent example of how HSBC can be actively involved in the communities where it operates around the world. This fact has now been recognised by the decision of the Group to directly support the FES in its continued efforts to combat illiteracy," said Mr Hothersall during the presentation.
The HSBC Cares For Children Fund began supporting the Foundation for Educational Services in March 2001, with a Lm12,000 donation towards the Hilti Tezor project. Through this project, HSBC Malta plc staff were trained to assist FES personnel in its after school family literacy programmes, a bilingual reading pack was produced and used in a range of family literacy programmes run by the FES, and three new children’s books in Maltese were produced. Through this project, the first large book in Maltese was produced for children. . The additional support provided by HSBC Group will help FES to further expand and develop its programmes range of family literacy and community literacy programmes to combat illiteracy.
"Nearly three years ago, Dame Mary Richardson who heads HSBC Group’s Education Foundation visited Malta in order to participate in the launch the FES Hilti Tezor Project. Over the years, she has continued to show a keen interest in our efforts and I am delighted today to accept this renewed support from HSBC Group which will directly benefit children and their families in Malta and Gozo who have reading and writing difficulties," said Ms Macelli.
"With this new funding, FES will be able to expand its range of family literacy programmes so as to reach more families who wish to engage in processes leading to enhanced home curriculum," continued Ms Macelli.
Of particular interest is the fact that HSBC Cares For Children Fund has become well known throughout the HSBC Group worldwide, with articles on the Fund’s activities receiving frequent coverage in HSBC World, the internal magazine which is distributed to every one of the more than 9,500 offices which HSBC has around the world. The Fund has also benefited from the direct interest of Lady Elizabeth Bond, who had visited a number of projects which the Fund is supporting while in Malta with Sir John in June 2001.
"HSBC has been a very active in assisting a number of educational projects in Malta. Over the past few years the Bank, particularly through its Cares For Children Fund has developed and implemented a number of initiatives together with the Ministry for Education. Today, with this additional and significant support from HSBC Group, we are seeing that co-operation is strengthened. I am certain that, as a result, the Foundation will be able to further improve the literacy rate among our students in the coming years," said Dr Galea.
Dr Galea also mentioned the win-win relationship that has been created between HSBC Cares For Children Fund and the Foundation for Educational Services where both organisations are working together for common goals. Last year the Foundation was commissioned to create and run an ‘English for Children in Care’ programme by the HSBC Cares For Children Fund which also funded the project. This programme which has now run for almost a year has helped 45 children in two residential care institutions to improve their English through innovative ways of teaching.
Dr Galea said that when he had launched the Foundation for Educational Services he hoped that the Foundation would not only manage to fulfil its role of supporting schools and parents for the benefit of the children, but also become a pro-active agent which would tap funds on a regional and global scale for the improvement of our country’s education and that of the Region. Minister Galea said that apart from the support of the HSBC Cares For Children Fund, the Foundation was also tapping into European Union Funds which are being used for the Parent Empowerment Family Literacy (PEFaL) programme which is being co-ordinated by Malta through the foundation and involves a number of EU member countries.