As a part of the 10th-anniversary celebration, a decade of joy, success, and accomplishments Hastor Foundation prepared a lot of events. One of these events is conference Education as a strategic philanthropic investment, held on May 13 at the Bristol Hotel.
The objective of this conference was to establish a collaboration platform between media and organizations engaged in these activities. It was concluded that media should become involved in the promotion of philanthropy as a strategic investment in education. This conference gathered foundations and organizations working in the field of education, and panelists from Catalyst foundation, Ana &Vlade Divac, Rotary club Croatia, and Atlas Foundation from Montenegro, presented their, but also other positive examples of philanthropy in our region.
Jelena Bekčić, the program manager for data collecting of Catalyst Foundation, presented research subliming philanthropic activities in southeast Europe. This study revealed that BiH is a leader in philanthropic investments in education when compared to other countries in the region. ”Corporative and individual donors recognize the importance of this topic, and therefore, investment in our country is higher than in our countries in the region”, Jelena emphasized, and added that 66% of the total investment in education is reserved for long-term investitions which showed the commitment of donors to boosting this domain.
The importance of including celebrities in philanthropy promotion was also emphasized. In the second part of the panel practices of media and companies were presented, and means for improving it through joint action. The participants of this panel were Coca-Cola Hellenic, Authority Partners, Azra Magazine, TV1, and SOS Children’s Villages in B&H.
This is the first regional conference of this type and we hope that this will be first in the series of conferences aiming to promote philanthropy and that next year one of them will be held in neighboring countries. Meliha Meli Ramusović from Atlas Foundation greeted this project and wished that they host a similar conference in Montenegro.
Problems such as brain drain and unemployment of the youth can be solved by coordinated initiatives. We need to show them that there is someone who appreciates their hard work, and with joint forces make foundations for the ones who see their future in this region”, Meliha pointed out.
This conference is only one in the series of events in Hastor Foundation due to the 10th-anniversary celebration. Follow us – we prepared plenty of other interesting events.
