Benfica Foundation wins Social Responsibility Award

Benfica Foundation wins Social Responsibility Award

Benfica Foundation received in the Presidential Box of Luz Stadium the Social Responsibility Award for the month of April 2021. A distinction awarded every month by the Football Foundation – Liga Portugal, which recognises the social responsibility projects and initiatives developed by the Clubs or Foundations associated with it.

Although the Benfica Foundation has multiple ongoing projects in different areas of intervention, this award – given by the coordinating executive director of Liga Portugal, Sónia Carneiro, to Carlos Moia, executive president of the Benfica Foundation – was given, in particular, to the project For you if you don’t miss it!

“This project of the Benfica Foundation is absolutely extraordinary and Liga Portugal and the Football Foundation are aware of all the projects developed by our sports societies. This is, in fact, a project that has already proven itself over time and this month [April] we thought it was the project that should be highlighted,” Sónia Carneiro, from Liga Portugal, told BTV.

This is the project with the longest history at the Foundation, created in 2010, and which aims to empower and combat absenteeism and school dropout, using sport as a tool for inclusion. So far, about five thousand students from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd cycles have been involved and in the current school year more than 500 active beneficiaries have been reached. The territories in which the project currently is being delivered are: Porto (Paranhos), Ponte de Sor and Montargil, and Lisbon (São Domingos de Benfica, Boavista, Marvila and Penha de França).

“I have to say that this wouldn’t be possible without the partners we have, without, above all, a combination of efforts from the parish councils, the joining of a thought and a way of being in which the parents, the family, and the child have to be seriously involved in the project. Over the years we have reached more than 5000 children. This year we had 500 children involved. We are in Ponte de Sor, in Porto, in Lisbon … It is a remarkable project, of great work and we have to thank the young people, the families, the teachers in schools and all the sponsors who help us, “praised Carlos Moia, CEO of the Benfica Foundation.

The success rate of the project Para ti Se não faltares!, recognised and awarded nationally and internationally, is above 90%. There are many success stories within the project, but special mention should be made of the Sport Lisboa e Benfica futsal athlete, Janice Silva, who participated in the project in 2010 and 2011 and the same was recognized as a vehicle for her personal and social development and providing, in parallel, the beginning of a highly successful career with the Club and the National Team. It is in this context that Janice is, today, an indisputable reference for all the youngsters of the “For You If You Don’t Miss!”.

“The Benfica Foundation is a huge thing that happened in my life. I was going to a school in Amadora, but the studies and the results weren’t adding up. I had the luck and the great privilege to participate in the Foundation programmes and it was one of the most important things in my life. A ‘thank you’ will never be enough for everything they did for me. At that time I didn’t believe in my potential, but today I am the person I am thanks to them”, commented athlete Janice Silva.