The creation of the foundation
The Foundation is found as a result of the initiative of Sepp Rickli (the current president) and his uncle (Kasper Kuster). Kasper Kuster is working at the favela (slums) of the Salvador da Bahia city, in the northeast of Brazil. This city has 3 million inhabitants.
The current president has visit on a regular basis this location, during the past 25 years, and laid, during his last visit in March 2008, the basis for this project. We shall not install "western models" in Brazil, but we will coordinate, facilitate and finance through the Foundation. All executive activities and the management will be executed by local people, as far as possible, in order to combine as much as possible with the local customs and traditions. Obviously we will make agreements with the government, embassies and various aid-organisations so this project will succeed in long term.
As in most developing countries, Salvador da Bahia has enough money and means. These are unevenly spread, and so a small group of "superrich" people is originated and also, unfortunately, a very large group of deprived people. This group has a very low educational level. At this moment, there are approximately 300.000 unemployed in Salvador da Bahia. Furthermore, there are approximately 10.000 vacancies that cannot be filled because the target group has a lower education than necessary.
Another problem in Brazil is the presence of violence. Daily, there are many (deadly) victims because of conflicts, drugs and other incidents in the favelas.
To (partially) remove the above mentioned reasons for poverty for a few people in the favelas, we already have to our disposition a land of 8.000 m2. This land is situated in the middle of the favela. By building a solid fence around the park, where all activities will take place, we can assure that the people have a save stay in the park.
A combination will be made between education and pleasure. We will ask a small contribution for the activities in order to have a control over the people that enter the park. The park will be build in approximately 1 year, subsequently in approximately 3 years a full financial support will be given and after that the financial support will be cut-down until the 10th year. After all this the local organization will take over and manage it independently.
If we can collect sufficient means, than we shall start this project at other locations. Benefactors and sponsors will be search in the Netherlands and Switzerland.