The Rotary Club Zagreb Kaptol, the Concert Directorate of Zagreb, participants of the television show ‘Dancing with the Stars’ Iva Šulentić, Ištvan Varga, Gordan Kožulj, and Tony Cetinski presented the humanitarian project ‘Step into Life’, aimed at helping the beneficiaries of homes for unaccompanied children and foster families who wish to continue their education at university.
In Croatia, more than 200 children without adequate parental care from children’s homes and foster families graduate from high school each year, many of whom have the desire but not the means to pursue higher education. For this reason, the Rotary Club Zagreb Kaptol launched the humanitarian action ‘Step into Life’ last year, which provided scholarships for 33 young people from children’s homes and foster families who wanted to continue their education by attending university.
‘This year we are continuing the action, and our goal is to give as many children without adequate parental care the opportunity to enroll in university and successfully socialize in society. We initiated ‘Step into Life’ so that the lack of financial resources would not be an insurmountable obstacle to their successful journey in life,’ said Mladen Hrgarek, president of the Rotary Club Zagreb Kaptol. So far, around 30 scholarships have been collected for the new generation of students, amounting to just over 3 million kuna.
The finale of this year’s ‘Step into Life’ is scheduled for December 19, 2009, when a humanitarian Christmas concert featuring the celebrated tenor José Carreras will be held at the Zagreb Arena, accompanied by soprano Celine Byrne and the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of maestro Ivo Lipanović, with participation from Tony Cetinski, the academic choir Ivan Goran Kovačić, and the girls’ choir Zvjezdice. Just before the concert, a call center will be broadcast live from the Arena on the second program of Croatian Television, during which citizens will also be able to contribute to the action.
Citizens can participate in the action by calling the humanitarian phone number 060 9008, which will be active until December 31. Each call donates 5 kuna + VAT, and humanitarian contributions can be paid into the account at Zagrebačka banka: 2360000-1102052855.
