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Helping hands

Work for the blind tops VIA Foundation awards

By Brooke Edge
For The Prague Post
October 3rd, 2007 issue

Jan Přerovský/THE PRAGUE POST
U.S. Ambassador Richard Graber with award-winners Mathilda Nostitzová, Graham Maher, Roman Kyselý and Kvido Štěpánek.
Countess Mathilda Nostitzová fled Czechoslovakia in 1948, at 12 years old. When she returned to her family’s homeland in 1990, it was to a castle mired in desuetude. While the residence was important to her family’s history, “it was more getting involved with everyday life,” she said, that prompted her to restore her home in the Czech Republic.
For the devotion she has shown to improving the lives of Czechs over the past 17 years, Nostitzová was awarded the VIA Bona Award for Individual Philanthropy in a ceremony at the U.S. ambassador’s residence Sept. 24. In particular, she was recognized for her 15 years of work with Czech Blind United (SONS).
A representative from SONS choked up with emotion while thanking Nostitzová at the ceremony, which Nostitzová attended wearing two pins with photos of dogs on them to commemorate 10 years of SONS training dogs for the blind. She first learned about local efforts to assist the blind when two musician friends hosted a charity concert for the sight-impaired. Nostitzová was moved not only to participate in the event, but to help make it an annual event featuring both Czech and foreign artists. (The concert will be held this year Dec. 3.)
Nostitzová has given much more than money. She donates goods, arranges transportation, provides space for SONS events and organizes social activities for the charity. She personally makes marmalade from Italian apples, then sets up shop on Wenceslas Square for SONS’s annual White Crayon day, selling jars of marmalade alongside volunteers selling pencils. (The fundraiser is scheduled for Oct. 15 this year.)
“Countess Nostitzová is our guardian angel,” said Luboš Krapka, PR manager of SONS. “We can no longer imagine an event that she would not be part of.”
VIA began the Bona Awards 10 years ago to recognize both individual and corporate charity work. The organization was founded in 1997 as a continuation of the Foundation for a Civil Society, begun by former U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia Bill Leurs and his wife Wendy. VIA’s main focus is to draw attention to philanthropy and recognize those who engage in it, in large part because the practice was largely killed off during communism.  While it still has a long way to go, philanthropy in the Czech Republic has improved markedly in recent years.
“We have seen distinct progress in the area of corporate and individual philanthropy in the Czech Republic with each year’s evaluation of candidates for the VIA Bona Award,” said Jiří Bárta, managing director of the VIA Foundation. “Ten years ago it was difficult to find exceptional donors; today, it is difficult to choose the best from the bunch.”
Continuing the commitment of ambassadors past to encouraging local and regional philanthropy, current U.S. Ambassador Richard Graber touted VIA’s Bona Awards as a great way to showcase the values of individual and corporate donors. “These programs,” he said, “are so very important to democracy and society.”
A boost from business
VIA also honored three companies for their charitable efforts.
The Corporate Award for Large Business went to production company Isolit-Bravo for its work with Humanitarian Help Movement–Olga Home, an organization that assists physically and mentally disabled adults. Isolit-Bravo has worked with Olga Home since 1994, and donates approximately 3 million Kč ($153,453) to it and other charities annually.
Kvido Štěpánek, director of Isolit-Bravo, accepted the award. He downplayed the recognition, though, focusing instead on the people who live and work with disabilities as the inspiration for corporate philanthropy.
“There are invisible winners … people who really dedicate their lives to charity,” he said. “If you see such motivation, someone who puts all his life into charity, you have to follow.”
Czech company Orbit received VIA’s Corporate Award for Small-Medium Business for its support of the Czech Union for Nature Conservation in Nový Jičín. Orbit contributes 70,000 Kč per year to the organization, plus material support and volunteer hours from the company’s employees.
When the conservancy asked Orbit for assistance, said Orbit Chairman Roman Kyselý, he agreed because the organization seemed eager to succeed.
“You can give a lot of money to people for support, they consume it, and nothing changes,” he said. In his mind, a successful nonprofit is “motivated to overtake.”
For work beyond traditional philanthropy, Vodafone Czech Republic was recognized with the VIA Award for Innovative Approach to Giving. Since 2005, the company has been working with SONS and the Center for Research and Development at the Czech Technical University in Prague on a GPS navigational system for the blind. With the mobile GPS system, a sight-impaired individual can contact a navigation center any time and receive personalized directional assistance. The device became operational in January, and today is being used by more than 30 individuals, free of cost, making the Czech Republic one of the first countries where this technology is available.
At the ceremony, Vodafone Czech Republic Director Graham Maher credited “some very smart kids” at the university with the project’s success. Although “our engineering guys did quite a lot with the development of this,” he said, the device resulted from “our technology, their smarts.”
Vodaphone committed 1.8 million Kč for the setup and operation of the navigation center, and promotes volunteering within the company. Staff members can take a paid day off, according to Maher, to spend time with a charity sponsored by the Vodafone foundation.
From Nostitzová’s time spent making jam to the huge amounts of money invested in local charitable efforts, the 2007 VIA Bona Award winners represent a seismic shift within the Czech Republic.
“It wasn’t easy to choose from among the range of high-quality, inspirational and exemplary models,” said Jaroslava Hájková of Phillip Morris CR, chairman of VIA’s 2007 Bona Award evaluation committee. “In the past, the path of corporate giving was forged by large international corporations. It is heartwarming to see that Czech companies also now figure in the field of philanthropy.”

Brooke Edge can be reached at tempo@praguepost.com


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