Václav Havel Scholarship Concert
Anežský klášter was filled with the sound of music to raise money for the second ECP Václav Havel Scholarship. ECP musicians and singers were joined by 2015 graduate, Barbora Hořejší, and special guest, Mario Bihári. The audience of students, parents, staff and governors enjoyed a varied programme of modern and classical music.
During the interval, there was a silent auction. Together with donations, an impressive total of more than CZK 330,000 was raised. This will go towards meeting the fees of a second Roma student as the first ECP Václav Havel Scholar prepares to graduate this summer. The items donated for the auction included paintings by Roma children, a visit to the Czech Parliament, generously donated by Ivan Bartoš, and a personal safari tour with the Director of Safari at Dvůr Králové, Přemysl Rabas.
In the year before his death, the former President and Czech Patron of the English College, gave his permission to establish a scholarship in his name. It was to be awarded to a young person from a Roma family who would benefit from an ECP education.
Speech by President Václav Havel when unveiling a memorial to the Roma at the site of a Roma internment on the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe (Lety, near Písek, 13 May 1995)
“Let us learn to listen to the Roma people, to understand them, to abandon the belief that we, as the majority in this society, are a measure of all values and our way of life and our beloved values are the norm for everyone. The coexistence of all nationalities in one state, of course, makes common adaptation to generally held civic standards. This, however, does not contradict the further development of the cultural and linguistic heritage of a minority that enriches society as a whole. The quality of our relationship with ethnic minorities, that is with those we regard as ‘others’, is a measure of the quality of our civic consciousness.”
Václav Havel
