Dream #28

Dream #28

CEBE was the name of the kindergarten and primary school that I, Pedro, attended in Lisbon, Portugal, when I was a child, between 3 and 10 years old.

Located in an old palace in Benfica, It had an outdoor area with trees, sand boxes and a small football pitch that we called "Telheiro". The classrooms were cute and little, full of posters with letters and drawings. I still remember the first time I went to the board and wrote my name with white chalk. It was the biggest challenge of my life until that moment.

For me it was the school of dreams. A magical place full of happiness, joy and good moments. CEBE had a huge impact in my education and childhood. Sometimes I speak with my friends and they tell me how much they hated school or their teachers of primary. In those moments i just think to my self: "What are you talking about?? School was the best time of my life!!". 

This was and is indeed my true feeling. I always loved school and the reason it's because CEBE was an amazing institution. There was good balance between learning, playing, leisure and sports. The facilities were simple and with good energy. Food was delicious. We had books and fieldtrips. We had music and English lessons. We painted drawings and we spent much time reading books. We played football and had swimming lessons. And the staff was very qualified and caring for us, children.

Amongst this staff there was Helena Barros. She used to call me and other children Bugs Bunny. She was sweet, warm and passionate for her job. When we are children, we know who are the people with this type of energy. And I never forgot how good Helena used to treat us.

30 years have passed, and for me it was not a surprise when i discovered that Helena has became the school director. She is the right person in the right place.

After the earthquake Helena contacted us because she wanted the school to get involved with our projects in Nepal. She wanted the current children to know the importance of giving. She wanted them to be citizens of the world.  

So in the past years, I visited my old school two times to talk to the children about Nepal. It's amazing to go back, everything seems so small now! And it's amazing to listen to the questions of the children. They are really well informed!!

Note: My mother Maria, my wife Ghazal and my son Vicente also joined in this visit to CEBE.

In one of these visits Helena said she was going to organize a fundraising for our project, Dreams of Kathmandu, and that's exactly what she did!! Last year, they made a walk in the forest of Lisbon, Monsanto, and they managed to fundraise 284€ to help the children of Nepal!! Look at these images, it's incredible what they did!!

Recently I spoke to Helena and we decided to apply these 284€ in buying winter clothes for the 8 children of Thaiba Shelter. The project that we have been supporting for two years now, runned by the couple Tej and Shanti. In this time of the year, it's very cold in Kathmandu, so we are very happy to see these pictures. It warms our heart to know that the children are more confortable now

If you also wanna get involved in making dreams happening contact us to pedro_queiros@hotmail.com and ghazalvaziri@gmail.com. We are not gonna stop to help and make the dreams of the Nepali children come true. Happy New Year 2020 to everyone!