It isn’t every day that Almancil International Rotary Club (AIRC) members and guests can enjoy dinner at a five-star hotel restaurant and be entertained by a performance of urban dancing. This was the case recently when a group of youngsters from the [email protected] Project were invited to perform at the Conrad Algarve hotel in Quinta do Lago.
AIRC has been providing financial support to [email protected] for the past three years, first for yoga lessons and more recently for a dance teacher, Etsânea Raquel Fortes.
The [email protected] Project, now in its seventh year, is a social intervention project financed by Programa Escolhas. It is supported by 11 local bodies including the town hall, parish council, school cluster, ASCA, Refood Almancil, Algarve University, the Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth, Romanian and Moldovan Immigrants Association (DOINA), parents’ association, CPCJ, an organisation for the protection of young people, and, of course, AIRC.
The aim of the project is to promote activities which are known to have effective results such as children’s healthy development, the social inclusion and integration of children and their families, investing in school support, parental co-responsibility and participation and citizenship.
Chair of AIRC Community Services, Peter Hinze, said that “whilst urban dancing and yoga may not at first appear to constitute charitable projects, I’ve visited the [email protected] Project many times and seen, first-hand, how these activities have benefitted our local youngsters, many of whom have come from diverse backgrounds.
“All of us who had the opportunity to see these young people perform for us at the Conrad were hugely impressed by their emerging talent and their discipline. We even had the kitchen staff come out to watch the performance.”
 members and guests can enjoy dinner at a five-star hotel){kind=link}