Photo by: ACI archives
YOUR POST FOUNDATION AND ACI SAILING TOGETHER IN IČIĆI
This year marks the second time that ACI and the Your Post Foundation have organised a sailing trip for children living in children’s residential homes. Along with those from children’s homes situated in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Pula and Karlovac, we also welcomed children from St Joseph’s Home for Children Without Parental Care in Hrvatski Leskovac.
There are about 30 children’s residential homes throughout Croatia caring for children from families who could not provide them with a loving home and basic conditions for a normal life and development. They live there until leaving secondary school, when they get temporary accommodation in “trainer flats”, after which – with no family support, money or employment – they have to start living on their own. At that very vulnerable age, those young people must face many problems of day-to-day living that are hard to cope with for anyone. Realising the problems they are faced with, Croatian Post d. d. established the Your Post Foundation in 2010.
Your Post Foundation and ACI
The mission of the Your Post Foundation is to promote corporate social responsibility in order to help create a better and more humane world for children without adequate parental care. Thanks to the Foundation and its collaboration with Croatia Insurance, its long-term partner, insurance policies have been taken out for more than 400 children living in children’s homes. The young people are paid the insured amount in annuities after they leave residential care and start living on their own, which provides them with funds for basic living expenses – rent and utility bills – for a period of two to three years, until they find employment and become independent. ACI d. d. joined these praiseworthy efforts in 2014 and since then has paid policy premiums for five children.
Regatta in Ičići
In the morning hours, groups of cheerful and inquisitive teenagers started arriving in ACI Marina Opatija in Ičići.
We gathered, put on our “sailing” T-shirts, had something to eat and took photos, while bursts of laughter and chattering could be heard all the time; not only that of the children but also of the donors, sponsors, educators, foster parents and especially our enthusiastic Carmelite sister of the Divine Heart of Jesus, Katarina Pišković, who came with the children from St Joseph’s House for Children Without Parental Care in Hrvatski Leskovac.
