Culture & Education for Life

Article 26 of the universal declaration of human rights adopted in 1948, is the first
international legal instrument that recognises education as a human right. "Everyone has the right to education". It is a non-legally binding instrument but with a great political and moral force. Since its adoption, the right to education has been reaffirmed in numerous human rights treaties and declarations adopted by the United Nations.

Article 27 guarantees cultural rights, including the right for all to participate freely in cultural life, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. This declaration is focussing on the freedom to be part of the cultural life despite of your gender, ethnicity, political opinion, birth or other status.

We support this fully, also with the take-a-stand.eu initiative of Yourope – The European Festival Association. But what about the right to have education and access to culture during war and humanitarian crises? For children and young people in particular, these events are traumatic and steal their hope for a life with prospects for the future. Also, there are thousands of victims who are injured and will be disabled forever. They all need education and access to culture in order to learn for their future lives and experience moments of joy, happiness and togetherness. They need positive elements in their hopeless present lives.

Culture & Education for Life focusses to support organisations and foundations with existing or new projects within Europe.

Culture & Education for Life won’t organize the projects itself in the different territories. The foundation would like to support and cooperate with these organizations with our fund­raising and our private and professional network.

The goal is to support children, young adults and disabled people to education and schooling. They need rooms to hold classes, education material and furniture. Access to culture by providing for example music instruments, music lessons, renovation or rent of cultural meeting rooms, clubs, theatres and cultural centres, technical equipment like PA’s, light, stage equipment, infrastructure like dressing rooms and office equipment for cultural centres. In addition to material goods supply there could be Masterclasses held by musicians or music professionals.

The idea is to set a focus each year on which project will be supported and to define this focus at the end of each year. The focus in 2024 will be the support of projects in Ukraine. The new focus will be defined at the end of 2024.

The supporters are more than welcome to bring in their ideas and suggestions as well.

Fruzsina Szép, co-founder of Take A Stand, board member of Yourope, festival director of Superbloom and Lollapalooza Berlin, Christof Huber, co-founder of Take A Stand, chairman of Yourope, Director Festivals of Gadget Entertainment Switzerland and Cyrill Stadler, Director of Finances of Gadget Entertainment Switzerland.

Culture & Education for Life would like to kickstart the foundation with a capital of a minimum of CHF 100’000 for 2024. The target of CHF 100’000 in 2024 must be raised and confirmed by July 31, 2024.

The aim is to increase fundraising to a minimum of CHF 200’000 per year in 2025. The funds are to be raised from our private and professional network within the music industry, supporters and fans of the music and cultural sector.

A maximum of 5% of the funds should be used for administrative, networking and communication causes to organise and promote the foundation. 95% of the funds must be used for specific purposes by December 31 of each year. Founders and supporters do not receive any money for their work. A detailed report is to be published to all the supporters until February of the following year.

More than two years ago, on February 24, 2022, the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine started. Since then, Russia‘s war of aggression has continued with increasing severity and destruction. The exact number of victims is unknown. According to the UNHCR, around 6.5 million refugees from Ukraine have been registered worldwide since the outbreak of the war, and around 3.7 million people were on the run within the country at the end of 2023. This is one of the largest displacement crises in the world. According to the UN, more than 30000 peaceful citizens of Ukraine became victims of the full-scale Russian invasion 10 378 people died and 19 632 were injured. These figures only reflect the number of civilian casualties that the organisation could confirm: in reality, there are dozens of thousands more, but the exact number cannot be established until the end of the war. More than 1.4 million people in eastern Ukraine have no access to running water.

The whole of Ukraine is currently experiencing blackouts due to the Russian bombing of the electricity infrastructure. Russia continues to destroy Ukrainian cultural, educational and civilian infrastructure. The NATO and EU states have decided on extensive sanctions against Russia. Ukraine receives humanitarian aid supplies. Many countries also supply weapons for the country’s defence.

What is Music Saves Ukraine?

Music Saves Ukraine is a non-profit fundraising initiative which was created by the Ukrainian Association of Music Events (UAME) on March 1, 2022, as a direct response to the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Its main goals are:

• Fundraising for humanitarian aid by collaborating with festivals, artists and music organisations
• Providing humanitarian aid to those who need it most in Ukraine, reacting to urgent humanitarian needs using the raised funds
• Rebuilding Ukrainian culture and its infrastructure by helping to restore damaged cultural institutions or purchasing the necessary equipment for them and organising special events and projects
• Cultural diplomacy through the promotion of Ukrainian culture and music, fostering of dialogue
  between cultural representatives of Ukraine and the rest of the world by working together with music conferences and other events
• Helping Ukrainian musicians and artists find opportunities to perform abroad

The initiative also supports cultural and education projects. It would be the focus of Culture & Education for Life Foundation to support Music Saves Ukraine in such projects.

Official supporters will be listed to the website of Culture & Education for Life with a photo, a description and photo/logo. Their contribution is CHF 5’000 per year (guaranteed for 2 years) for private individuals and a minimum of CHF 10’000 per year (guaranteed for 2 years) for company supporters. Companies that can supply material goods (like PA’s, light, instruments) are also welcomed as company supporters.

These amounts are the minimum amounts required to be an official supporter of the foundation, a higher contribution is always possible on a voluntary basis. Contributions would need to be transferred by July 31 of each year.

Of course, it’s also possible to support Culture & Education for Life with smaller donations. Payments into the foundation are also possible to create assets, so the foundation can grow over time and make distributions through investment income. Deposits into the foundation marked “asset creation” are invested with the care of pension funds and distributions are made with the investment income in accordance with the purpose of the foundation.