Philanthropic awards for the year 2017 have their owners

The Kia Motors foundation Slovakia was giving out awards for philanthropy in the evening of the 17^th of January

The Slovak Red Cross was awarded 1^st place in the category NGO of 2017. “It is an organization that has one of the largest impacts on people in need not only in Slovakia but worldwide. Thousands of hours, that workers and volunteers spend helping others is impossible to ignore and so we wanted to show our respect and gratitude towards all members of this NGO for their daily effort to improve our society.” Expressed the manager of the foundation Dusan Dvorak.

The award for the biggest achievement in 2017 was given to Jozef Benuska from the gymnasium of P. Toth in Martin. He set up a center of physics from his own initiative where he performs all kinds of physics experiments for more than 3000 students, pedagogical advisors and visitors each year being funded by the grant program of the Kia foundation.

Projekt s najväčším prínosom roka – Jozef Beňuška z Gymnázia V. P. Tótha v Martine

The award for the best volunteer of year 2017 was given to Zaneta Luptovcova, who works in a dog shelter in Zilina, is a regular blood donor and takes part as a volunteer for the program Our City.

“The evening organized by the Kia Motor foundation Slovakia was about thanking people who have given up their free time to philanthropy and the help of others. Some have decided to go down the road of a professional philanthropist, others spend their free time as volunteers in various NGOs. We therefore wanted to gather such people and express our gratitude and support for their future projects.” Said Dusan Dvorak.

In year 2017 the KMS foundation has donated 1.8 million euros to support 132 projects by which it has improved the lives of people not only in the Zilina region. The foundation was mainly orientated on 3 parts in the last year: education- technical and linguistic for children and young adults; sport – supporting sport clubs and their activities and building bicycle lanes; recovering the green are around and reconstructing departments of the Faculty hospital and policlinics of Zilina.

“We want to secure a better future for children and young adults” said Dusan Dvorak. “In year 2018 we are planning to continue in supporting education, sport and mobility and within these 3 pillars we want to launch completely new projects that haven’t been here yet and continue those that have been most successful over the years.”

Reconstruction of the Faculty hospital and policlinics of Zilina continues

In year 2017, the Kia Motors foundation Slovakia continued reconstructing departments of the faculty hospital and policlinics of Zilina. By reconstructing the unused part of the gastroenterology center and finishing the reconstruction of the recovery department of long term patients, it has once again improved the environment intended for providing medical services to patients.

The total sum of money donated for the reconstruction was 127 000 euros. The department of long term patients also received equipment in the form of electrical position beds with accessories following the renovation of its premises.  The foundation bought 66 beds worth more than 109 400 euros. Therefore, the support for the Zilina hospital in year 2017 exceeded 237000 euros.

“During the last 4 years we have shown a big effort and financial aid for the reconstruction of the pediatric and urologic departments as well as for the department of the long term patients and gastroenterology. Changes that have led to the quality improvement of the medical services have been viewed positively not only by patients but also by the staff. We are glad that we are able to help improving medical treatments and create a more pleasing environment for the patients this way.” Stated Dusan Dvorak, the manager of the Kia Motors foundation Slovakia.

The gastroenterology center received new areas to provide health services after the reconstruction. Moreover, departments for endoscopic performances and hepatology have been created, new beds for one day surgery were established as well as immunological treatment and more space for full anesthetics.

“The development of gastroenterology has been moving forward in the last 10 years. Now, we are able to do things that had to be previously done surgically, endoscopically. We have high quality devices, good doctors and a hard working staff. Thanks to the reconstruction we have gained space for providing medical care.” Added Jan Baso, the head doctor of the gastroenterological center.

Other than supplying medical equipment for the department of the long-term patients, part B has been reconstructed that was before in its old original state. The reconstruction included changing windows, floors, painting walls and reconstructing balconies. The comfort of the patients in this department is now at a high level.

“The company Kia Motors Slovakia has already previously supported and reconstructed areas of the department of long term patients. Thanks to their help, support and providing the reconstruction works of the whole department, we have created a  welcoming , safe, comfortable and warm environment for our patients and staff. With the help of the company Kia Motors Slovakia and by providing a good quality health care we can support the improvement of health of our patients and their return to healthy life.” Stated Gabriela Horvatova, manager of the department of long term ill patients.

The company Kia Motors Slovakia has been supporting the Faculty hospital of Zilina for the last 4 years by its foundation and endowment fund. During this time it has invested into improving the comfort and medical processes  of patients and staff of the hospital by almost a million euros.

Children and students will be able to build their own car, program a robot or create a model of a rocket ship during lessons

• The Kia Motors foundation Slovakia donated interactive and practical tools to kindergartens, primary and secondary schools to support technical and language skills with the value of 300 000 euros.
• Children from 29 schools in the Zilina region will be using new tablets, interactive boards, electric sharpeners, programmable robots or wooden building kits.

Zilina, 7^th of December 2017 – the Kia Motors foundation Slovakia introduces a new form of support for kindergartens, primary and secondary schools. Thanks to the innovative project called “support of technical and language learning” 29 schools from the Zilina region received new interactive and practical equipment today for the development of technical and language skills of their students.  The equipment was adjusted to the age and the abilities of the children and students from kindergartens to secondary schools. 7 kindergartens were chosen for the project together with 8 primary schools with kindergartens, 12 primary schools and 2 secondary schools.

“Education is one of the priorities of our foundation and so we come up with ideas that offer new forms of interactive and practical development of skills to children. We want to supply young people with more possibilities for their personal development, so that after absolving primary and secondary schools they can be more experienced in the technical or language fields and can later have bigger chances of employment in Slovakia.” Explains Dusan Dvorak, the manager of the Kia Motors foundation Slovakia.

Children in kindergartens can be excited over new building blocks, with which they can practice basics of building, learn how to think in a technical way and connect pieces of the wooden blocks. They can construct a fully functional tricycle, pram for dolls, model of a car, a boat or a plane.

Primary schools and their students will be using new Lego sets, which will allow them to understand the basics of physics from simple and energy driven machines but also program their own robots. A part of the gift for primary schools includes electric working machines like grinders, saws, sharpeners and drills together with an “energy box” for alternative energy sources, to which students can connect functional solar panels or a wind turbine to generate electrical energy.

“Technical education in Slovakia needs an immediate visible restart and the support of the state as well as the private sector. Slovakia is currently orientated on industrial production. We are a significant producer of automobiles but without awakening the interest of students for technical fields Slovakia can quickly lose competitiveness within Europe.” Added Dusan Dvorak.

The Kia Motors Foundation Slovakia is conscious that a great part of the skills of young people in Slovakia should be languages, therefore it has donated new laptops, tablets and interactive boards with projectors  to primary schools through this project which can be used together with modern applications for teaching. Teachers can now include educational applications in their teaching methods, which have been developed to support the learning of foreign languages as well as other subjects in primary schools.

The support of this new project of the foundation also spread to two secondary schools, with which Kia Motors Slovakia has been collaborating for a while now. Due to the financial grants for supplying the technical tools, the engineer secondary school in Kysucke Nove Mesto could set up a new CNC system and a welding simulator and the academy of transport in Zilina could buy new water guns, scales, grinders and polishers for the project called Painter.

Cycling infrastructure in the city of Zilina has been spreading

The city of Zilina and the Kia motors foundation Slovakia improved the quality of the current state of parking capacities for bicycles by a project aimed at supporting bike transport. The Kia Motors foundation Slovakia supported the project with a sum of 13 620 euros while the city of Zilina took part in it with 2 330 euros.

In the months of September – November 2017 a project was launched by the city of Zilina which provided the existing cycling infrastructure with new components. 84 more bicycle stands were added to the already existing ones in the city. By this, the comfort of the bikers has increased since they usually have a problem to park in multiple places in Zilina. The choice of location was approved by employees at the city hall in Zilina in collaboration with OZ Mulica. Currently you can find more than 450 bicycle stands in the city of Zilina.

Other than the classic stands used for bike parking, the project has set up service stands which can be used for small bike repairs such as wheel inflation. These have been placed in the ZIlina-Zariecie station and in the front of the city hall in Zilina. Service stands are resistant against common damage; in order to destroy them a big strength would be needed. The easily accessible service stands can be seen in other countries and are gradually becoming a part of most European cities.

The Slovak novelties are “bikeboxes” which are designed for safe keeping of bikes. Bikeboxes of this kind are installed only in our city and are therefore the only ones in Slovakia. The box with a steel construction is supplied with a good quality lock. It is resistant against break-ins and it fulfills current requirements to ensure safekeeping. The citizens will be able to have a chance to leave their bike for free in front of the city indoor swimming pool of Zilina where the 3 boxes have been installed. Each can hold two bicycles at the same time. Bikeboxes are equipped with an electronic lock that is easy to use. The service is free and the safekeeping is limited to maximum 8 hours. The boxes are mainly intended for the visitors of the swimming pool throughout the whole year.