Lava Legato

We are happy to inform you that the Lava Legato foundation selected the winners of the Art of Freedom competition.It was a competition about freedom that Lava Legato organised through the Royal Playground website. It is a prize as part of the 75 years anniversary of Freedom that the Netherlands celebrate. Below you see the winners of the prize, both for senior and junior applicants.

The jury of the competition was the full board of the Lava Legato foundation. Because of the variety of pieces that were submitted, it was a challenging task to select the winners. But we did it. However, we also would like to mention the canvases that had a great appeal for us, but that did not win a prize. You see them under the winners as well as the remarks made by the jury about these canvases.

The winner of the Art of Freedom competition for senior applicants has been able to create an attractive image of physical proximity and love as symbol for freedom. According to the jury, the maker originally portrays freedom as allowing oneself to connect to the world with all its colors and diversity. The text “free the kisses, your soul and your life. The world is waiting for you” emphasises the idea that the world of freedom should be open for everyone and receptive for every kiss. Besides, the text and the image naturally relate love and diversity of humanity to autonomy and with that to the control over personal freedom. The jury recognises characteristics of equality and accessibility: it is a utopian image, but also an image that inspires. It radiates positivity and gives hope, elements that the jury especially values.

The winner of the Art of Freedom competition for junior participants, has been able to represent the multilayered concept of freedom in a light-hearted, frivolous manner. The maker relates freedom to being oneself in every aspect. No matter how unusual or deviating from the norm one’s own wishes are, freedom is here represented as the possibility to live these wishes. This idea, childishly simple shown on the canvas, touches upon an essential, but also complex element of freedom. The effectiveness of the way the maker has translated this idea in an image, is according to the jury especially striking.

Comments of the jury:
a. Personal thoughts on freedom of a young woman in today’s society: a canvas that puts possibilities and opportunities in a refreshing perspective.
b. A strong image in terms of colors and objects that illustrate lack of freedom.
c. A perfect representation of what Lava Legato (organiser of the Art of Freedom Competition) in their daily activities is aiming for: connecting and peacefully working together in our global society.
d. A pure expression of the maker’s phantasy. For the jury, the canvas covers freedom of creation in an open and sincere manner.
e. A highly topical canvas that uses the canvas tool in a creative and effective way. The maker is processing a serious theme by using light and humorous elements.
f. A simple picture with an interesting subject to think about: does technology and our ability to take pictures everywhere and from everything allow us to discover and to see? And to be more free?
g. A canvas with focus on freedom within oneself. Breaking bars behind bars creates a strong visual representation of self-direction.
h. The jury sees a view on freedom related to modern society, in which people feel they lack leisure time as well as the opportunity to do absolutely nothing. Is it what we want, what we fear or both?
i. The jury recognises freedom of movement in this canvas, with two opposite sites: an aggressive swan on the left, and a skittish, light-footed danser on the right.

what do we do?

The Lava Legato Foundation carries out activities related to charities, volunteer work and work in aid of the community.

The Lava Legato Foundation focuses on three areas:

· volunteer work

· special education

· local community

and works on social entrepreneurship to support the three focus areas.

The Lava Legato Foundation works with a group of professionals and volunteers who organize and coordinate international volunteer activities and develop educational programs. One of the structural activities is facilitating volunteer work, in Rotterdam and The Hague, but also in Vorden at the biodynamic farm Urtica de Vijfsprong and the Kleine Koning, a residential house for children with special needs. Up to date information about these activities can be found on the Lava Legato Facebook page.

Partners that Lava Legato has collaborated with

AGENTSCHAP NL, agency of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation and Agriculture

LMC (secondary school); special education department

Olympia college (secondary school), special education department

Middin (care organization for 5.500 clients with special needs)

Arosa (women’s shelter)

Da Vinci College (vocational training centre)
Province of South Holland (local government)
The Hague city council
Vocational training centre Zadkine
Rijn IJssel College (Vocational training centre)
Higher vocational educational institution Arnhem and Nijmegen
Province of Noord-Brabant (local government)
Vocational training centre Mondriaan

and a great variety of international partners to organize international volunteer activities.

international volunteer work

The Lava Legato foundation offers volunteer work abroad for young people between 18 and 30 years old as part of the Erasmus+ program European Solidarity Corps. The program lasts between 2 and 12 months and offers fulltime volunteer activities, a language course, an additional health insurance and training programs. Food allowance and accommodation are covered.

In order to do international volunteer work, you need to meet certain criteria:

-All Erasmus+ volunteer projects need at least three partners: a hosting organization, a sending organization and a volunteer.

-You need an English CV and motivation letter to apply for a project. The motivation letter is used to explain why you would like to participate in the project.

You need to find a project abroad where you can do your volunteer work. Please check the European Solidarity Corps website of the Erasmus+ program.

A grant should be applied to finance the project. This is done by the sending or hosting organization. Please take into account the deadlines for applying for a grant. Only after the grant is approved you can go abroad. Contact us to find about the next deadline.

The volunteer work offered by Erasmus+ is not a holiday: it means committing yourself between 2 and 12 months -depending on the offer by the hosting organization- to fulltime volunteer work.

Erasmus+ projects can take place all over the world, but Lava Legato only works on projects that take place in Europe.

It is possible to obtain a certificate of your participation: a Youthpass.

Lava Legato sends, coordinates and hosts volunteers. In the Netherlands, the hosting takes place in different areas. In Rotterdam and The Hague volunteers work for a variety of social and educational organizations. In Vorden, volunteers work at the biodyanmic farm Urtica de Vijfsprong. In Vierakker volunteers work in the residential house for children with special needs, de Kleine Koning.

why us?

For more than 19 years we have been working on activities to support people but also communities and districts that can use help. We set up and execute social projects with international stakeholders, but also with small scale local partners. A few of our well known projects are:

restaurant Trattoria Borgo d'Aneto
the Rotterdam Fruit Preserve: an organic delight that we made together with volunteers and interns from special education.
the espresso bar the Polka dot Rabbit at the cube houses in the city center of Rotterdam.

We do not receive structural funding. It is important for us to be self sustaining. We therefore inform young people -volunteers and students- about the impact of being independent. We do our best to teach them basic entrepreneurial skills. New partnerships are always interesting for us, under the condition that we are allowed to think out of the box and work professionally & with our hearts. Inspiration comes from people and organizations who dare to be different and who strive for excellence. We know that it is not always easy to make changes but we stay optimistic in trying to make the world a better place.

gallery

We are active in different fields, as these pictures show you.

From top left to bottom right: 1. our espressobar the Polka Dot Rabbit, 2. Monteiro Gym: one of the organisations where our volunteers are active; 3. Theo and Ewald during a food event in the neighbourhood Feyenoord in Rotterdam; 4. two interns for the Rotterdam Fruit Preserve. 5. Amina, our volunteer from Bosnia Herzegovina helping out at an event for children. 6.Judit: a volunteer from Spain, helping out at a garden project. 7. Tereza, a local volunteer assisting at the Rotterdam Fruit Preserve; 8. A billboard in Rotterdam, with Ewald and two international volunteers; 9. children from a primary school assisting in making fruit preserve. 10. Matteo, an Italian volunteer partincipating in a local event to stimulate social cohesion; 11. an intern at the Rotterdam Fruit Preserve; 12. two interns at the Rotterdam Fruit Preserve.

JESSIE VOERMANS

BOARD MEMBER

graduated in 1994 in the field of Child & Youth Psychology at Tilburg University. After her studies she started her own company, aimed at developing assessment tools for staff selection and recruitment and personnel management. From 2001 she made a career shift: from working for commercial organizations to being involved in social and educational activities. Creative expression, international activities and special needs students are her fields of expertise. In 2020 she finished her MA (with distinction) in Fine Arts. This allows her to organize more creative and artistic activities to contribute to the mission of the foundation.

EWALD RENAR

BOARD MEMBER

Grew up on the south side of Rotterdam. He knows this area and the developments that took place there like no other. After Ewald finished his studies in the catering business, he started being an entrepreneur. He specialized in mediation of art projects and the stimulation of enterpreneurship among artists. He collaborated with a variety of commercial and governmental organizations like Honda Nederland, Wyett, the ministry of Trafic and Water, the ministry of Security and Justice and DSM.

With his own company Fruit de Renar he started the collaboration with the Lava Legato foundation. Together they founded the Rotterdam fruit preserve in 2011. In 2018 this social -best practice- business was handed over to the Social Delight foundation.

HERMAN DE GROOT

BOARD MEMBER

Herman de Groot studied Architecture at the University of Delft. During his studies he used his free time to support residents’ associations for housing and district improvement in Delft. In the 80’s he worked for the Rotterdam City council on projects that aim to boost the city. In 1990 he started his own business in this area. More than 25 years he was engaged in innovative housing projects, for the most part in Rotterdam. He always strived for solutions that have added value for residents. The appreciation for his work is shown in the fact that local residents named two squares after him, one in Delft and one in Rotterdam.

GHISELLA SILVA

MENTOR

Gisella Silva has worked for several years as a professional in the field of Internationalisation for Inholland University of Applied Sciences. With a bachelor in Tourism management and coaching the obvious step was to combine these two with her love for the city of Rotterdam. In her current role she facilitates connection between higher education and local companies in Rotterdam. She has obtained vast experience in external relations and collaboration doing so.

In 2019 she also started her own company where she works as a trainer in Networking skills and Image Consulting bringing together her desire to help others in their personal growth as well as helping them to create valuable (professional) connections.

HANI DIRI

MENTOR

Hani has started as an intern at Lava Legato. She just arrived in the Netherlands and was not able to speak Dutch. Throughout the years she continued with her education, and has done so very succesfully. Her experience to move from Somalia to the Netherlands, a country that was very different from what she was used to, only made her stronger. She has a great ability to adapt, to learn a language and to do well in her educational career: in 2020 she will start a Bachelor program. Hani currently uses her insights and experience to support the international volunteers in Zuthpen.

Lava Legato initiates projects or organizes activities upon requests. The Polka Dot Rabbit is a project that started in 2018. This is the story behind it.

The business unit located at Overblaak 96 was obtained in 2016 and is located in the Cube houses. It was totally renovated and transformed into an espresso bar in 2017 and was part of the Rotterdamsche Confituur until 2018. Rotterdamsche Confituur is a project that was initiated by Lava Legato in 2011. It aims to make high quality fruit preserve for hotels and delight shops. Special education students do an internship to experience what it means to work for a company that makes food products. In 2018 Rotterdamsche confituur was taken over by three Rotterdam ladies. The shop on the south side of Rotterdam is still used to produce the best fruit preserve you ever had.

As a result, in 2018 we had to look for a new name for our espresso bar in the Cube houses. Not only the name had to be changed, the foundation was also ready to take on a new project. Jessie Voermans, one of the board members was doing a project that was part of an MA program in Fine Arts. She decided to experiment with a made up protagonist that could fit into a fairy tale and made up the Polka Dot Rabbit. One of the experiments that Jessie did was naming the espresso bar the Polka Dot Rabbit. Changing names was not the only thing that was part of the experiment: introducing the rabbit was part of a bigger plan. With Ewald as driving force, the espresso bar focusses on:

1. IMPROVING THE AREA OF THE CUBE HOUSES

Although the Cube houses are located in the city centre and are an important tourist attraction in Rotterdam, the area where the Cube house are located is not very attractive. There are few shops, and except for the Cube Houses itself, there is really nothing to see for tourists. As was done with the Pretorialaan on the south side of Rotterdam, Lava Legato aims to drastically improve the area by using the full potential of the district.

2. INTEGRATING DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES

As with all projects and activities of the foundation, Lava Legato tries to integrate different discplines in the Polka Dot Rabbit project. The idea is to combine the catering industry with art and education. This for instance means that small art pieces will be sold in the venue. Eventually students with an interest in creative expression, will be invovled as well. The focus will not be on Art Academy students, but on special education students. The project started in 2018 and updates can be fournd under projects & events.

DEC

NEW INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEERS HAVE BEEN SELECTED FOR ROTTERDAM AND ZOETERMEER. THEY WILL START IN MAY 2021.

NOV

THE SELECTION HAS STARTED FOR VOLUNTEERS WHO WILL START THEIR PROJECT IN APRIL 2021.

OCT

THE ROTTERDAM FREEDOM TOUR IS RECORDED AND PUT TOGEHTER BY OUR INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEERS. CHECK THE WEBSITE REGULARLY BECAUSE THE CITY TOUR WILL BE PUBLISHED ONLINE. PETER VAN HEEMST IS INVOLVED AS CITY GUIDE.

THE ART OF FREEDOM COMPETITION IS CLOSED AND THE JURY WILL DECIDE ON THE WINNERS IN TWO CATEGORIES: 18+ AND UP TO 18 AND YOUNGER.

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL MEETING FOR THE PROJECT ESC 3.0: TO MAKE THINGS BETTER TOOK PLACE ON 12 AND 13 OCTOBER TOGETHER WITH A SPANISH AND ITALIAN PARTNER. UNFORTUNATELY WE WERE NOT ABLE TO ORGANISE THE MEETING IN ROTTERDAM AS WE PLANNED, BUT IT WAS ORGANISED ONLINE. THE RESULTS WERE VERY CONSTRUCTIVE AND INSPIRING AND WE ARE READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEPS.

SEP

NEW VOLUNTEERS FROM ITALY, SPAIN, FRANCE, GERMANY AND ESTONIA ARRIVED, AND WILL START WITH THEIR 8 MONTHS LASTING VOLUNTEER PROJECT IN THE HAGUE AND ROTTERDAM.

AUG

WE RECEIVED THE KEYS FOR THE NEW LOCATION IN ZOETERMEER AND ARE DECORATING THE 8 ROOMS FOR THE VOLUNTEERS WHO WILL ARRIVE IN SEPTEMBER.

JULY

OUR APPLICATION FOR A VOLUNTEER PROJECT TO HOST YOUNG PEOPLE FROM THE BES ISLANDS IS GRANTED. THIS MEANS LAVA LEGATO CAN START WITH THE PREPARATION TO INVITE YOUNG PEOPLE FROM THE CARIBBEAN WHO NEED EXTRA SUPPORT TO DO A VOLUNTEER PROJECT.

JUNE

DESPITE THE CURRENT GLOBAL SITUATION WE ARE VERY HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE THAT WE ARE GOING TO EXPAND OUR VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES IN THE REGION OF THE HAGUE. MORE THAN EVER, WE BELIEVE IN SUPPORTING SOCIAL ORGANISATIONS WITH ACTIVITIES THAT HELP PEOPLE IN NEED. ON SEPTEMBER 1ST A NEW GROUP OF 12 INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEERS WILL START THEIR ADVENTURES IN THE NETHERLANDS.

MAY

AFTER TWO MONTHS OF A SEMI-LOCKDOWN PERIOD, OUR VOLUNTEERS ARE SLOWLY STARTING UP THEIR ACTIVITIES. THEY ARE WELL-INSTRUCTED AND FOLLOW RULES AND SAFETY PROCEDURES RELATED TO THE COVID-19 SITUATION.

APRIL

START STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP ESC 3.0: TO MAKE THINGS BETTER IS POSTPONED UNTIL SEPTEMBER 2020, BECAUSE OF COVID-19.

MARCH

ADJUSTMENTS ARE MADE FOR THE PROJECT QUEEN OF FREEDOM AS PART OF THE 75 YEARS ANNIVERSARY OF FREEDOM

FEB

ESPRESSO BAR POLKA DOT RABBIT IS CLOSED BECAUSE OF COVID-19.

JAN

INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEERS IN ROTTERDAM FINISHED THEIR PROJECT AND A NEW GROUP OF FOUR VOLUNTEERS WILL START IN FEBRUARY

DEC

END OF THE YEAR BOARD MEETING OF THE LAVA LEGATO FOUNDATION . WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT YEAR CONTINUING WITH CURRENT PROJECTS AND INTERESTING NEW ONES

OCT

LAVA LEGATO PRESENTS THE SOCIAL BUSINESS IDEAS DURING THE FINAL YSE MEETING FROM 1 TO 4 OCTOBER IN ANDUJAR, SPAIN

AUG

THE EVS VOLUNTEERS IN ROTTERDAM ALSO PARTICIPATED IN THE YSE PROJECT. THE WORKSHOPS BRING A LOT OF GREAT SOCIAL BUSINESS IDEAS ON THE TABLE.

APRIL

ESPRESSO BAR THE POLKA DOT RABBIT IS BORN. CHECK THE INSTAPAGE

APRIL

LAVA LEGATO HOSTS THE SECOND MEETING FOR THE YSE PROJECT 2-5 APRIL IN ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS

MARCH

IT'S A WRAP! SEVEN YEARS AFTER FOUNDING THE ROTTERDAM FRUIT PRESERVE WE TRANSFER THE SOCIAL BUSINESS TO THE SOCIAL DELIGHT FOUNDATION.