The Foundation Prize was created in 2008 by the CMA CGM Foundation. It is awarded each year by its President to associations in recognition of their commitment in the humanitarian and social field.
People living in Marseille's precarious living areas and squats are often illiterate and their children rarely attend school. In a country where education is compulsory for all children between the ages of 6 and 16, L'Ecole au Présent, directed by Jane Bouvier, works to ensure that no child remains at the school gate.
It accompanies children and their families through the schooling process with a view to civic integration and intervenes in some thirty precarious living areas in Marseille.
The association also acts directly in the field to offer comprehensive support to families for training and employment and in administrative procedures for the schooling of children.
The Foundation's Prize distinguishes the action of the Ecole au Présent which responds to an extremely high priority issue which is the schooling of all children, based on its very good knowledge of the field and the problems of these families. Due to the crisis linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, the traditional award ceremony that takes place every year at CMA CGM Group headquarters in Marseilles could not be held.
On 28 November 2019, Tanya Saadé Zeenny, President of the CMA CGM Foundation, and Naïla Saadé, Honorary President of the Foundation, awarded the 2019 CMA CGM Foundation Prize to Institut Louis Germain, in the presence of Renaud Muselier, President of the Provence-Alps-Côte d’Azur Region and Sponsor of this 11th edition.
The award recognises the outstanding work carried out by this association which has implemented an excellent academic tutoring programme for talented secondary school pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. The association's goal is to give them the academic and cultural tools they need to enrol and thrive in the most prestigious universities and educational institutions.
Based in Salon-de-Provence, the Institut Louis Germain association was created in 2014 and named after a teacher of Albert Camus who supported the novelist when he was still a pupil.
"Without the affectionate assistance you gave to the poor young child that I was, without your teaching, none of this would have happened." (Letter from Albert Camus to Louis Germain after the author received the Nobel Prize in Literature).
The awards ceremony was an opportunity for the young people who attend Institut Louis Germain to take part in an unforgettable event at the Jacques Saadé Tower, which houses the head office of the CMA CGM Group in Marseille. They were also able to meet the two keynote speakers of the 2019 Foundation Prize ceremony: Sabrina Roubache, executive producer of the Netflix series 'Marseille' and founder of Gurkin Production, and Taïg Khris, three-time world champion in vert skating. The powerful speeches inspired the youngsters in attendance, who were able to learn about the unconventional paths and educational experience of the two celebrities.
A new prize was awarded for the first time in 2019 to give the employees of the CMA CGM Group a chance to vote for their favourite association.
This year the prize went to L'Agora, a social resources centre. This project, backed by the Foundation, works with 12 primary school pupils who recently arrived in France, do not speak French, and must overcome educational deficiencies and barriers to social integration.
The programme incorporates a cultural dimension so that the children can better understand how society functions and integrate more easily.
At the ceremony, Tanya Saadé Zeenny and the entire Board of Directors celebrated the exceptional contribution of Naïla Saadé, who created the Foundation in 2005, oversaw its development, and shepherded major initiatives to help the most vulnerable people.
Tanya Saadé Zeenny also unveiled the new direction of the CMA CGM Foundation. The new direction is an extension of the Foundation's historic actions but also introduces a primary focus: equal access to education, as well as renewed ambitions to broaden its reach, especially by developing its actions abroad and by strengthening its support of major humanitarian causes.
The association "Paradis d'Enfants", winner of the 2019 Lebanon Foundation Prize
On 23 December 2019, the CMA CGM Foundation awarded its "2019 Lebanon Prize" to the "Paradis d'Enfants" association.
The association's objective is to enable children from underprivileged backgrounds to have access to quality education at the primary level. This action echoes the CMA CGM Foundation's central theme "Education for All" and its commitment to Lebanon.
Its mission is to:
The CMA CGM Foundation has decided to support this structuring action so that the association can develop its activities in favor of the education of the most underprivileged children.
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