Tuesday November 26:3rd awards ceremony for “5 senses for kids Foundation”
This year’s ceremony took us on a journey together… To the Middle Ages, with a highly musical tale performed by Brigitte Blaise. A storyteller at the CITE DE LA MUSIQUE Philarmonie de Paris since 1999, she also performs in schools, companies and museums…
A new ceremony was held in the presence of elected representatives, scientits, partners, preofessionals and associations active in the filed of childhood and early childhood, representatives from the business world, donors and members of the “5 senses for kids Foundation” board od directors.
For this 2024 edition, four projects were rewarded
The 5 senses for kids Foundation 2024 Educational Action Awards
– The first prize of €2,500 was awarded to Fanta MARENA from the WINUKO association. The aim of her project “NE “NEZ”GLIGEZ PAS LA FAMILLE!” is to (re)create a bond between parent(s) and child during a moment when the stimulation of the senses will enable the connection to be made, the bond to be strengthened, the quality exchange to savor the time to be together.
– The second prize of €1,500 is awarded to Lisa QUAGLIA and Claire Goletto for their “RESIDENCE EN CRECHES” project, part of the Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux association . As part of this residency, the Orchestra’s musicians use their art as a means of expressing emotions, or as a descriptive means of telling a story, with different workshops.
The “5 senses for kids Foundation” 2024 Science Prizes in partnership with the “Société des Neurosciences”
– The first prize of €2,500 is awarded to Arnaud Leleu from the “Centre national de la Recherche
Scientifique – Délégation Centre-Est” for his project “Olfactory-to-visual facilitation in the infant brain declines gradually from 4 to 12 months”. This project aims to study how the sense of smell assists vision in infants until the visual system reaches sufficient maturity.
– The second prize of €1,500 is awarded to Clément François from the “Centre national de la Recherche
Scientifique -Délégation Provence et Corse”.
His project“Impact of late-to-moderate preterm birth on minimal pair Word learning” measures a novel word-object associative learning at an early age to assess the impact of prematurity on an essential function of language learning.
The Founder’s speech
Even if we are the specialists, the researchers, the educators… the adults, we also learn a lot from the relationship with children: we too are growing up, gaining in maturity. And that’s a great joy: actually we can learn at any age!
What do we learn from children?
First of all, to remain curious.
Children are curious by nature. They always want to discover and explore. Young children spontaneously seek to go beyond the perimeter in which we want to place them. They want to see everything, smell everything, put everything in their mouths. Everything is a source of enthusiasm, astonishment and emotional reaction.
Later on, once children are at school, they will want to know and understand, and will of course ask us the same question over and over: “Why?”. This doesn’t mean a child will like everything: a child makes choices. A child likes or dislikes a particular food, piece of music, color or image. And so much the better! That’s what makes a child a unique being, not a clone.
What a lesson for us adults! Children send us a message: let’s never be blasé, let’s keep our natural curiosity, our taste for learning and discovering.
Children also teach us to remain open to others.
Because children are also open by nature. They have no preconceptions, no prejudices. So much so, in fact, that they don’t always sense danger, and that’s what makes our presence indispensable. But in any case, they see diversity as an asset, an opportunity, and not a threat.
What a lesson for us who, as adults, may tend to stick with those who are like us, who live and think like us, who have the same tastes. So let’s listen to the children’s message once again, and see encounters with otherness as an opportunity to grow and flourish.
Finally, a child reminds us of the importance of human and social bonds.
Children need other children and adults, and they know it. They form bonds and communicate in their own way. Little children, even if they don’t speak very well yet, are capable of helping and consoling each other.
Once again, this is a lesson for us. They remind us that human beings are not made to live alone, isolated
isolated, cut off from others. And, above all, that we can’t learn, be happy or succeed without others.
Curiosity, openness, social ties.
Yes, I’m convinced that children teach us a wonderful lesson in life. Especially at a time when our societies are said to be fractured, polarized and divided.
Children teach us a lesson. They also give us hope. Hope for a more harmonious, more peaceful, more collaborative world, in which tomorrow’s adults will have the confidence, agility and imagination needed to meet the challenges ahead.
We know this: by taking action for early childhood, we are building the world of tomorrow.
Yes, we must remain hopeful. But there is one condition for this: that young children develop well.
Unfortunately, from the earliest age, we also see children who are fearful, withdrawn and who express their emotions very little or not at all.
Our responsibility is to provide them with the pedagogical and educational framework they need to develop properly. And it’s this framework that “5 senses for kids Foundation” is working on. A child discovers the world and learns thanks to his or her senses, thanks to multi-sensoriality.
So we have to act in two directions at the same time:
We’ve been doing this for 3 years now. We’ve developed our website, put a lot of content online, including over fifteen interviews, created a regular newsletter, and of course we’re already supporting 12 scientific and educational projects.
None of this would have been possible without you, without your support, whatever form it might take: time, ideas, contacts, donations.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
You can also make donations to support future projects or prizes via the website:
And by supporting “5 senses for kids Foundation”, you also benefit from substantial tax advantages.
In France, every donation is eligible for tax relief:
– If you are an individual, your donation is eligible for a 66% tax reduction, up to a limit of 20% of your taxable income. For example, a donation of €150 entitles you to a tax reduction of €99.
– If you are a company, you benefit from a corporate income tax reduction of 60% of the amount of the donation, up to a limit of 0.5% of sales excluding tax. For example, a donation of €1,000 entitles you to a tax reduction of €600.