You are never too small or too big to help!

Dear readers,

Wow! I am still touched by the emotion of the prize winners of our Civil Solidarity Prize this year.

I co-hosted the award ceremony on 15 February in front of a live audience of 7 500 people. The news of the recognition by the EESC of these great initiatives soon spread all over Europe.

And the winners were only the tip of the iceberg.  All of the 250 applications we received bore testimony to the fantastic solidarity that had been and is still being shown by many in the face of COVID-19. The prize-winning projects are a snapshot of what is happening on the ground, of the immense efforts undertaken by countless organisations and individuals to help those in need, even saving lives or just helping people cope with the hardships caused by the pandemic. It shows that our many communities really are the heart of Europe.

As for their content, the projects ranged from those providing in-kind support, such as delivering food and assistance to the elderly or the homeless, to people making protective medical material for doctors, medical staff or maternity wards, to projects taking place entirely online, such as looking after the mental health of teenagers or of anyone in need, battling COVID-related fake news, helping children with special educational needs and their parents to continue with schooling and therapy when all schools shut down, organising certifiable courses on everything you need to know on COVID-19 or simply organising balcony concerts to boost morale during the first lockdowns. And that is just a sample!

The winning projects prove you are never too small or too big to help – they ranged from initiatives launched by an 18-year-old high school pupil to large-scale operations undertaken by an international NGO that is a seasoned crisis healthcare provider active on different continents.

Look at what can be achieved when we tap into that sense of civil responsibility, that compassion, and that consideration for our neighbours.

The EESC's goal was to acknowledge the contribution made by Europe's civil society to overcoming this crisis and the vital role it played. We wanted to show those people working on the ground that Europe is thankful for their commitment and their solidarity. We decided to address that with a prize.

We hope our prize will not just prove to be an incentive to our winners, but will also serve as an inspiration for all other organisations and individuals to continue with their incredible acts of solidarity, as what they do is crucial to winning the battle against the pandemic and to building a better future for Europe. We were therefore very proud and humbled to celebrate this moment with some of these incredible people;

We would also like you to get to know these brave and creative people and their work better. In this issue you can read interviews with each of our winners who, among other things, told us what prompted them to launch their projects and how these were received by their direct beneficiaries. You can also listen to the podcast with our winner in the cross-border category – Emergency, an NGO which built a hospital in Bergamo when this Italian city was the coronavirus hotspot in the early days of the pandemic. And here are also some fun facts for those who want to find out more. Enjoy the read!

Cillian Lohan

EESC vice-president for communications