When and how was the Education Foundation Eurípides Soares da Rocha founded? 

It was founded in 1965 by members of the Spiritist community if Marília who were already working in the Dr Bezerra de Menezes school. They managed to establish the first university degrees in Marília (Law, Administration and Accountancy). All the founders of the organisation were Spiritists. We now have 11 university degrees. 

What are the links between the organisation and the local Spiritist movement? 

There are close and permanent links between the local Spiritist community and our organisation. To be a member of any providing organisation of the Foundation the person must be an active member of a Spiritist organisation.  

In all your years ahead of the organisation, which would you say is the most important lesson you have learned? 

Without any doubt, I can say that that the main lesson I have learned has been to put into practice the teachings of Spiritism in the administration of the Foundation. We employ more than 300 people from different backgrounds and educational levels. It is a daily challenge to manage such a diverse group and to deal with the accounts and all the responsibilities involved. I must highlight that the main goal of the Foundation is to provide people of lower income with the opportunity to do a university degree. And that is where the great lesson for us is – to keep alive that flame of charity and fraternity, even during the toughest economic crises. We learn a bit more every single day by keeping a non-profit organisation in the current climate of political instability in Brazil, with constant changes in the rules for borrowing money, taxing and granting bursaries. Patience and constant prayer have been my main guides.  

Is there anything else you would like to highlight? 

From day one we have been granting bursaries and scholarships for students from families of lower income. There are two very important moments in this process: first when they come to us to apply for the university entry test and later when they come to enrol. The parents bring along their dreams, the hope of seeing one of their children in university. It is often the only child who had the chance to reach university. They need a scholarship to make this dream come true. They go first through our Social Assistance Unit, where they are interviewed. If they meet the criteria, that is a first step of their dream that has come true. The second moment of this process is even happier. That is when the whole family turns up for the graduation ceremony holding banners that read “You are a winner,” “You’ve made it,” and “Congratulations for your victory”. Family members fill the ambience with cheers and contagious happiness. That is when I realise that everything has been worth while, that it was worth believing in human beings, in sticking to the ideals of our pioneers and that every minute that we spend here in the Foundation has been worth it. 

Any other thoughts? 

Despite all the obstacles, I dream of seeing a bigger number of people with a better quality of life, with access to healthy food and enough to keep their family. I dream of a world where everyone will be able to study and help the parents who worked so hard to give their children the best they could offer. I dream of a world where people realise that life only makes sense when we put into practice the principle of loving one another. One joy? I’ve been lucky to have been around quite a few times when a former student who got a scholarship from us returned to donate all their books to our library, as a gesture of gratitude. Also, I remember the case of former students who, we found out, were helping finance the studies of other people with lower income. In each new class, at least 35% of the students had a scholarship or some form of financial assistance during their degrees. My dream is that in a near future those students will be able to help other people of low income to finish a university degree, which opened for them the door to a better world for everyone, with more social justice and peace and better qualified professionals, blessed with a humanist vision of the world. That is what we work for and that is what we believe in.

Note: To find out more about the University Centre Eurípides of Marília, please access the website, http://www.univem.edu.br/