Zeinal Bava consolidates  PT’s activity in education with this project

The big three are going back to school. With project “PT with School Sports”, presented on 10 November in TMN’s Auditorium in Lisbon, Portugal Telecom consolidates its activity in the scope of education. To promote School Sports for young people, PT invited three prominent personalities of Portuguese sports who, apart from distinguishing themselves in football, represent an ideal of sportsmanship, perseverance and motivation: Ricardo Sá Pinto, Rui Costa and Vítor Baía.

According to Zeinal Bava, PT’s CEO, “these three football icons will be an inspiration for young people. Until the end of the school year, they will visit 180 schools, participate in talks and entertainment activities where they will share their experiences with students, not only in sports, but also as professionals and individuals”.

School is one of the pillar stones of the whole learning and growing up process and, in this context, school sports is decisive for this education, helping young people build their own future in a balanced way, preventing and sending out alerts about the various problems that young people face in society. “PT is proud to participate and promote this project, thus contributing to building a better future for these students”, says Zeinal Bava.

"his is a very important project and it is one of the cornerstones of PT’s activity" Rui Pedro Soares

PT has been associating itself to sports, namely supporting the big three in football (Benfica, Sporting and Porto) as well as other sports disciplines such as tennis, surf, among others, through TMN’s Dream Team, a team of promising young people.

This project, in connection with school sports, consolidates PT’s bet on education. “This is a very important project and it is one of the cornerstones of PT’s activity. The presence of three football icons will allow us to get closer to young people, and spread values such as sportsmanship, citizenship, among others. On the other hand, we will also benefit from the exposure generated from a project like this, which shows PT’s human side”, explains Rui Pedro Soares, Board member, PT.

PT’s School Sports Ambassadors, Ricardo Sá Pinto, Rui Costa and Vítor Baía, will visit 180 schools from the 6th to the 12th school years and raise everyone’s attention to these problems, by presenting their experience while professional athletes and how sports changed their lives and their way of seeing the world.

PT’s CEO highlights the importance of its activity for young people in helping them build their future.

“We are proud of being part of PT’s family and of becoming ambassadors of this project. It is important to convey values to these young people and thus contribute to their development. We will represent PT and let’s get started!” said Vítor Baía, head of FCP’s international relations.

“It’s a pride to be PT’s ambassador, namely because this project promotes young people and the contact with them. It is important to instil the values of sportsmanship into the young people”, said Rui Costa, SLB’s sports director.

The first schools to be visited individually by each personality will be: Escola Básica Augusto Gil in Porto, by Vítor Baía on 12 November, followed by Escola Dr. Azevedo Neves in Damaia by Rui Costa on 13 November, and Escola D. Luísa de Gusmão in Lisbon by Ricardo Sá Pinto on 14 November.

There will be talks and a lot of activities during each visit, in which students can win tickets for Benfica, Porto and Sporting matches, but above all, be close to their idols, listen to their stories and to their advice and ask questions about their experience.

There are a lot of expectations raised by this initiative. For students Ivo Pinto and Evandro Lopes, “this project will make students more interested in studying.” The fact that three renowned football players share their experiences with students induces them to “give more importance to studying and to learn how to conciliate both areas: sports and education. We can thus ensure that we will have more options to choose from in the future”, they say.