2L1 Language Solutions Social Responsibility

No ano letivo 2016/17, a empresa 2L1 teve o prazer de patrocinar uma vez mais o Concurso de Inglês-falado, na Escola Básica da Sapataria [aldeia do concelho de Sobral de Monte Agraço].

Apesar da mudança de professor, a nova docente (Luciana) aderiu de imediato ao projeto e ao nosso objetivo de motivar os jovens estudantes através de prémios escolares.

Os prémios foram atribuídos apenas aos alunos do 3º e 4º anos do ensino básico, uma vez que o ensino de Inglês aos mais novos (pré-escolar, 1º e 2º anos) foi cancelado por decisão governamental.

O maior contratempo ocorreu em maio, quando a empresa produtora dos troféus em acrílico informou que , devido a um problema técnico, não iria conseguir cumprir o prazo de entrega. Mas comprometeu-se a enviar os troféus assim que o equipamento fosse concertado.

Ora, o esforço dos alunos não podia ficar sem recompensa. Por isso, conseguimos contactar no Algarve uma professora de Inglês já reformada que escreve livros para crianças. E duas cópias autografadas do seu livro “Freda and Fernando on the River Tagus /Freda e Fernando no Rio Tejo” chegaram mesmo a tempo da festa de entrega dos prémios.

Gostaríamos de felicitar a Lia e o Leandro, os dois vencedores, assim como todos os concorrentes, que fizeram um grande esforço durante o ano para aperfeiçoar o seu Inglês. E agradecemos à professora que nos ajudou a concretizar o projeto e à escritora Sheila Ward, autora o livro infantil.

Estamos ainda a tentar organizar uma visita da escritora à escola, no início do próximo ano letivo, para uma sessão de leitura, que seria com toda a certeza muito apreciada por todos os alunos, pais e professores.

A empresa 2L1 vai prosseguir esta missão de motivar os jovens estudantes, seja através de mais uma edição do concurso de Inglês-falado, já no próximo ano letivo, seja através de outras iniciativas.

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Spring is on its way and the apple trees are in bloom

Planting is finished for this year. We put in almost 20 new fruit trees between December and March to try and produce cherries, avocados, walnuts, limes, lemons, oranges, olives and persimmons. Now we just wait to see what 'takes'

2L1 is looking for part-time English teachers in Lisbon and Entroncamento. If you would like to apply or know anyone who may be interested, please contact me on [email protected]

Spring is on its way (so they say) so it was high time to get the fruit trees pruned. What looked like a 'triffid' actally had a nice olive tree hiding in the middle. Now all we need is some warm weather to get the sap moving.

Now that it's been raining for a while, the water tank at the orchard is full and seems to be completely waterproof. A 'estanque tanque' hein?

The first trees are just going in the ground (I know I look horrible in the snap shots, but just focus on the saplings. Some were presents from Richard and then there was a pair of cherry trees, a pair of lemon trees, a pair of orange trees and a pair of avocado trees, two turtle doves and a partidge in one of my old pear trees :-)

As winter is drawing in, it is time to get the orchard ready for its first full year of carbon sequestration. That means the land needed to be ploughed so we can start getting ready to plant lots of new trees over the coming months. I thought about manual labour (but not for long!). Now it's just waiting to get it harrowed and then the pruners are going to come in and cut the trees back once the sap has dried,

2L1 has now completed the purchase of a piece of land with fruit tress to try and make the company carbon neutral in the coming years. Carbon sequestration does not need ecologically dstructive trees such as eucalyptus or pines; pear trees, apple trees and plum trees all grab CO2 from the atmosphere..
Over the winter we hope to plant about 100 trees of different varieties in 'bosquetes', or litttle copses, with 4 or 5 trees of each kind. Save the planet gram by gram, and get free fruit for the hell of it. :-)

Prize day for the 2L1 English speaking contest. And the winners are....
International Children's Day was celebrated at the local primary school with music and the English speaking award ceremony.

Congratulations to everyone involved!

The Sapataria primary school "English-speaking" prizes are ready and waiting to be picked up... Tomorrow we'll see what they are like .-)

Awards for the "English Speaking Prize" competition

2L1's next big social responsibility project is the 2nd edition of the 'English Speaking Prize' for the local primary school in Sapataria.
Award day is 1 June, International Children's Day.
The uniquely designed awards are made locally, as are the biscuits all the kids get.

The first trial version to check colours and separation went well!

Fresh green peas from the plant to the open pod especially grown for the Gradil soup festival

Raul Arenas in the Quinta do Espirito Santo greenhouses.

Soup festival in Gradil where 2L1 presented a colourful soup for a queue of people that never ended.

"Our first major social responsibility event of 2015 was the Gradil soup festival. 2L1 has been helping the Comunidade Vida e Paz farm called Quinta Espirito Santo (QES) in our local community of Sapataria, for some years and once again they agreed to help hand-grow some of the ingredients I was going to use in the soup.

The QES agricultural engineer Raul Arenas carefully planted the seedlings in a special bed and picked just when they were ripe and sweetest.
The farm supplied all the peas used as the base for this stunning three-colour soup (4 if you count the nasturtium).

This creation is pea and spearmint soup with a smile of cream of tomato and a whirl of fresh cream, a few chopped chives on top and a nasturtium to garnish. Last year 2L1 presented a fresh spinach and pear soup and the year before that a classic Scotch broth.

The QES director José Alfredo was also there to keep an eye on things :-)"