The Ron Pavellas Award for Community Service 2023

The Rotary Club of Stockholm International has the pleasure to announce that the recipient of the 2023 Ron Pavellas Award for Community Service is João Paulo, the founder of Alla Ska Få Mat.

Originally from Brazil, João Paulo established Alla Ska Få Mat in 2020 after witnessing the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on unemployed and homeless members of the community.

Since then, supported by individual donations and assistance in-kind from hundreds of people, the organization has prepared and distributed over 30,000 meals along with clothing and funds to homeless people and others in demanding situations. Since February this year, at their locale in Abrahamsberg in Bromma, they have hosted weekly yoga and meditation sessions followed by meals and conversation to encourage fellowship and reduce isolation among vulnerable people.

The group has recently started operating in Gothenburg and has plans to expand operations including a tent in Södermalm and expanding the volunteer operations to include more unemployed, refugees and youth as a way to expand cultural exchange and reduce social isolation.

Read more about the group at their webpage: https://allaskafamat.se/ and join their Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/508142713473865/

The Ron Pavellas Award for Community Service is a 10 000 SEK personal stipendium awarded to an individual who has significantly contributed to the betterment of their neighborhood/community/peer group and/or has promoted integration of people in the Swedish community. To recognize and support the role of immigrants in the community, eligible recipients must be immigrants to Sweden themselves or the child of an immigrant.

This award, funded by the Rotary Club of Stockholm International, in honour of its founder, is in support of the vision of Rotary International which is to create a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities and in ourselves. Rotary works around the world to provide community service, to encourage high ethical standards and to help build goodwill and peace in the world.