official Press Release

Great success for MSC Cruises’ Get on Board for Children initiative

MSC Cruises is proud to announce that a grand total of 1 million euros has been collected so far for the Get on Board for Children initiative in support of a project promoting quality education development in Brazil.

The initiative, which relies on donations generously made by guests cruising aboard all 11 passenger liners in the MSC Cruises’ fleet, was introduced in 2009 as part of a three-year partnership agreement with UNICEF and the UNICEF Urban Platform Initiative project in Brazil. The project aims to help address the structural and social inequalities in 94 favelas in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Itaquaquecetuba.

By joining the initiative, MSC Cruises has demonstrated its deep commitment to the promotion of equal opportunities for children and adolescents through the provision of access to quality education.

The project is currently on the homestretch of the initiative’s first cycle, in which governments, non-governmental organizations, communities, families and adolescents have pulled together to give an even stronger boost to reaching the goals initially established by municipalities and communities at the beginning of the project.

In terms of education for instance, municipal schools from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo have launched a monitoring process to assess the implementation of Law 10639/03 which requires the inclusion of Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous history and culture in all official school curriculums. The objective is to expand the number of schools implementing the law in order to foster racial equality and in so doing provide children and adolescents with quality education. This is precisely what MSC Cruises is committed to.

“1 million euros represents a major milestone in our fund raising effort and we are honoured, together with our valued passengers who have so generously supported this initiative, to actively participate in providing quality education to children and adolescents in the most destitute of Brazilian favelas. I am proud of the significant achievements reached so far. While I appreciate that we must progress one step at a time to succeed in our endeavour to drastically help improve access to quality education in Brazil, I am confident that our objectives will be achieved”, said MSC Cruises CEO Pierfrancesco Vago.

Get on Board for Children
MSC Cruises’ guests are invited to Get on Board for Children and make a difference by offering a small donation in addition to their cruise fare. This can be as little as €1 which can simply be added to the bill at the end of their cruise.