If not for him, the start of DOFE in the Czech Republic would have been more difficult. The successful hotelier Ivan Chadima, together with Lady Luisa Abrahams and her daughter Helena Felix, started and financially supported the programme thirty years ago.
When did you first hear about DOFE?
From Lady Louisa Abrahams. When I was on a business trip in London, she called me this morning and said, „Would you like to have lunch at Buckingham Palace today?” I thought it was going to be some big party where she had bought a table and needed to fill it. But it wasn't like that now. There were 12 of us there, we had it in the Chinese Lounge. There was Prince Philip and a very small company, a couple of heads of national offices.
It was a very funny lunch, with Luisa chatting to the Prince about what it's like to be an immigrant in the UK. And that's where I was very interested in the idea of the programme.
What were the beginnings here in the Czech Republic?
Well, it was hard. Charity wasn't a big thing around here 30 years ago. Everybody was more concerned with themselves. It was a great help to have Prince Phillip visit us. (note: the Prince arrived with his wife, Queen Elizabeth, in 1996). He was here for three days and we did fundraising together. Lady Abrahams arranged a big golf tournament in Marianske Lazne, because she arranged for the golf club there to become a “royal golf club”. The Prince drove around in a golf cart with all the players. We then had a wonderful dinner by the National Chef Team.
Then we had more events in Prague. We managed to raise three and a half million crowns that weekend, which was an incredible amount for that time. And so it slowly grew. The biggest breakthrough came when Jiří Zrůst took over (note: today's chairman of the board), who's a little younger and had a little more energy.
I think that how DOFE looks and works in the Czech Republic today would make Luisa very happy.
How did the programme appeal to you at the beginning that you decided to support it?
DOFE is about everything I've always enjoyed. It was the early 90s and the Velvet Revolution was a big change. A lot of things didn't work here yet. And I think it's important to make sure that our new generation makes changes.
Ivan Chadima at the announcement of the Lady Luisa Abrahams Award. Photo: Naděžda Vránová
What do you see as the purpose of the programme?
I like that the programme is versatile, young people work on themselves and also realise their own value. That's what parents should teach their children. But not everyone has parents who can do that and who behave that way. So I think the program also helps the kids to hopefully be a little bit more independent, learn to think.
DOFE has been operating in the Czech Republic for 30 years, what would you wish it for the next 30 years?
More and more graduates. I think the bigger the program gets, the more important it will be. Because these young people will then go out into the world. Then when there are hundreds and thousands of graduates all over the country, the world will be a better place because of them.
