EuroHawk is born
Young people from Pinhel found EuroHawk – Falcons of Europe Youth Association, version 1.0 of Hawk Stars.
Our story
A group of friends from Pinhel who started a youth association in 2015, drove five trucks of humanitarian aid to Ukraine in 2022 and, that same year, founded an NGO for education, innovation and social development.
Milestones
Young people from Pinhel found EuroHawk – Falcons of Europe Youth Association, version 1.0 of Hawk Stars.
Debates, food drives for families and charities in Pinhel, around 20 young people sent on Erasmus+ projects, and the “Survival” project with 35 young people from 7 countries.
A festival by and for young people: around 1,400 visitors a day, 500 campers and 27 artists — a cultural milestone in the Guarda district.
In January, EuroHawk co-founds the National Federation of European Studies. At the end of the year it is dissolved, its youth-only goal fulfilled.
EuroHawk's founders come together again and, through the FNEE, send five trucks of humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Hawk Stars – Association (NGO) for Education, Innovation and Social Development is born, officially confirmed on 8 August 2023.
282 young people and youth workers from 24 nationalities in international mobility, 32 international partners, and the Global Village under way.
Version 1.0
The story of Hawk Stars – Association for Education, Innovation and Social Development begins in 2015 with what can be called its version 1.0: EuroHawk – Falcons of Europe Youth Association, a youth association made up, at the time, only of young people from Pinhel, where Hawk Stars has its headquarters today.
EuroHawk was at its peak between 2015 and 2017. It organised conferences and debates, food drives for families in need and local charities, sent around 20 young Portuguese people to Erasmus+ projects across Europe, and ran its own Erasmus+ project, “Survival – Standing United in Rural Villages with Innovation and Values”, which brought together 35 young people from 7 European countries.
Its last big event was Hawk Festival 2017: an eclectic festival organised by and for young people, with the support of local businesses, Pinhel City Council and Glow Moments. EuroHawk was dissolved at the end of 2018, due to lack of activity and having fulfilled its youth-only purpose.
Even without direct association activity for some years, EuroHawk's founders stayed involved in social initiatives in Pinhel and the Guarda district, and in national organisations working on youth and European affairs.
24 February 2022
When the war in Ukraine began, EuroHawk's founders came together again. Through the FNEE – National Federation of European Studies, which EuroHawk co-founded in 2018 with NAPEEC (Coimbra) and AJFF (Figueira da Foz), they organised “Together for Ukraine – Let's fill a truck from Guarda with humanitarian aid”, with the support of the Guarda District Fire Brigades Federation.
≈ 90 tonnes
of supplies delivered to Ukraine
Thousands
of humanitarian contributions across the Guarda district
April 2022
After this solidarity campaign, the same group of friends from Pinhel — involved in founding EuroHawk and the National Federation of European Studies — decided to found Hawk Stars – Association (NGO) for Education, Innovation and Social Development. Its founding was officially confirmed on 8 August 2023.
With a young identity, Hawk Stars wears blue and yellow — the colours of Pinhel and of the European Union — and embraces the world with its hawk: Think Global, Act Local.
Today
Hawk Stars is a long-term project. Its first major pillar is the Global Village – International Training Center in Pinhel: a hub for training, social innovation, coworking and culture to regenerate Portugal's interior.
In the press