Pio Squad for Chalantika

Why Pio Squad for Čalantika?

In the beginning, there was a good idea and a motivation to support a good cause. Last year in autumn, the well-known band called PIO Squad, coming from the Czech town Jihlava, returned to the stage with a unique aim: cooperation with the Czech humanitarian organization ADRA. The band members decided to support the education of children in the Centre of Chalantika, which is located near one of the poorest slums in Bangladesh.

During the series of autumn PIO Squad for Chalantika Tour performances, the visitors could contribute to public collections. The tour was crowned with a one-week-long visit of the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka. In this one of the most populous cities of the world, the band visited the slum and the Chalantika Centre and recorded a brand new video clip.

Now we've accomplished 10 concerts, travelled to Bangladesh and made one video clip.

Thank you for being with us during all of that!

Who are we?

The PIO Squad is the iconic hip-hop band from Jihlava, town in Moravia, Czech Republic. The band was established in the end of the 1990s. To the founding and permanent members belong Efko, Eurodel and DJ J-Kid. Later, De Puta Madre joined them in. They have released three albums so far (in 2003, 2006 and 2008) and a few vinyl singles and EP records, last one in 2011. They were awarded the Czech price “Angel” in the category of hip-hop for the album Punk Is Dead (2006). They have cooperated with a wide range of domestic and foreign rap as well as non-rep artists, as for example VEC, SMIF-N-WESSUN, DJ WICH and Jaromír Nohavica. They have performed throughout Bohemia and Slovakia. In abroad, they performed eg. Poland, Germany and the United Kingdom. In 2012, the band turned partly silent, however, they return time to time to the stages of Czech festivals. The current cooperation with the organisation ADRA was a new stipulation to their creativity.

Jan Látal is a Czech documentary film director, cinematographer and screenwriter. He was a founding member of Družina, creative studio dealing with the creation of beneficial campaigns. In his documentary he looks for the new options for expression of content and format. He is the author of some of the older PIO Squad clips and also the creator of the two parts of the documentary cycle Expremiéři (former prime ministers), as well as a new video clip Chalantika.

Chalantika is the name of the slum situated in the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, and also a centre for education and leisure, established by the organization ADRA with the support of its donors in the summer of 2013. The Centre provides local children with basic education and supports them to start to visit regular school, complete their education successfully in order to get a good chance to succeed in life. The Centre educates also their parents, seeks to improve the living and working conditions, and it is the mainstay of the entire local community.

What we have already achieved and what we have succeeded in?

In November 2014, the members of the band PIO Squad, Efko, Eurodel, De Puta Madre, DJ J-Kid and Ruda, as well as film director Honza and project manager Jarmila, visited Dhaka, one of the most populous cities of the world. Together with Bangladeshi choir Shor Shongitaloy, Milon Memorial Night School – the evening school for working children, local rappers and Erlik Cloz Fahim, inter alia, they produced a video clip and composition. The art was created during the meetings with people, visits of slums and the Chalantika Centre night school or children's workshops.
In the autumn of 2014, the PIO Squad for Chalantika tour supported the Bangladeshi school children with 9 concerts altogether (Hip Hop Camp in Hradec Králové; Mrkvan Core Festival in Polná near Jihlava; Soul Music Club Atlanta; Vyškov, Prague, Žďár nad Sázavou; Pilsen – Anděl; Prague - Lávka; Velké Meziříčí; Brno). In February 2015, the 10^th gala concert and premiere of the movie Chalantika took place in SOUL Music Club, Jihlava. Contributions put to the sealed collection boxes brought not less than 140, 028.0 CZK!
Contributions sent online (the total number of 218, 075.00 CZK) helped to open a new preschool PIO class in the Chalantika Centre. Thanks to your donations, we can support the class throughout the year 2015!
Together, we have collected an amazing number of 358, 103.00 CZK for Chalantika. Thank all of you who are with us!
In addition to the money collected by concerts and the video clip, we want to get closer to the Czech citizens by revealing them the situation of poor quarters, stressing the need for education of Bangladeshi children and their families, and sharing our experiences and meetings with people from the other side of the globe. We are delighted that our initiative inspires others – thanks to Kyjov, Horažďovice, Poděbrady and Chrudim!