The Italian energy giant, Enel, made a donation of EUR 25 000 to seven Bulgarian schools of intensive Italian classes. This was officially announced on Tuesday at a ceremony at the "Arena di Serdika" hotel in downtown Sofia, in the presence of the Italian Ambassador, Stefano Benazzo, and the schools' principals. The donation was made through Enel's subsidiary in Bulgaria - "Enel Maritsa-Iztok 3" The amount will be divided equally among seven schools in Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas and Varna. The resources will be used to purchase school books and IT equipment. The donation is made in partnership with the Italian Embassy in Sofia and has the goal to encourage the study of Italian in Bulgaria. The initiative has come personally from the Italian Ambassador, who has been impressed by the quality of Bulgarian education and the tradition of studying foreign languages. Each year Enel organizes educational projects such as Play Energy, previously known as Young Energy. In 2008 over 440 000 students from 7 000 schools in Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Costa Rica, Chile and Guatemala participated in the project.