Message
- Error
Na co zbieramy. Informacje ogólne
About Us
Written by http://www.wosp.org.pl/final/
The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy – WOŚP), funded in 1992, is the biggest and most prosperous charity organisation in Poland. Its objectives are saving children's lives, health promotion and education in the field of preventive treatment. So far The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity has raised and spent over $100 mln for saving lives. Besides humanitarian work, the Foundation is also a powerful medium spreading the ideas of kindness, friendship, tolerance, and openness.In 1992, Jurek Owsiak, a well-known performer and the author of new wave TV and radio shows, used his pop-culture status to help under-financed Pediatric Cardio Surgery Division in The Children Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw.
In his TV show, aimed at very young and considered rebellious people, he said that cardio surgeons from The Children Memorial Health Institute couldn't perform surgeries on babies with inborn heart conditions due to the lack of funds for the medical equipment and they count on the financial support. Owsiak encouraged his audiences to join the forces and help. His idea was to combine rock'n'roll, fun, and charity. He believed in the great potential of people getting together regardless of weather they have much or little money.
In March 1992, Jurek registered The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity Foundation. Jurek Owsiak, Lidia Niedzwiedzka-Owsiak, Bohdan Maruszewski and Piotr Burczyński have become the members.
On the first Sunday of 1993 he called for a nation-wide action. He invited Poles all around the country to organise concerts, happenings and fundraising parties at which they could collect money that would be later transferred to The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity's account. He called his action The Great Finale. Thousands of people participated. The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity collected over 1,5 mln USD that year. The sum was spent for the highly modern and professional equipment for 10 Pediatric Cardio Surgery Divisions in Poland.
Even though The Great Finale was supposed to be a one-off event it turned out to be such a smashing success that Jurek Owsiak and the doctors from Children Memorial Health Institute repeated the whole thing next year, and then year after that. Eventually The Great Final Day became a tradition. The sum of collected money increases every year.
In ten years, the Foundation has completed 8 gigantic projects. It has bought the medical equipment needed on the numerous pediatric divisions specializing in: cardio-surgery, neonatal medicine, oncology, post-traumatic surgery, pediatric nephrology, diagnostics, newborns' surgery, and newborns & children under 5 years old divisions.
All together, over 10 thousands pieces of the most modern medical equipment for Polish public hospitals was bought and distributed in public hospitals all around Poland. So far, the Foundation has bought: ambulances, incubators, physiologic monitors, oxygen blenders, infusion and drainage pumps, pulse oximeters, infant ventilators, new beds, anti-bed-sore mattresses, and many more.
