Choice to Choose Foundation is organizing 2nd International Volunteer Fair, event connected with Off Festival 2007, which will promote organizations who are running volunteer programs and development projects in Poland and abroad. We are inviting many organizations which are doing development and charity work to promote their work and projects. We will organize workshops and speeches made by people who have experiences in the development or charity work.

If you are representing an organization and would you like to take part in this event to promote your volunteer programs, please contact us!

We want to promote volunteer work as a way of personal development, to gain life experience. During Off Festival 2006, we had around 11.000 guests, so is a possibility that some of them will be interested to go out, to travel and help people in need. Alternative music, alternative art is for alternative people and volunteer programs are still even more alternative for the main stream society.

We believe that this promotion is very important in this very unstable and unfair world. In Poland, where Silesia Region is one of the poorest, where after the revolution in 90’ many people still can’t find their place in the society. This region were very important during communist times, because of natural resources of coal and steel factories, so many people from all over the Poland were moving there to work. After the transformation, lots of coal mines or steel factories were closed down, and people lost their jobs. The situation is most difficult for their children, who are living in very bad conditions.
We really hope by promotion of culture and NGO’s working to solve some of the problems, we will be able to show some alternative for young people in the area, to show some hope, to show that in the world are lot’s of kind and loving people…
We believe in this connection, that people will find each other and will push themselves to see some possibilities.
You can gain a lot from working as a volunteer together with people from different countries; with different backgrounds with similar interests who would like to work together to help others who have even more difficult conditions than them…

See the photos from 2006: http://www.maciek.choicetochoose.org/thumbnails.php?album=71

We would like to invite you to come for another event Happiness for the Children’s Day, which is part of international alternative music festival - Off Festival.
We will organize a place where all the children can have time of their lives. Some of the attractions will be: amusement park, riding horses, clowns, theatre, emotional painting, many different performances organized by youth groups and many more activities so the kids can really enjoy themselves. Like last year we will invite kids from orphanages and social homes to be with us during this happy time.

See the photos from 2006: http://www.maciek.choicetochoose.org/thumbnails.php?album=72

You are all more than welcome to be part of these events, to share positive atmosphere and joy, to get involved in the discussions and workshops. Have fun together with thousands of people listening and dancing to the great music. Come to Myslowice to share this special time!

12.3.2007

In 2006 International Volunteer Fair and Happiness for the Children’s Day, happen as well during Off Festival.

Many people and NGO’s were interested and came to Volunteer Fair. We built a tent volunteer village where 20 organizations(i.e. Polish Red Cross, Polish Humanitarian Organization, College For International Development from UK, Pacifistic Solidarity from Sweden, and many more…) could present their programs by making presentations, speeches and spreading their leaflets.

We had a pleasure to have special guests with a long experience in development work who could share their experience with audience; Adam Koziel from Helsinki Foundation working with Tibet and Urszula Jaworska from her own foundation working with bone marrow transplantation.

Regional Volunteer Center organized a volunteer work workshop.

We presented five movies about human right problems around the world; this was part of the Human Right Watch Docs Festival, organized by Helsinki Foundation.

We presented photograph exhibitions: one from Chechnya, photos made by Wojciech Domachowski who was working in Chechnya together with Polish Humanitarian Organization, and another one from China, photos made by the kids who are supported by Choice to Choose Foundation and take part in the Photo Project.

See the photos from 2006: http://www.maciek.choicetochoose.org/thumbnails.php?album=71

During Happiness for the Children’s Day, we wanted to give to the kids lots of fun. We managed to invite the traveling amusement park “Piccolo”, with bumping cars, carousel’s, we organized emotional painting action conduced by it’s founder Adam Plackowski, kids could ride horses, paint their faces, and they could see many interesting performances prepared by the youth who got financial support for their project from Polish National Agency of the "Youth" Programme.

We succeeded to invite some organizations who are working with children and as a result around 200 kids from social homes and orphanages could take part in this fun event.

See the photos from 2006: http://www.maciek.choicetochoose.org/thumbnails.php?album=72

We hope that this year even more organizations, will be willing to take part in 2nd Int’l Volunteer Fair to promote their programs. We want to extend the presentation of the human right movies and we hope we will be able to invite more special guests who will give speeches and organize workshops. As for Happiness for the Children’s Day, we hope will be possible to invite much more kids from orphanages and social homes so they can have really great time with us.

 

12.3.2007