WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP Renata Bem, deputy director general of UNICEF Poland, talks to the Voice.
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NICEF has been active in Poland since 1962, but its origins date back to 1946; please tell us about the history of the organization in Poland. Still not many people know that the originator of UNICEF was a Pole, Dr. Ludwik Rajchman, a physician-bacteriologist, who in 1946 at the UN General Assembly proposed the creation of a completely apolitical organization that would help children around the world. UNICEF has been active in Poland since 1962, when the first UNICEF National Committee in Eastern Europe was established. For the next 40 years UNICEF financed programs to help children in Poland, bought equipment for health centers and imported raw materials to produce items for children. During martial law [1981] UNICEF National Committees from Western European countries provided Polish children with medicines, clothing and food, which were in short supply at the time. In 2002 Poland was recognized as a highly developed country and thus UNICEF’s role changed. Since then we have been collecting money to help children in the poorest countries, including those affected by armed conflicts or natural disasters. I think it’s very fair: those who are better off should help those who can’t or don’t know how to help themselves. Of course, this help must be prudent, well thought-out and systemic. In its more than 75 years of working for children around the world, UNICEF has developed extremely effective and repeatedly tested aid mechanisms that do no harm, but give a chance and hope for the future. What are the most important directions of UNICEF Poland’s activities today and the most important plans for the coming years? Although our organization’s main task is to raise funds to help the most needy children in the world, we do not forget about the youngest in Poland. We have been consistently implementing educational and social-educational projects in Polish schools for many years. We try to show the young generation of Poles the situation of their peers in the world, and thus sensitize them to harm in the broad sense of the word and shape pro-social attitudes. By inviting children and young people to our projects, we encourage them to 48
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get actively involved in activities that enable them to make real changes in their local communities and at the same time teach them respect and tolerance for excluded or less privileged groups. In the coming years we want to focus on engaging the business world in our relief efforts. Companies can already get involved in helping children around the world through programs such as “Friend of UNICEF” or “Company with a Heart.” These are proposals for small and medium-sized enterprises. We invite large corporations to jointly build partnerships that allow a company to engage employees, carry out activities in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility, but also focus on areas of assistance that the company can identify with, e.g. due to the profile of its business. Funds obtained in cooperation with business partners allow us to plan and implement assistance activities on a much larger scale. Developed countries are facing another wave of the migration crisis, associated with events in the Middle East countries, Afghanistan and many other points of our globe; obviously, the victims of this crisis are mainly the most vulnerable people: women and children. How does UNICEF intend to respond to this situation? It is true that the biggest victims of the migration crisis are the youngest and weakest, which are most often women and children. Every day, tens of thousands of families are exposed to danger, and hundreds of thousands more are ready to risk everything they have in search of a semblance of safety. We must protect these children from all kinds of abuse by those who want to take advantage of their dire situation. Today UNICEF operates in more than 190 countries. Our staff are on the ground in times of peace and relative stability, as well as in times of civil unrest, armed conflict, crisis or natural disasters. No matter how difficult the situation or how dangerous the conditions, we do not give up and we never will. This is also the case now in Afghanistan, where our employees have been present for more than 65 years and are doing their best to stay there and bring help to Afghan women and children at this difficult time. We do our best to provide them with safe shelter, food, clean water, but also psychological support, so important The Warsaw Voice
