Exhibition : ‘Polish aid the world’ in the European Parliament

On 19 – 22 November, 2007 an exhibition titled ‘Polish aid to the world’ was shown at the European Parliament in Brussels. Its inauguration on Tuesday, November 20 was hosted by Mr. Mieczyslaw Janowski, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and Mr. Jan Tombinski, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Poland to the European Union.

The exhibition encompassed a series of photographs from 2006/2007 aid projects which had been subsidised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland in six key areas of developmental assistance: education, health, water and the environment, economy reform, as well as, in improving the functioning of public administration, civil societies and women’s professional activity. The assistance reached a level above USD 300 million and was divided between about 360 projects. The photographs had been taken by the project coordinators themselves, including Polish non-government organisations, which in 2006 carried out close to 150 aid projects in 20 developing countries and other countries in transition.

EU ambassador, Mr. Jan Tombinski spoke about the Polish aid mission in light of the 2007 strategy. The Irish Member of the European Parliament and Co-President of the Union for Europe of the Nations Group, Brian Crowley gave his praise for organising an exhibition that showed Poland’s part-taking in the fight against poverty and helping to expand the idea of democracy.

The exhibition received a lot of interest not only from the MEP of numerous countries, their assistants and employees from EU institutions, but curiosity was also stirred from several representatives of those very countries who are the direct beneficiaries of Polish aid. The need for such an exhibition was exemplified by opinions from numerous participants who mentioned that till this time they had no idea of Poland’s partaking in such initiatives. The exhibition was prepared in Polish, English and French.

A report from the exhibition prepared by John Bauchamp for Polish Radio Overseas .