Which NGO supports our Polish participants in Skyrthalia project?
Bona Fides Association...!
The Bona Fides Association was founded in 2003 in Katowice. Our Association is an
independent, nonprofit and politically un-involved non-government organisation. In the beginning of its activity, Bona Fides was realising aid, educational and cultural ventures, aiming at supporting children and young people’s development in all areas. In 2004 we joined our forces with the Katowice Civil Group (KGO), aiming at promoting education in the human rights area focusing on civil rights, increasing of the public information access, public spending control and counteracting for corruption in public institutions. After several years of working on such different projects, we decided to focus their efforts on the watchdog activity. Since 2008 our Association is mainly focused on its watchdog activity, moreover it sends Polish young people as volunteers abroad as part of the Youth in Action Programme and hosts EVS\ESC volunteers from different countries in very fruitful projects for the local and regional Polish community. We wish that Polish villages, country towns and cities would be pleasant places to live in, and open to the needs of their inhabitants. If this could happen, the involvement of individuals in activities for the local surroundings is important as well as presence of reliable authorities who act in open and transparent way and take into account the voice of their inhabitants in decision making process. That's why we started implementing Community Organizing projects. Bona Fides gained experience through research and documentation and in 2011 we started a direct cooperation with the local community in Ścigały Housing Estate in Katowice to implement a community organising project to give voice to those people who are less active in the public sphere. In the frame of the experience Bona Fides has, this project is a good support to the work done till now since we cannot ignore the voice and the needs of the major foreign communities in Katowice, such as the Ukrainian community, considering the increase in the number of Ukrainians moving to Katowice and nearby cities to work and live, and others. Bona Fides adopts inclusive methods to unite the local community and make its foreign members part of a unique family. Thanks to our EVS and ESC volunteers we have worked on different projects to spread solidarity, tolerance and inclusion, and have created websites with useful content for any foreigner living in Poland in need for assistance.
Activities
1) Activities aiming at engaging inhabitants in the life of their villages, country towns and cities: – we organise local neighbourhood initiatives that act for the benefit of their local communities, – we provide legal, organizational and substantive support to local leaders, – we educate inhabitants about their rights so that they will be able to use them effectively while cooperating with local authorities and other subjects. 2) Activities aiming at supporting local authorities in building social dialogue: – we educate local officers how to carry out an open and effective dialogue with inhabitants and nongovernmental organisations, – we prepare projects of law acts and motions, whose purpose is to improve the standard of living and quality of life, make authorities more transparent and ensure better cooperation with citizens. 3) Activities involving young people: – we encourage personal development through involvement of volunteers in activities conducted in Bona Fides with the support of experienced employees and members of the association, – within European Voluntary Service (EVS) and the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) we send young volunteers to Europe, and we host volunteers from various parts of Europe. Through volunteering they have opportunity to gain new competences, develop their passions and create civic sense.
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