Come Monday...Poland's GOCC

“Come Monday…” is a weekly series that will involve a review of websites, movies, documentaries, television shows, sports, music, and whatever else may tickle my fancy at the time. Be assured that these reviews will be generally positive, as in accordance to the Jimmy Buffett song “Come Monday.” This is subject to change, however. In fact, I would be most derelict in my duties to neglect going on a rant every once in a while. For rants promote change, and change can be good—right? Therefore, since good is generally considered as being a positive force in 99.3% of the parallel universes that I am aware of, even a rant could be considered as being something positive, and a genuine hissy-fit would be even better (I am told).

I had never heard of [Poland’s] [“Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity”] (GOCC) before [Himalman] asked me to repost an article from one of his blogs. After reading it, I was more than happy to do so, and you can read all about it again [here] on his own blog—in both English and Polish. There are also some other links included in his post that might prove most rewarding to check out.

Office of GOCC on the world
Foreign offices of organizers : XVI Final Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity

Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy (The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity) is the biggest and most prosperous charity organization in Poland. Its objectives, included in the status document, are saving children’s lives, health promotion and education in the field of preventive treatment. Between 1993 and 2008 The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity has collected and spent over $92 mln for saving lives. Besides humanitarian work, the Foundation is also a powerful medium spreading the ideology of kindness, friendship, tolerance, and openness.

Dear Friends!!!

After countless meetings and hours of discussions the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity finally decided on the theme of the 17-th Great Finale: prevention and early diagnosis of cancer in children. The exact wording is:

EARLY CANCER DIAGNOSIS IN CHILDREN

Much is said about children’s oncology. Good professional medical care is provided for children affected by cancer. There is the great problem of money needed for expensive drugs but sick children and their parents usually manage to deal with it with the help of committed medical personnel who are always there to help.

There is, however, another problem which ran through all the discussions – the problem of late diagnosis. Late diagnosis greatly lowers a sick child’s chance to recover. Our attention was drawn to the fact that early diagnostics is an incredibly important element of treatment and that quite often it’s a matter of life and death! For the problem to be handled appropriately a net of diagnosis centers with ultra-modern equipment should cover the whole country. These centers should be easily accessible for any child.

We’re already holding a consultation with a group of expert doctors to decide which equipment might be purchased and where in Poland it should be sent to. But that’s not the only aim of our collection in January. We want the 17-th Great Finale to become a massive public campaign which would make parents aware that early diagnosis of cancer in children is both possible and needed.

For the second time in our history we would also like to aid all Polish hospices for children – as long as the collection is sucessful enough, of course. We’ve already done it once by buying needed cars and equipment which was later directly used to help the sick children. We still recognize such needs today.

There are many foundations and other NGO’s in Poland which do much to change the fate of children with cancer. Nobody, however, has yet tried to launch a program aiming at creating a net of diagnostic centers across the whole country.

On January the 11th, as usual the second Sunday of the new year, we will be asking you to help our cause, to have fun at all our events, and to see all that will be happening on TV thanks broadcasts in TVP (Polish national television) and TVN (private television). The 17-th Great Finale will also be an occasion to review all the Orchestra’s past achievements. And we do have a lot to boast about! All of our programs – the 4 medical ones and the educational one – work very well. The medical community very much approved of the aims we achieved last year and we’ve been given many prestigious prizes. Our accomplishments are often discussed during specialist medical conferences and conventions worldwide. We may proudly say that nowhere else in the world there is a money collection similar to the WOŚP Great Finale, and the results of our work impress charity workers from many countries.

It’s become a tradition that every year we thank our volunteers by organizing the Przystanek Woodstock Festival. Also this time we were talked about all over the world thanks to some foreign TV stations and Reuters reporter who visited us at Woodstock. Media of all continents informed about the Foundation’s activities and the fun we had on the “former” Polish-German border. Our Przystanek Woodstock became an international festival, while we, together with the Indian government, carried out a project promoting Indian culture for the first time in the festival’s history.

The Great Finale and Przystanek Woodstock Festival – these are two events which aim at creating a tolerant and friendly society with all the needed social bonds inside it. We hope and want to achieve this. We’re sure that by creating these events we’re all becoming a part of the new united Europe.

Still apolitical, still independent, still aiding the Polish children’s medicine with all our power and with the most modern systems – we’re saying: “To the end of the world and one day longer!”. Become part of the new, 17-th Great Finale. Create your finale centers, look for volunteers, put into life even the wildest of your ideas for the final day.

Sie ma!!!

Jurek Owsiak

Our Address:

Warsaw

Niedzwiedzia str. 2a

Tel: +48 22 852 32 14, +48 22 852 32 15

Fax: +48 22 852 07 52

Open hours: 8:15 - 16:15 (Monday - Friday)

SWIFT KOD : PKO PPLPW

IBAN : PL. 06 1240 1112 1111 0010 2013 6777

Source : - [http://www.en.wosp.org.pl/]