Irena Inspiration

By HIA Fellows: Katarzyna Kotula and Hannah Gardenswartz

When we were first assigned the topic of Irena Sendler for our project, we were a little concerned. At least with the other topics we have had either some lecture or discussion as a group, or at the very least, we all had some information or idea of the topic coming into the program. Irena Sendler was a character that the non-Polish fellow had only vaguely heard of beforehand. We knew that she was a hero of some sort and was connected with the Jews in the Holocaust, but even those who grew up in Poland around her legend were not prepared for the sort of powerful individual that she was. With this basic knowledge, we realized that the obvious first goal of our workshop would be education on her life and story as well as drawing some message from her life work on how to be better people. While the goal of making better people is rather unrealistic for a 90 minute workshop, we hope that the students use this workshop as a time and space to think critically about their lives and how they can be inspired to improve themselves.

©Photo: Mariusz Kubik, http://www.mariuszkubik.pl zoom by User:ABX - own work, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Kmarius

Because we had a more limited starting point for understanding who she was, we have had the great joy in discovering how incredible she was. One of the most moving parts of our research involved reading her eulogy in different news sources. On the one hand, she was a hero in the most literal sense of the word, but on the other hand, her life is so unknown that the newspapers could not fully sum up how much she has given.

When getting feedback on our workshops, the feedback we received focused on the worry that we were putting her on a pedestal and making her a lofty hero instead of a woman who did what she thought was right. This was one of the biggest challenges of the revisions, because in many ways we do want to put her on a pedestal, mostly because we believe that she deserves it, however that creates an not relatable personage. We think that she deserves to be given an honorific place in history. Perhaps the greatest honor is not being a lofty hero, but being one that students some 70 years later can draw inspiration from. Not everyone has the courage to smuggle 2500 children out of the Warsaw ghetto and into homes and convents in the Aryan part of Warsaw, but everyone might have the courage to stand against injustice in many ways, both large and small.

What we liked most about the story of Irena Sendler was that was so open to interpretation and for evaluation in modern society. We could have talked about her as a hero that saved Jewish children, but in doing so converted them to Roman Catholic to ensure their safety during the war. If their Jewishness dies in the ghetto, how much of their identity is lost as well? How does this contribute to the homogeneous society of Poland? The discussion we decided was more uplifting, personal, and possibly relevant for the high school student target group of our workshop. We decided to ‘use’ Irena Sendler as a model for what it means to take action against injustice and how much courage is involved in not being a passive witness.

Join HIA Poland for the Fourth Annual Humanity in Action International Conference

The Humanity in Action International Conference is the annual gathering of more than 250 young and established leaders committed to promoting human rights, diversity and active citizenship in their own communities and around the world.

This year's program will focus in particular on transformations within Poland, especially its society, political institutions and economy through an exploration of its history — and the relationship of that history to contemporary Poland. The conference will also examine transitions around the world, exploring mass protest movements, revolutionary upheavals and the power of new media and technology to impact future civic activists and leaders. 

The 2013 International Conference will take place in Warsaw, Poland from the evening of Thursday, June 27 through the evening of Saturday, June 29. Guests are welcome to attend any of the open keynote addresses during the conference. Further information can be found in the conference program. Also be sure to like Humanity in Action and Humanity in Action Poland on Facebook for the latest conference updates.

Training for Action: Translating Theory to Activism

By HIA Fellow Mariana Pryven

How can we use knowledge of the past to influence the present? As we approached the 15^th of June, our fellowship was in full swing and we were halfway through the program. The input phase was over, during which we almost became Poles ourselves by way of being aware and informed about the challenges current Polish society faces today.  During the input phase the group was wholeheartedly committed to listening, absorbing, discussing, asking, answering, and commenting in no particular order, with curiosity and interest as the sole guide. Poland, as a main study case, through the course of the program unfolded for us as a battlefield of clashing ideologies in the past, a society dealing with the necessity to secure and develop the system of human rights protection in the present, and a functioning civic community in the future. Would we be able to use Polish experience and bring it to school classrooms? Would we manage to pass our joy of living in peace and equality to the younger ones?

So, the challenge for the rest of the program became clear: to move from receiving to giving, from learning to acting and from being engaged to engaging others. In the next two weeks we will be working in smaller international groups to develop workshop scenarios for the target group of high school students in Poland. These scenarios through guided provision and detailed planning, drafting, interviewing, and researching will culminate in off-the-shelf tools for educators, including ourselves, to be used for work with youth on various human rights-related topics. Naturally, the rest of the program will be dedicated to the question of how we teach what we have learned.

When we arrived early in the morning, what was unusual is that we didn’t know what exactly to expect and what would happen to our designated role of listeners. Our team was joined by Marta Brzezińska-Hubert, facilitator of international trainings and coordinator of intercultural projects. She immediately integrated into our group and suggested a couple of exercises to begin with, which led to much loudness and enthusiasm.

For the first exercise, the participants put chairs in a circle and stood behind them: each person behind their own chair. The task was to bend a chair back and to keep balancing it on its two legs only. Everybody had to move from one chair to another without letting each following chair land on its four legs until the full circle is finished. Even if one chair landed on the floor, the circle was broken and we had to start from the beginning. Should you first decide for a strategy how to do that or do by trying? Should you choose a leader or let the discussion flow/chaotically happen? Do you allow time for evaluation of your strategy or jump to another one?

HIA Fellows work together to solve a puzzle during a training session
Photo by Benjamin Overton

Most certainly, all of these questions were posed after they were put through a professional lens of the trainer who explained the meaning of the exercise and its dynamics. Thus, for us an overwhelming amount of fun morphed into reflecting upon our experience of problem-solving and quick decision-making in the success-oriented situation.

Progressively throughout the day we had a couple of more similar exercises, whose educational value was thoroughly explained afterwards. And then we learned that this strategy is called experiential learning, an educational theory that is successful due to its potential of including all of the senses possible: sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. It also allows for accommodating individual learning styles and, importantly, people with learning disabilities. We touched upon methods of formal and informal education, which intersect and complement each other and which we will explore more in-depth later during the training. 

HIA Fellows complete a learning exercise during a training session
Photo by Benjamin Overton

The first day of the training finished by working in small teams, which have already been composed around 7 human rights topics: the rights of Jews, the rights of Roma people, the rights of people with disabilities, the figures of Jan Karski and Irena Sendler, asylum seekers and migrants, and rights of LGBTQ persons. Each group will link history with the particular human rights aspect to explore and develop study sessions for youth.

The task is a challenge of balancing interests and psychological development of teenagers and gravity of some of the questions to be explored. Pre-existing interactive methods and innovative strategies will be the topic of the next days.

A float in the Warsaw Parade of Equality 2013
Photo by Benjamin Overton

After the training a few of us joined the Warsaw Equality Parade 2013, which was held under the slogan Różnorodni, Równoprawni (All diverse, all equal). This year the event gathered around 8 thousand participants, including LGBTQ persons, minority rights activists, and anyone else interested in building a society, in which every minority feels comfortable and safe. This year, among other claims the Equality Parade demanded the removal of architectural barriers that are limiting access to different public places for people with disabilities and parents with children prams; banning of hate speech towards gender and sexual identity, and introduction of new, ideologically-neutral human sexuality education to schools.

The event was a blast! During the sunny Saturday afternoon around the Warsaw center one could watch thousands of passing people, greeting the audience, smiling, dancing, waving from the buses, and holding rainbow flags – symbols for acceptance and diversity of the human kind. Gazeta Wyborcza reports, it was the largest and the most peaceful parade in years.

Sadly, we learned shortly after the parade news that Robert Biedroń, the first openly gay Member of Parliament in Poland, was attacked after the parade by two people who were immediately detained by the police.   

Nevertheless, the Parade of Equality 2013 was an apt celebration for people and, hopefully, in retrospect it would mark a milestone of the transformation of the Polish society. The Parade managed to gather wider circles of discriminated groups, addressed a variety of minority problems, and struck me as particularly inclusive and engaging. The success of this parade would be something special for the young HIA leaders who, tonight to the merry sounds of Warsaw in the evening, smoothly transitioned from theory to practice.

Overcoming Barriers...of Stereotypes

By Jan Świątek, HIA Fellow

Roma people, people with disabilities... are they really different from “mainstream” society (if there even is such a thing)? Should we really treat Roma people as eternal nomads? Are people with disabilities really either heroes or victims?

The 14^th of June was the last day of the very demanding, intellectually stimulating first portion of our program, which has prepared the fellows for an even more intensive final two weeks. The day began with a session concerning Roma/Sinti issues. Next, we participated in sessions concentrated on the second topic of the day: people with disabilities in Poland. The day ended with a very interesting fellow’s discussion, where the aim of fellows was to create a social enterprise employing Roma and people with disabilities.

Dr. Andrzej Mirga listens to a question from an HIA Fellow
Photo by Benjamin Overton

Our first meeting was in the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, where we engaged in a discussion with Dr. Andrzej Mirga – one of first Roma people in Poland who is engaged in politics and science. He is a Romani activist and senior advisor for Romani issues.

The situation of Roma people used to be very unfavorable. Enormous rates of unemployment, unacceptable living conditions, outstanding illiteracy and discrimination acts have been the main features of the difficult life of these communities in European societies. Thus, Poland adopted the National Program for Roma People in 2004, and then the EU Law on Minorities in 2005. Now, experts claim progress in some areas, for example better living conditions or greater impact on the education of young members of society. However, in terms of employment, there is still a lot of work to do. “Governments give money but treat Roma people as passive participants of welfare – in effect they still have no job,” suggested Dr. Mirga. The topic seemed to be very interesting based on the number of questions posed by fellows, especially concerning the stereotypes maintained in the minds of the Polish people. The sad conclusion is that a lot of fatal stereotypes are still held in our society.

We had occasion to confirm this statement once again, this time talking about the main subject of the day: people with disabilities. Our next session was about the representation of people with disabilities in the Polish media. This lecture was provided by Tomasz Przybyszewski, a journalist working with and writing about people with disabilities. The main issue of the session was presenting the dichotomy of images of people with disabilities: superheroes or poor, helpless victims. This is what journalists usually need – a sensation, an interesting story to show either so-called “superdisables” or victims of society. Mr. Przybyszewski argued that these are harmful stereotypes and presented us short clips, showing people with disabilities as “normal” people who should be treated equally. One question from a fellow concerned education in schools, which is still a dreadful problem: the director may refuse to receive the child with disabilities (ex. blind or deaf) in “normal” schools. The explanation is the lack of additional money, but in my opinion, the main driver is a fear of someone different.

The "traditional" dichotomy of representations of people with disabilities as presented by Tomasz Przybyszewski
Photo by Sarah Deal

Our next session was provided by our program leaders: Magda Szarota and Monika Mazur-Rafał. This lecture continued on the previous subject, but this time we had an occasion to learn about the overall situation of people with disabilities. We discussed if the disability is a social contract, and we tried to deconstruct the disability into 3 aspects: law/prevailing ideology, quality of life and status in society, and conceptualization and perception. Then, we focused on 3 models: the medical model, the charitable model and the social model. After short discussion in small groups on the models, the lecturers gave some statistics and examples of discrimination in the past. The session ended with the conclusion, that despite the adoption of the UN Treaty on the Rights of Disable in 2012, we have still a lot of work to do – a fantastic motivation to be active and do our best for human rights!

Monika Mazur-Rafał and Magda Szarota listen to a question from an HIA Fellow
Photo by Sarah Deal 

The fellow’s discussion was the final of the day. HIA fellows, Ankur Doshi and Elorm Avakame, asked the rest of the group to project a social enterprise, which would employ the Roma and disable people. The ideas were excellent: For Roma people enterprise of carpenters and craft courses, for people with disabilities the bookstore and the union of drivers with disabilities providing the groceries to houses. I think all the projects would work perfectly!

During the whole day we considered the stereotypes both concerning the Roma people and people with disabilities. I believe that a number of harmful stereotypes are still present in our society. In many cases these stereotypes hinder the rights of some discriminated citizens, which in effect may cause a lower quality of life.

Our exercise revealed that during only 30 minutes it is possible to figure out many amazing ideas for action and activism. So, what are we waiting for? It’s time to act against the stereotypes and fight for human rights!

Balancing Hope with Realism: The Struggle for Equality in Poland's LGBTQ Community

By Sarah Deal, HIA Fellow

Are hopes for equality for the LGBTQ community in Poland overly idealistic? We spent June 13^th discussing this idea at PZN, and learned about historical and current sentiments toward the LGBTQ community in Poland.  Social activists Agnieszka Weseli and Ewa Tomaszewicz separately addressed the fellows and each lecture was followed by many questions and discussion.  The day ended with an engaging fellows discussion in which fellows responded to common arguments against equal rights for LGBTQ people.  

The half-burnt rainbow sculpture in Plac Zbawiciela

Photo by Sarah Deal

Weseli was the first to address the group, laying out an organized and helpful timeline of the evolution of LGBTQ acceptance, opposition, and invisibility in the Polish community.  She outlined a narrative of homosexuality from early history to the modern-day, illustrating how political movements and religious ideology have largely shaped the way in which policies and response to LGBTQ communities has evolved over the last century, in particular.  Although Weseli acknowledged a general change in attitude towards non-heteronormative people—particularly in larger cities like Warsaw—she reminded us that laws remain the same and predicted that they would remain unchanged until lawmakers adopted the same attitude shift as the general public.  Ultimately, Weseli emphasized the importance for us to remember that change does not imply progress:

 “If you come from a small village with poor education and you’re jobless, your situation is totally different than a young homosexual guy who’s already finished studies and is working in Warsaw, for example, and can go to gay clubs and be an activist. In the last seven years, LGBTQ has changed a lot, but that does not mean it’s better than it used to be 20 years ago. It’s different.”

Agnieszka Weseli speaks with HIA Fellows
Photo by Sarah Deal

Ewa Tomaszewicz also expressed the belief that the current state of inequality in LGBTQ rights is not so much a societal problem as it is a problem with politics and the media.  Although the majority of society is just as uninterested in the ‘subject’ as it is tolerant, the government and journalists have special obligations as representative bodies to be not only interested in but also educated about the claims and concerns of all members of society, including the LGBTQ community.  The government, closely associated with the Catholic Church and the Church’s conservative politics, is unlikely to address the conflict between the constitutional prohibition of non-traditional marriages and the constitutional guarantee of non-discrimination and equality.  Thus, both speakers carefully balanced hopefulness with realism as they acknowledged the lack of political attention and dialogue concerning the unequal application of equal rights and non-discriminatory clauses to all people.

All members of society, not just the LGBTQ community, need to participate in activism in order to affect systematic change. It is truly a shame that LGBTQ activists in Poland need to take such a realist view because of the poor perception of LGBTQ rights in Poland. Regardless of religious beliefs or traditional values, citizens living in and benefiting from a democratic society have (at the very least) a legal obligation to uphold and fight for equal rights and protections under the law.  Perhaps the framework need only shift from one of defending homosexuality to one of defending equality of all humans, regardless of gender, sexuality, race, or any other factor.  An appeal to human rights can be used as a powerful tool for bringing diverse people and ideologies together around a common goal.  Standing up for the dignity and rights of a common humanity means moving from complicity and tolerance to action and activism.

New System, New Inequalities: Poland's Transformation and the Inequalities of Freedom

By Jeffrey Treisbach, HIA Fellow

Poland's transformation in 1989 resulted in greater freedom for many, but we have to wonder: what freedoms were given, and to whom? On this topic, the HIA Fellows had a very full day on June 11th talking about all aspects of transformation - from political to economic to social. There are probably few better places than Poland that we could have had the conversations the ones we had today.

Our day began at our home-away-from-home PZN where we listened to a fascinating presentation by Prof. Anna Giza-Poleszczuk. She had a very unique perspective on the transformation that Poland underwent in the 1990s as she is an academic but also has experience of working in a large corporation during the time of transition. She called upon this experience several times during her talk.

Prof. Anna Giza-Poleszczuk speaks with HIA Fellows
Photo by Benjamin Overton

Through Prof. Giza-Poleszczuk's talk, we learned that there were many ups and downs in Poland since 1989. The original euphoria that took place after the fall of Communism was replaced by realism when people began to realize that Poland was not the 10th most powerful country in the world as people were taught growing up. International corporations took advantage of the new reality on Poland by investing heavily in the country but this did not always have a positive impact. One example of this was a factory town outside of Wrocław that was mentioned by Prof. Giza-Poleszczuk. The ketchup factory in the town was purchased by Hellmanns but it was eventually closed resulting in 60% unemployment in the town. After the Russian economic crisis of the late 1990s when things got very bad for the Polish economy, the trends reversed again to go in a more positive direction for Poland as the acceded to the European Union in 2004 and weathered the economic crisis better than most other European countries.

Before lunch, we had a short session to discuss our possible action projects with HIA Poland Staff Monika Mazur-Rafał and Magda Szarota. They showed us examples of some very successful projects from previous years and we worked in pairs to talk about some of our first ideas.

The first part of our afternoon was spent at Aim High (Mierz Wysoko) where Tomasz Rudziński told us a lot about the organization that he works at in Warsaw's Praga district. Unlike the rest of Warsaw, the Praga district survived World War II very much in tact (at least architecturally). While 80% of the city to the west of the Vistula was destroyed in the bombing campaigns, 80% of area to the east of the river survived because that part of the city was liberated by Soviet troops earlier in the war. For this reason, Praga is one of the few areas in the city where we can still see pre-war architecture.

HIA Fellows view photos of Aim High's programs
Photo by Benjamin Overton

Although the buildings survived the war nearly 70 years ago, the neighborhood is still a complicated area and very much considered to be in transition today. It is far more impoverished than other parts of Warsaw and as a result has a bad reputation for street crime. Aim High is trying to combat this stereotype through innovative projects that bring youth together to participate in artistic actions and events. Happenings like a street fair where participants can learn to juggle and walk on stilts give area youth the idea that there is an alternative to the reality that they are living in. The organization produces some educational programs but the important thing is that the kids come to the programs on their own free will. They are encouraged to participate but Aim High aims to not make it something that is forced but rather something that the kids enjoy doing - and based on the expression of some of the youth that came by when we were there it appears that they are succeeding in their mission!

Our day finished at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews where we had our Fellows Discussion. HIA Fellows Immanuel and Ela moderated the discussion where we talked mostly about the big question of the day: what is transformation? This prompted a very in depth conversation that involved the topics of the role of education, groups left out of transformations, and challenges faced by children of different economic backgrounds. We decided that it is fair to say that whatever and wherever the transformation is, some groups benefit more than others - as we learned today this was certainly the case in Poland.

HIA Fellows and Staff near Aim High with Tomasz Rudziński
Photo by Benjamin Overton