Social

Between February and October 2018 Gazeta Wyborcza Poznań and Barak Kultury Foundation, with financial backing of Poznań district, invited members of local communities, activists and members of local governments in 17 communes of Poznań district to join group discussions about transport, investment and other topics. In each of the series of debates

Spotkajmy się w Powiatowej 17 organized by Gazeta Wyborcza Poznań, groups focused on the topic relevant to their location: transport, road construction and financing investment, as well as culture or promotion of small communities in the region and country.

Among the topics covered were also smog, adapting the system of education to market needs or culture.

'Gazeta Wyborcza' and Wyborcza.pl support sustainable development of cities and want to help to activate their inhabitants. In 2018 local teams of Gazeta organized ‘know your city’ tests in three locations: Warsaw, Tri-City and Wrocław.

The first test was hosted by Wrocław in June 2018. In December readers could check their knowledge about Tri-City and Warsaw.

Each test attracted participants who could verify how well they know their city, its demographics, geography, economy, culture, sport, recreational and touristic aspects. 

Adoptuj pszczołę is the largest (number of participants) crowdfunding project organized by Greenpeace Polska. The main focus of 2018 campaign was National Strategy for the Protection of Pollinators.

In September 2018 Gazeta.pl joined the campaign by encouraging the public to help bees through virtual adoption. Gazeta.pl provided real-time reports and, traditionally, like in the previous three years, the portal logo was altered to incorporate an image of a bee.

Gazeta.pl published a new bee-themed quiz, materials about the life of bees and information about the events accompanying the campaign. 130.5 thousand bees in total were adopted by Internet users in 2018.

Radio TOK FM organized the fourth #Usłysz (#Hear your) national debate series in 2018. This time the debates focused on the candidates for city president and were titled Hear Your City.

#Usłysz events were organized in 12 locations. All debates were broadcast by TOK FM and streamed online.Events were held on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons in:

• Białystok,
• Łódź,
• Wrocław,
• Poznań,
• Szczecin,
• Kraków,
• Katowice,
• Gdańsk,
• Lublin,
• Warsaw.

Each debate was preceded by a journalist tour of the city, broadcast by RADIO TOK FM in six episodes. Additionally, each debate was followed by a Hyde Park in which Paweł Sulik invited the listeners of TOK FM to comment on the debate.

Wyborcza Live events have been organized since 2016 in Warsaw, 19 local editorial offices of Gazeta Wyborcza around Poland, cafes and theatres in Polish cities. Each event is dedicated to important events, social phenomena, culture as well as local matters important to the communities.

In 2018 the following events were organized:

• Poland – Hungary – similarities and differences, inspired by the book Węgry. Anatomia państwa mafijnego (22 May),
• series of meetings with Adam Michnik about the album 'Lec. XX wiek' by Wiktor Szenderowicz – in Katowice (11 September), Poznań (28 September), Gdańsk (12 October), Kraków (23-26 October) and Lublin (8 November),
• an event titled 'Na starość nie ma czasu' (No Time to Be Old) (10 January),
• a meeting with Anne Applebaum dedicated to her book 'Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine in Lublin' (1 March).

Rock Radio celebrated the 100th anniversary of Poland’s independence with a special project engaging the listeners to work for the benefit of the environment.

In the project 100 Trees for 100th Anniversary of Independence a hundred listeners of Rock Radio planted trees in three cities - Warsaw, Poznań and Opole. The locations were determined by Municipal Forestry Offices, the station’s partners in the project.

The fifth mathematics festival was held on 1 December 2018 in Warsaw, organized by 'Gazeta Wyborcza' and mBank Foundation as a part of Mathematics Counts project. The main idea behind the event was to stress the importance of mathematics in life and emphasise how proper teaching and talking about mathematics is a key to success.

The festival was targeted at children, parents and teachers. Participants could attend any of 12 workshops and visit 20 stands. The event attracted ca. 800 visitors. Organizers also announce the winners in the 2018 Matematyka w cyfrowym świecie competition addressed to primary school children from schools across the country.

Organized in 2018 Family Fest is the first event of its kind providing a host of attractions for entire families. Concerts and theatre performances as well as film screenings were held in the culture zone. In the entertainment section guests could enjoy attractions such as: roller skating, crazy cart, food trucks and other sports attractions.

In the open free admission knowledge zone created for parents, special panel discussions were held, with experts providing advice for preparing for labour and confinement period, for choosing safe products for children, preparing children for day care, and what any parent needs to know about the most common health problems.

All employees of Agora and their families were invited to attend Family Fest. The event was held on 23-24 June 2018 in the head office of Agora.

Kino na Temat and Kino na Temat Junior are projects addressed to youth and children and delivered by Helios cinemas since 2013. Kino na Temat is a series of film events focusing on important social themes, historical events and topics relevant to young viewers.

Film screenings are accompanied by debates with guest speakers – experts and journalists.

Kino na Temat Junior is a form of lessons for younger children conducted in cinema. Every screening is preceded by an educational workshop developed by film educators to fit the core curriculum for a relevant education level.

In 2018 nearly three thousand screenings of over 200 film titles were held for children of various age groups, 300 thousand in total.

Jedz ostrożnie (Eat safely) – was the theme of the 19th AMS Poster Gallery competition. A record number of over 700 designs were submitted, on the themes of healthy diet and its social importance. Some were alarming posters on the problems related to obesity. Others approached the subject with humour.

Winning designs were displayed on AMS citylights in cities around Poland for the duration of the year. The campaign generated a fair degree of controversy, stimulated a public debate in which the organizers felt it necessary to emphasize that the posters were manifestations of independent artistic expression of their creators’ views on the subject.

AMS Poster Gallery is a non-profit project aiming to stimulate public interest in outdoor advertising, promote the best Polish poster designs and bring closer advertising and academic communities.

The annual open competition for a poster on a social or cultural theme is addressed to students of art schools and young graphic designers.

Poles are becoming bigger. This is particularly evident in children and teenagers. Excessive weight increases the risk of diabetes, stroke, cancer, gallstones or hormonal imbalance. Poland has reached the top five of the most overweight nations in Europe. This is caused by unhealthy eating habits and insufficient exercise.

To address these problems, Gazeta Wyborcza in Katowice and their partners organized a family picnic OdWaż się. The event was held in June 2018 in Tychy as a part of a joint campaign of the Marshal Office of Silesian Voivodeship and 'Gazeta Wyborcza'.

The main purpose of the project was raising public awareness of the health threats associated with overweight and obesity. 

Correctly administered, first aid often decides about the health and life of a victim. Gazeta Wyborcza joined forces with Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity to develop a special guidebook to help keep a cool head in emergencies and administer first aid safely and efficiently.

In June 2018 special booklets Uwaga, wakacje! were distributed with Gazeta Wyborcza.

The booklets could be brought on a trip, camp or holiday stay and contained first aid instructions for situations such as road accident, drowning, stroke, heart attack or anaphylactic shock developed by the instructors and experts of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity.

Each year nine million tons of food is wasted in Poland, of this volume, two million come from individual households. It would be difficult to find a Polish household that does not waste any food.

Unfortunately, research shows that the food we throw away is usually healthy and viable. Gazeta Wyborcza invited experts to discuss potential solutions to the problem.

On 12 February 2018 a debate was held with experts speaking about planning shopping and meals, shared proven solutions to avoid wasting food – from traditional ways used by our grandmothers, to new applications for sharing or exchanging food. The audience was also invited to join the discussion.