Warsaw Fellowship 2016

What's next?

Adam Pakulski
2016 Ideas Incubator Fellow, Poland

June 16 was the 20th day of our Warsaw Fellowship. In-put phase has been completed and now we are working hard, using previously acquired knowledge and skills, to plan and conduct our social campaigns in the ongoing out-put phase. Thursday morning greeted us with beautiful weather, but we knew that the day, even promised to be fascinating, at the same time will be very busy.

First of all, it was our deadline for the publication of the first work results on our campaigns (after four days of work only!) both on-line and in reality. For the second, that was a day of the long-awaited visit of Judith Goldstein, PhD - Executive Director and Founder of the Humanity in Action. In which we presented the ideas for our future Action Projects that we will execute within a year after the end of the fellowship. And all this in just one day ...

Although, a majority of us have had a long night to get ready, we all showed up in the morning in Info Menora at Grzybowski Square - our principal place of meetings and workshops during this month adventure. Final touches and voila! 8 great ideas for campaigns have been created.

Campaign, which started earliest and was the most advanced at that time was - DOM.PL. The initiative created by Mikołaj, Angie L. and Paulina main motto is: "I love Poland for ...". They roamed the city in search for Warsaw's residents, those living in it ever since, but also those who are new in the city, those who are of Polish origin and those who chose or were forced by the geopolitical situation to leave their homes, villages and countries. A series of photographs of people with a plaque: "I love Poland for ..." and their responses wowed! What is more, this is just a one campaign out of eight! 

Another campaign is FeedFood, an ambitious campaign with global  potential. So how easy is to share food and encourage others to do so. Uwolnij orła (Free the eagle), because pride and patriotism do not belong to the extremists. Be a proud Pole as you are. Ona ma imię (She has a name) - so I do not agree on the disgusting taunts against women! Rasizm jest do d… (Rasism sucks) - a very literal way to show, how we treat xenophobia and racism. So What? - because all relationships are equal. Simple! Jedna na pięć (One out of five) - because every woman experiencing violence is a one victim too much. No Unsexy Questions - how to talk about sex to be not afraid of it and play safe. All in all, there are no unsexy questions! The effects and progress of our work you can follow on Facebook. Don't forget to like us! :)

Afterwards, has come time to present our ideas on Action Projects. I must admit that I was stressed out. It was at the same time as we were doing our campaigns, so we had no possibility to prepare carefully for the presentation. Moreover, we were told that Judith Goldstein will listen to us!

Interestingly, during the in-put phase many of us have changed own previous idea on the Action Project. It turned out that the lectures and workshops, in which we have participated for the past almost two weeks have inspired us to work in new ways and in new areas of activity.

The session with Judy was very enlightening! I think it was another great time, when we as fellows (but also our board members) surprised ourselves with our creativity and engagement for the action. there is nothing better to do than ... take an action! :)

Adam Pakulski