On the initiative of many women (including Ewa Draus - the former governor and presently a councillor of the Sejmik of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship) a meeting of nearly 100 women with Marek Kuchciński, Deputy Speaker of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, took place in the former manor house of the Pogonowski family in Łopuszka Mała near Kańczuga.
Among the participants of the meeting there were many councillors from cities, counties and communes of Podkarpacie, as well as social activists and volunteers from non-governmental organizations. The Marshal was accompanied by Senator Alicja Zając from Jaslo and the host of the manor house (which now houses an orphanage), Chairman of the "Wzrastanie" Foundation, Law and Justice MP Jan Bury, who has established 81 kindergartens, adult foster homes and hospices in the surrounding communities of Przeworsk and Jarosław counties.
Marshal Kuchciński, inviting everyone to submit their sincere comments and proposals, said among others: , "We want to listen to you, so that later your comments, demands and opinions can be translated into concrete plans and action projects in the future. Remembering the past and tradition, we want to act here and now and at the same time think about the future, about new generations. And every political decision of the public authorities, or any other authority, both in the village and at the level of national or international policy, should be preceded by an analysis of the effects it will have not only on the present but also on the future of Polish families.
More than a dozen ladies spoke at the meeting and presented the most important problems concerning the situation of women and children and families in our country.
{Gallery}Lopuszka{/gallery}
In the first photo: Vice-Marshal Kuchciński welcomes the ladies. On the right of the Vice-Marshal sits the host of the Pogonowski's manor - MP Jan Bury and Anna Szmidt - a young signatory of G. Gęsicka's Movement. Next to A. Szmidt stands Damian Zabawski - co-host of the meeting.
In the second photo: from the left - Professor Józefina Hrynkiewicz and Ewa Draus, the Podkarpackie Governor in the Law and Justice Party government. In the background there is a garden and a pond surrounding the Pogonowski's mansion.
Iwona Książek - sociologist, project manager at the Podkarpackie Teacher Education Center, identified the main priorities and problems concerning young women in Poland. Namely: women have professional ambitions, but at the same time they want to start a family and raise children. It is a great challenge for them to reconcile these priorities in a situation where employers often do not show understanding and are unhappy with dismissals due to the need to care for a sick child. Women are afraid that they may not be able to reconcile these two spheres and as a result they will either not be appreciated at work or will not be good wives and mothers. Anyway at work they are generally in a much worse situation than men when it comes to pay and promotions.
Dorota Chilik - She successfully runs a family business which she took over from her father-in-law (she employs 6 workers and carries out several large infrastructure projects in Podkarpacie, and mainly deals with renovation of historical buildings). During the meeting she told the listeners about her regular working day, which starts early in the morning and ends late at night. She spends most of the day at work, but she also finds time for her five children (especially the two smallest ones, 5 and 6 years old), and for her husband, because - as she humorously notes - "otherwise he would have left me long ago". When I get up in the morning I pray: God, make me want to want. Because you can do a lot of things by being feisty, but first of all you have to be hard-working. Besides, there is no success alone. I always work in a group and I surround myself with people who emanate goodness and energy of life" - Dorota reveals the secret of her success.
Ewa Sobczynska* - When she was a volunteer at the Catholic Adoption and Guardianship Centre in Krosno, a girl with cerebral palsy was found there. And, as Ewa recalls, "an idea arose in our family that we wanted to sacrifice ourselves not only for our own children, but also for this child who had been wronged by fate. This is how the couple, who also have several children of their own, became a foster family for Basia, who requires constant care and rehabilitation. However, state institutions do not provide adequate assistance to such foster families. Not all municipalities are ready to cooperate with foster families, so that orphaned children or children with special needs are not placed in children's homes (especially big ones), but in foster families. There should be as many families specializing in this field as possible. Because even the best Children's Home will not give the family atmosphere that a foster family can give, where there is much closer contact with the child. But not many families will decide to take care of orphans and especially children with special needs if the state does not provide foster families with proper financial support.
Ewa Draus - In her speech on women's activity in public life she quoted a number of statistical data. For example, half of Polish citizens are women, exactly 51% (the same number in Podkarpackie Voivodeship). But only 20% women are present in public life. In Scandinavian countries there are 50% women in parliament. In Western European countries - about 40%. In Poland, public life has a "male face", with the greatest disproportion being seen in Podkarpackie. There are 20% women in the Sejm, 8% in the Senate. In the European Parliament there are 22% women, and Poland has the fewest women. Apart from Poland, the worst performers in this classification are post-communist countries as well as Greece and Ireland. As for the last local elections, in Podkarpackie Voivodeship women accounted for 27% of the candidates to the regional assembly - in Mazowieckie Voivodeship 34%. To county councils: in Poland - 29%, in Podkarpacie - 24%. To town and commune councils: in Poland 33%, in Podkarpackie province - 25%, in Mazowieckie province - 34%.
Ewa Draus is convinced that women are extremely needed in public life, because they can best represent the group interests of women and at the same time the interests of families and children. Appropriate social policy is needed in Poland in this regard. "There are some areas where women feel the problems better and know better how to solve these problems. What is needed is a state policy that supports women both in their role as mothers and as socially and professionally active people. Many issues will be addressed to Vice-Marshall Marek Kuchciński and at the same time to Vice President of Law and Justice, a party that promotes women, in which they actively participate, and which recognizes that women's activity is very important for the entire society," Ewa Draus announced.
The participants of the meeting warmly welcomed the speech of Professor Józefina Hrynkiewicz from the University of Warsaw. She noted, among other things, that "only in Poland does a woman have a very high position in the family and a very high prestige, she is very respected. The most important place in family celebrations is usually occupied by the grandmother. This is where the extremely strong cult of Mary comes from in Poland. But in the history of Poland these women are few. This high family and social position of women comes from the historical conditions of the Polish fate. Poland was almost always under threat, men went to war, and women stayed at home, took care of the family property, raised the children, and preserved the faith, traditions, customs, and values. The nobleman's manor was a great source of culture.
Today we think that we are a free country, we have independence and actually everything is going well. But this world is a very difficult world. Not only does this world require determination, but it is changing rapidly, and not necessarily in the right direction. The models that come from outside are not always the models we should adopt.
A crisis can be defined as a situation in which the number of children has drastically decreased. The next generation of Poles will be 30% less numerous. Almost 800,000 children were born in 1955, 723,000 in '83, and only 351,000 in 2003. The social consequences of this trend will soon be felt. These are the effects of the very liberal policy that has been conducted for so many years in Poland. The problem is that a woman can give birth to children only at a certain time. And the state policy should create appropriate conditions now and not postpone things because it will be too late.
You have to do what people want. In Poland over 90% believe that the best model of life is marriage (with two or even three children). Therefore, we should not passively listen to how good homosexual relationships or partnerships are. And if young people want to have children, the state should create conditions for having and raising them. A woman should not be put in the dramatic situation of having to choose between working and taking care of her sick child. We need to create conditions in which a woman who wants to work has the opportunity to do so. But at the same time conditions must be created for those women who want to take care of children. Unfortunately, municipalities have been relieved of the duty to work with families - this is now the responsibility of the county. But the county is far away and only deals with pathological families. All social and family policy today is about dealing with pathology.
Meanwhile, work with families should take place where the family lives, i.e. in the village, in the district, in the city. So that we can quickly help in difficult situations. It is not an art to send a policeman and take away a child in dramatic circumstances. One regulation needs to be changed: working with the family is the responsibility of the municipality - and money should go for this purpose. And for women who want or need to work, there should be a network of facilities to support the family in its all important functions of raising children. Private kindergartens will not solve the problem, because most families cannot afford them. The Seym has recently adopted a lot of poor solutions, so they need to be changed and we need to protest. The family must be surrounded by a number of supporting institutions. Supporting, not replacing, because nothing can replace the family. This must be taken care of. This is why women are needed in public life (in bodies that make local, national, or EU laws) to clearly, unambiguously, and decisively formulate the interest of the family.
Polish society is aging - we have over one and a half million people in Poland who are over 80 years old. Many of them are terminally ill and suffering. There are also one million and three hundred thousand people in Poland who are under constant psychiatric treatment. These are people who are unable to live independently, and often their care falls on the shoulders of the family. Everything should be done so that this prolonged life is not a nightmare both for the family and for the person. The family and the patient should be provided with decent conditions. These are the difficult issues that are not discussed in public because they cost money. But they require our solidarity. The same applies to schools.
In the early 1990s, the school was relieved of its educational functions. But this educative function must be restored to the school. The school must educate and take care of the child. It should not be the case that in Poland almost all children have bad teeth. It is not enough to privatize certain social services. It is also necessary to ensure that the citizens have the necessary means to take advantage of these privatized services.
Therefore, women should be very active in public life, they should take up public functions at different levels, from the function of village leader, school director, head of the institution, to senatorial or ministerial functions. There are many social issues that we really need to deal with. And as soon as possible". - concluded Prof. Józefina Hrynkiewicz.
In reaction to appeal of the Reverend Professor Jan Zimny from the branch of KUL in Stalowa Wola, the participants of the meeting made a decision about establishing 'Women's Movement for Public Life in. Grazyna Gęsicka". For the next meeting Rev. Zimny invited the ladies to Stalowa Wola.
The meeting in Lopuszcze Mala took place on July 30.
*Personal information for the sake of the family has been changed.
