Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy / the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity has the status of public benefit organization and entered into the central register of public benefit organizations on September 1st, 2004. The Foundation Board’s President is Jerzy Owsiak – the chief conductor of the orchestra, without which it would not came to life. It is this guy in the middle of the group.
WOŚP headquarter – Warsaw, street Dominikańska 19 c
Main goal of the WOŚP is to work in the field of health protection by saving patients’ and especially young patients’ life and supporting their treatment. Additionally, the Foundation promotes health and medical prevention. It is pursued by organizing the Great Finale money collections, by purchasing medical equipment for hospitals all over Poland, and by running 5 nation-wide medical programs and 1 educational program.
Those 5 medical programs are as follows:
- The National Early Cancer Diagnostics in Children Program
- The Universal Hearing Screenings Program;
- The Premature Retinopathy Prevention Program;
- The Infant Flow Program;
- The Personal Insulin Pump Children Therapy Program.
The educational program is CPR for Schools Program, aimed at teaching first aid in primary schools.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=4kxkvD-RrlM&feature=endscreen – RURobus for “CPR for Schools” Program
Polish Airlines LOT; second from left – Jerzy Owsiak, fourth from left – Jerzy Buzek
In the summer time the WOŚP Foundation is the organizer of Europe’s biggest open music festival, called Przystanek Woodstock / Woodstock Festival (read also: Woodstock Festival).The most spectacular and media event is the Great Finale (read: Great Finale) – a January money collection. It is held on the second Sunday of January. On this day in hundreds of cities there are concerts and street money collections, auctions, including night auctioning of the Golden Hearts (the best price was 1 100 000 zl / approx. 275 000 euro!). Also public street running and some television programs about life saving and protection. All those events are shown by the public TV (Channel II TVP).
In 2007 The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity played even… on the Moon!
Each year the Foundation chooses a theme – the aim it wants to achieve. There were (among others): child’s heart surgery, saving children victims of accidents, saving children with kidney problems and modern diagnostic tools and treatment in neonatology and pediatrics. Up to 21. Great Finale WOŚP has collected a total of 127 477 210 $ and 47 248 415 zł (amount without decimal data; www.wosp.org.pl). For that money Foundation purchased over 20,000 modern medical equipment and 2,877 insulin pumps for children (Poland is the first country in the world where insulin pumps became so common in treating child diabetes), and equipped 182 infant wards with 270 Infant Flow devices (it’s the best result in Europe!).
CT for Children’s Health Center
About the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity:
The WOŚP strength stems from its unconventional character. Its activity involves eccentric artists and personalities. This way Orchestra shows the Poles that even those who wear dreadlocks, nose rings, tattoos and listen to death metal may have a good heart.
Rafał Baran, CEO Grey Group
20. Great Finale
Photo: WOŚP (Robert Groblewski, Łukasz Widziszowski); bron: www.wosp.org.pl