"Wojtek Helps": about the project

This whole beautiful story with Wojtek began with "The Return of the Icons".

During one of our visits to Maalula, we learned that one of the icons given by General Anders to the village residents for taking care of Polish soldiers was destroyed and the other one was probably stolen during the attack in 2014. The story moved us deeply and we decided to donate copies of the icons.
We met Magda Sontag, who runs the Eleusa Icon Studio, with whom we formed a relationship of friendship and cooperation. Magda wrote copies of the icons.
After some time, she suggested going a step further. This is how the extraordinary project "Wojtek Helps" was created.

Here is the insight of Magda:

"Wojtek helps" is a project implemented by Domus Orientalis since autumn 2019. The end of 2019 was the pilot stage of the project. 2020, despite the pandemic, was a time of various activities that showed interest in the project and possible paths of its development. In the summer of 2021, "Wojtek Helps" was launched in Beirut thanks to the first classes conducted by the team of YBTE Young Volunteers. Since then, the Young People have been conducting classes with Wojtek the Bear in Lebanon at least once a year. The following years of conducting classes confirmed our belief that the topic of helping others with your own talents is a necessary topic, giving the opportunity to talk in an equally unique way with preschoolers and high school students. And the story of Wojtek the bear allows you to smoothly adjust classes to the needs of specific age groups.

"Wojtek Helps" is primarily an educational project. Its recipients are children, always creative and sensitive, who (still) believe in the power of helping others, but also young people who often ask about the meaning of aid activities. Each class is based on the story of a bear. Wojtek from Anders' Army, who helped the soldiers with his natural skills resulting from being an over 200-kilogram huge animal - his strength, ease of carrying and lifting heavy objects. Wojtek also helped the soldiers in a less obvious way: it brought smiles and fun, a distraction from gloomy war thoughts, a healthy sense of absurdity. And these "natural talents" that each of us have are always the starting point for a conversation about what each of us can do to help.

And then we turn words into actions. Together with the little ones, we sew little Wojtek teddy bears, which they take to their homes to remind them every day that helping is cool. Young people often prepare small gifts themselves, which we have already taken to Lebanon several times for the kids. Sometimes, at the institution's initiative, classes are combined with a fundraiser, the purpose of which is, for example, to pay an annual school scholarship for a schoolchild from Lebanon.

Since the beginning of the project, we have conducted nearly 30 educational and creative activities in kindergartens, schools, scout stations and cultural centers. Meetings with Wojtek have become a permanent part of the schedule of grades 2 of the „Płomień Primary School for Girls” in Katowice, where every year we conduct classes to sum up the month with the reading of "Grandfather and the Bear" by Łukasz Wierzbicki. Also in this school in 2021, a cross-curricular program was held for several months project for sixth grades. Its results are coloring books and worksheets prepared by students, which we regularly use in classes in other institutions. Another tradition is the October birthday of Wojtek the Bear, which is organized with great pomp by „MDK Jordan” in Siemianowice Śląskie.

"Wojtek" also includes activities that we called side initiatives. They all have a common denominator: creativity. These activities would not take place if it were not for the artists and craftsmen who have supported the project from the very beginning. Thanks to them, we can organize small charity stands with handicrafts that they gave us. As part of various activities in parishes and communities that invite us, we can meet, talk about the project, and share the beauty that has been conveyed to us since the beginning of the project. We have been invited to 6 meetings of this type.
Also in cooperation with the creators, 9 editions of the unique teddy bears Wojtek were created. Over 90 unique teddy bears went to their owners all over Poland. 10 Wojteks also lives with children in Lebanon and Ukraine. During the pandemic, we prepared small sets with Wojtek the Bear, which we gave to one of the children's clinics for the kids waiting for vaccinations.

In PDF attached below you can find some photos from the project