Ten years have passed since the launch of the international project of organizing children's recreation for KPI employees in Poland - “Children's Poland”, as it is called by the employees of our university. In 2014, our children first became participants in a recreational and educational program organized by the Warsaw University of Technology.
Today, with a decade of experience of cooperation between the trade union committee of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and our Warsaw colleagues, we can say that the project format was successful. This is evidenced by its popularity among the employees of our university who have children of middle school age.
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Time is running out quickly. The first participants of the project, who were ten to fourteen years old in 2014, have now crossed the threshold of their twentieth birthday. We hope that they still fondly remember their trip to Poland. Now their younger brothers and sisters are gaining experience of their first independent stay abroad.
For ten years, the project has been honed, polished, and improved: locations, programs, and activities have changed. Our children visited Warsaw, Krakow, Krynica, Zdroj, and Novi Sącz. They learned horseback riding, kayaking, hiking, and participated in various workshops. We have always been happy to see that vacations in Poland were the beginning of long-lasting friendships between children that continued after they returned to Kyiv.
In 2022, the project took on a new meaning. The war was a tough test for all of us, and in the spring of 2022, it was difficult to plan anything at all. However, our Polish colleagues convinced us of the need to implement this project at this time. “After all, children need to be in a place where there are no air raids, no curfews, but peace and quiet for at least a few days,” they decided and doubled the number of project participants.
So the employees' children went on vacation in Poland this year as well. They recuperated at the Warsaw University of Technology's recreation center in Hrybiv. The program included a traditional visit to Krakow. Our children had the opportunity to test their agility in the rope park, ride horses, and have fun in the water park. We would like to thank our colleagues from the Warsaw University of Technology, Beata Jankowska and Justyna Andrzejkiewicz, the staff of the Hrybiv base, in particular the head of the base, Katarzyna Budzik, as well as Andrzej Furtak and the excellent staff of the dining room, in particular the chef, Agata.
The children's committee of the trade union committee, as well as our university staff Oksana Zakharchenko, Olena Tarasyuk and students Vika Kolomiets, Sofia Kuzyova and Anna Taran, who accompanied the children and took care of them throughout the trip, were traditionally involved in organizing the trip from the Ukrainian side.
Special thanks to the rector and heads of trade union organizations of the Warsaw University of Technology for the opportunity to implement the project this year. We hope that next year the Warsaw University of Technology base in Hrybiv will welcome our children's group again.