We want the world we live in to be a friendly, tolerant, and safe place. The internet is an important part of it. Here we meet other people, giving them a chance to get to know us. We share our experiences, our fears and joys. We learn, we experience, we grow. In democracies, we all have a voice on the internet and are free to use it. Let us make sure that the language we choose and the perspective guiding our statements are not harmful.
For thirty years, Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH) has provided humanitarian aid and assistance to the people who need it most. In the process, we have been the recipient of extraordinary generosity, openness, and a readiness to support our endeavors—but we have also faced hostility toward the organization and the people we seek to help.
We are constantly subjected to hate speech. We try to counteract it every single day: by educating, by fostering cooperation, by explaining. In presenting the realities faced by those whose lives have been upended living in countries wracked by humanitarian crisis, we believe that we can help more and more people become aware of the many factors contributing to these crises. We hope that this awareness will manifest at the level of language.
The Home project platform gathers our activities together in one place—efforts we have realized and those under way. You will also find information about projects and reports by other organizations and individuals. This platform is a home we build together. Gain from it what can be useful to you as you lay a solid foundation for interpersonal understanding. Below each article you will find links for re-sharing platform content. By spreading knowledge to others, we can all help build a better and kinder world.
Welcome to My Home
To bring us closer to people enduring a humanitarian crisis, photographer Agata Grzybowska traveled to countries where humanitarian aid is needed. Agata met the people living there, visited their homes, and listened to their stories, recording videos and taking photographs. Once back in Poland, working together with producer and journalist Magdalena Chodownik, she set about developing the material she returned with. You can see the results of their collaboration in the story section. Above all, the Home platform allows us to meet other people, to look into their eyes, and to listen to their life stories about perseverance under duress.
Individuals from five countries shared their stories with Agata:
Gathering together all of their stories would not have been possible without the help of fixers, drivers, and translators:
Project authors:
The Home project is the result of many months of collaborative work between dozens of people. The following individuals participated in its creation:
Home platform “general contractors” overseeing the project:
Others who added their “bricks” to the construction of the portal: Aleksandra Szymczyk, Ewa Mielczarek, and the following employees of Polish Humanitarian Action also contributed to the Home project’s development and realization: Marek Abłasewicz, Jakub Belina-Brzozowski, Urszula Fudecka, Katarzyna Górska, Rafał Grzelewski, Kalina Kabat, Helena Krajewska, Karolina Murawska, Joanna Pankowska, Weronika Perłowska, Katarzyna Prokopowicz, Ewa Ratyńska, and Agata Szerszeńska-Dubek