It is a rare thing to be able to see so many smiling children's faces at the same time. It is a unique energy boosting experience! The gratitude and joy expressed by the children for everything they are given is a splendid argument in favour of the idea that it is worth helping others. Therefore, just like in the previous years, this year many good people, organizations and firms supported the edition of BajkOLAndia. This year, the event was organized together by the “Magic of Art” Foundation and the “Child’s Heart” Foundation, with the support of the Children's Health Institute.
BajkOLAndia is a charity campaign. It was initiated by Aleksandra Mikołajczyk, an actress and business woman. The mission of BajkOLAndia is to help those who need help most of all. Its objective is to collect funds for the treatment and rehabilitation of the youngest children in need. ASA was one of the partners of the event, and our portal www.zdrowieintymne.pl. was one of the media patrons.
The fifth jubilee edition of BajkOLAndia has already come to an end, but we will long remember all that happened on 17 September in the Children's Health Institute. It was a very joyful, colourful and merry time! This is in short what was happening in the events room and during the campaign.
The event was opened with kicks by Artur Chamski, who together with his friends Maria Tyszkiewicz and Jurek Grzechnik, gave a concert. There was some commotion in the audience. It is not surprising as the singers’ faces are well known to everyone watching the “Your Face Sounds Familiar” show. The concert was a great prelude to this important day.
Right after the concert and an official greeting of the audience, children appeared on the stage and together with the actresses Aleksandra Mikołajczyk, Anna Powierza and Elżbieta Romanowska (the Ambassadors of BajkOLAndia) they showed everyone what good theatrical improvisation meant. Well known poems by Julian Tuwim and Jan Brzechwa were adapted for the stage.
The culminating moment was a children’s fashion show. The models from the Children's Health Institute and the Argonaut school walked down the catwalk with style and grace, even though they had only a very short modelling practice. During the show a beautiful idea motivating BajkOLAndia was coming true; it can be expressed in just one word: "connecting". Both the healthy and the sick children were models presenting the clothes, on equal terms. The youngest children proved that they knew what integration was.
While the children participated in various creative activities, the Ambassadors together with Aleksandra Mikołajczyk visited those patients who could not be present in the events room due to their health condition. They were given over 200 parcels sponsored by Pilot Pen Polska, as well as gifts offered by Business Charity Relay Race and by ASA. It was an extraordinary meeting both for the patients and for the celebrities, very emotional and offering an opportunity to reflect. It was a unique lesson of empathy and a time to stop for a while and to ask oneself many important questions. Giving presents to the sick children had a special dimension. A smile and a sparkle of joy in the eyes of the youngest children isolated from the world and spending their everyday lives in hospital reality are a value which cannot be defined with just one word; they are invaluable. These moments are the most important for everyone involved in the BajkOLAndia campaign.
We would like to thank everyone who participated in the event and thus helped to collect funds for the treatment and rehabilitation of the sick children. We would also like to thank the children and their parents and everyone involved in the campaign, and the organizers of the event for their noble initiative and for inviting us as a partner.
We would also like to thank BajkOLAndia very much for their thank-you note .
The account was prepared on the basis of materials received from Bajkolandia.
Photographs taken by Adam Wilhelm were used.