Officers President - Edward J. Piszcz President Emeritus - Walter Jarnot Vice-President - Thaddeus Irzyk Treasurer - Helen Arabasz Treasurer Emeritus - Alfred Milkus (In Memoriam) Secretary - Jean (Janina) Babiec Secretary Emeritus - Stanley Los (In Memoriam) Directors Frederick Kalisz, Jr. Stanley Dudek Ted Cioper Edward Gancarski Kathleen Gioiosa Richard Machnowski Edwina Romanowicz Alice Belina Appointed Staff Corresponding Secretary - Bernice Fastoso Publicity - Jean (Janina) Babiec Health and Welfare Chairman - Natalie Boudreau, Dorothy Roncka Membership Chairman - Kathleen Waldron Steering Committee - Ted Cioper, Stanley Dudek Newsletter Editor - Jean (Janina) Babiec Chaplain - Rev. Roman Chwaliszewski Membership Call-up - Alice Belina

Ambulances ready for delivery to Poland 40 ft. trailer being loaded for Poland

The Friends of Poland, Inc. is a non-profit, tax-exempt, all volunteer organization that was founded in 1982 by a handful of individuals who decided to dedicate themselves to providing medical and educational assistance to Poland. The Friends of Poland was incorporated in March 12, 1982 and is classified a tax exempt IRS-501(c)3 corporation. Now in our 23rd year, we have 135 members, mostly retired. Two dozen professors, attorneys and physicians serve as unpaid consultants to an advisory board. A Board of Trustees provides general guidance to the organization. Some $23 million dollars worth of advanced medical journals, medical and dental equipment, refurbished ambulances, computers, photocopiers, and x-ray machines have been sent to Poland.

A Center for Blind and Visually Impaired Students has been established at the Computer Center of Warsaw University as the result of an initiative of the Friends of Poland. The Friends of Poland have provided Braille notetakers, computers, voice synthesizers, a Braille printer, and a scanner for blind and visually impaired university students. The center was established by official agreement with Warsaw University and the Polish Ministry of Education.

On April 3, 1996 three representatives of the Friends of Poland were honored by Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski. Walter Jarnot, President, Thaddeus Irzyk, founder and Vice President, and Dr. Andrzej Sankowski, trustee and liaison with Poland were presented with the Cavalier Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for the charitable work of the Friends of Poland. In addition, two of our trustees, Richard Saunders and Alvin Bodzioch, were also presented with the Cavalier Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for their individual philanthropic contributions to schools and churches in Poland. Also, Jean (Janina) Babiec received the Cavalier Cross for work done in Rhode Island.

When we started, Poland was under communist control and martial law was invoked. The government controlled all facets of the economy. Their economy was stagnant. We discovered that the medical schools and hospitals were devoid of supplies. In the field of medicine, we called on scholars in Boston to advise us. We were advised that medical books and journals must not be more than three years old, since medical knowledge is constantly changing with recent advancements. In our analysis, we found that in Poland, one medical school served a city of 600,000 people and this school only received, from their government, twelve medical texts for an entire year. Through research in our country, we discovered that medical publishers printed books only once every three years. It took them one year to fill the needs of medical schools throughout the year. Usually an excess resulted. If the publishers would donate this excess to a needy overseas country, and the distribution would be urban as well as rural, the publishers would then receive a double income tax deduction which would enable them to regain the initial cost of printing.

The books were available from the most prestigious medical publishers in this country. We, The Friends of Poland, grew to 150 members. Many firms and hospitals helped us to set up a warehousing procedure. A warehouse chamber with all the facilities to receive and process these books was donated to us. This was arranged by a state representative Robert Koczera. Assembly lines were constructed by one of our members. The books had to be stamped "NOT FOR RESALE. GIFT OF FRIENDS OF POLAND" This had to be done in order for the publishers to get their double income tax deduction.

Within, ten years, we donated over eleven million dollars worth of new medical texts to all eleven medical schools in Poland. The medical school we identified earlier that only received twelve texts from the government for an entire year in 1987, received over 4,000 new medical texts in two shipments. These books were the exact texts that our own medical schools used. As the years went by, new texts had to be provided, since they only had a three year life expectancy in medical knowledge.

During that same period, we also provided medical machinery, X-ray machines, operating tables etc. that were donated by local hospitals and refurbished by our members. The hospital in New Bedford even provided expert mechanics to test and repair this used and refurbished equipment. The last few years we sent 21 refurbished ambulances, well stocked, to cities in Poland where no ambulance existed.

Two ambulance companies generously donate diesel ambulances that are then refurbished and sent to Poland. One is Fallon Ambulance, and the other is American Medical Response. We are proud of keeping our expenses down and operate on an overhead of less than 1/2 of 1 percent. All materials are donated by generous people who want to help.

Anyone interested in donating equipment, books, expertise, transportation, labor, or money is urged to contact the Friends of Poland.

Links to Polish web sites (Embassy, consulates, cities, government, tourist info, etc.)