Traditionally, at the end of January, collections and accompanying events are held throughout Poland and abroad.
The finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (WOŚP) is a one-day event that has been held since 1993. Each edition of the collection is accompanied by additional campaigns – including concerts, shows and online auctions. The slogan of the 32nd WOŚP finale is “Everything is OK here!”
This year, the main events will take place on Sunday, January 28. On the day, on the streets of many towns volunteers will be collecting funds in their traditional commemorative cans.
“The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity Finale is a one-day public collection organized by the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity Foundation. For many years, the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity Finals has also been accompanied by online campaigns and closed events, which start at the beginning of December,” inform the event organizers.
The culminating moment of the 32nd WOŚP finale will be the so-called Light to Heaven, scheduled for 8 p.m. “At this moment, we are asking everyone who is close to the ideals of WOŚP to send a light towards heaven, i.e. towards the Good Angels, in the form of, for example, a lit match, a candle, a flashlight on the phone or a laser show,” they say.
The aim of the 32nd Grand Finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity is to raise funds for the purchase of equipment for the diagnosis, monitoring and rehabilitation of lung diseases of patients in pulmonology departments for children and adults. “Lungs after the pandemic. We play for children and adults!” explain the foundation’s representatives. The funds collected during the collection on January 28 will be used to purchase devices for imaging diagnostics, functional diagnostics, endoscopic diagnostics, rehabilitation and thoracic surgery.
“I am glad that the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity Foundation is so sensitive and has chosen the topic of lungs after the pandemic this year to help those who are still fighting this fight,” said pulmonologist Dr. Tomasz Karauda in the “Wstańsz i pozna” program on TVN24. He emphasized that in many cases, complications after COVID-19 “resemble a battlefield.”
Dr. Karauda pointed out that it cost the lives of nearly 120,000 people in Poland. „But those who survived this time were left with more or less complications,” he added.
“The lungs also have some regenerative abilities. However, if this battle was huge, lasted many days, sometimes many weeks, and the patient required mechanical ventilation and was hospitalized in the intensive care unit, then the battlefield is much larger,” explained the doctor.
He emphasized that “this battlefield leaves huge traces in the form of fibrotic changes.”
“I am glad that the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity Foundation is so sensitive and has chosen the topic of lungs after the pandemic this year in order to strengthen and help those who are still fighting this fight. For both children and teenagers,” Karauda said.
He added that in Poland the waiting time for respiratory rehabilitation is about a year.
“This means that a patient released from the hospital will not automatically go to rehabilitation, where he should be rehabilitated, but must wait many weeks or months for such rehabilitation. If there was more of this equipment, more rehabilitation departments would probably be opened,” he said.
“There are many topics to be developed within the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity and these funds will certainly be used in full. So I invite you to be generous and let’s try together to restore health to Poles, especially for those struggling with serious complications of COVID-19,” he concluded.
WOŚP is a philanthropic foundation whose goal is: “health care activities consisting of saving the lives of sick people, in particular children, and working to improve their health.”
During 30th WOŚP over PLN 1.7 billion was collected. WOŚP purchased and donated over 70,400 devices to health care facilities throughout Poland.
In 2020, it was estimated that every fifth piece of equipment in Polish hospitals came from the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity. According to public opinion polls, the foundation has been the most trusted among third sector organizations for years.
In 2022, the WOŚP Foundation spent over PLN 23 million to help Ukraine. The organization purchased 4,709 devices worth over PLN 13.7 million for hospitals in Ukraine and 624 devices worth over PLN 6.8 million for facilities in Poland.
Support was provided to facilities from 15 towns in Ukraine: Uzhhorod, Rivne, Tarnopol, Lutsk, Chevonogród, Novovolynsk, Kiev, Odessa, Yavoriv, Khmelnitsky, Lviv, Dnieper, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk and Kharkov. The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity also ran two Humanitarian Aid Points in Szegini and Warsaw. The 28th edition of the Pol’and’Rock Festival, organized by the WOŚP Foundation, was held under the slogan NO WAR!
