Short Information About Poland

Area: 312.685 sq km, Population: 38,632,500 Political system: Poland is a parliamentarian democracy. The highest executive power in the country is exercised by the President, chosen in a free election for a 5-year term. The President nominates the Prime Minister, who is responsible for forming the government. The Polish Parliament is bicameral: the lower chamber is called The Sejm and the upper one - The Senate; the Senate since 1989.

The level of poverty in Poland is considerably high. The average Pole is three times poorer than the average citizen of the poorest country in the European Community. Average monthly income in the household amounts app. $1601. Over 7% of society still lives below the poverty level (in rural communities the percentage exceeds 10%). Approximately 50% of Poles have insufficient means of subsistence. The poverty increasingly affects young people, primarily children. One out of two people living in extreme poverty is under the age of 19 and one out of three is a child less than 14 years old. Although the overall financial situation of households is improving, this is the case mainly in families earning higher incomes. Poles are becoming more and more stratified in terms of wealth - over 30% of the population earn incomes below the poverty level. In most cases, poverty affects families in small towns and villages. Moreover, disproportions in access to education and level of education between inhabitants of rural areas, small towns and the youth from big cities is also deepening - the percentage of university students from rural areas amounts only 2%.

During the period of economical transformation after the 1989 majority of the big, state-owned companies were liquidated. Currently over 7 milion of people are unemployed. The scale of unemployment is growing - today in Poland its rate reaches 18,7%. Families of the unemployed face the highest risk of being poor.

The positive answer to this critical problems, especially on local level, are Community Foundations. In cooperation with The Academy for the Development of Philanthropy 17 community foundations were established in Poland. Community foundations were created for the purpose of resolving problems of local communities. The first Polish community foundations were established in 1998. Their operations cover areas touched severely by problems of unemployment and poverty. Unemployment rate in one of the CFs area is 38,6%, which is one of the highest in Poland. To answer the needs of their communities community foundations launched a number of programs addressed to the most needy. Community foundations cover with their operations very diverse areas: from one gmina with a population of 16.000 to one voivodship with a population amounting app. 2 million. The total area of CF operations is inhabited by app. 5.500.000 people, which constitutes over 7% of Poland's population.

"...in the 80' one out of 14 children resident at rural areas entered universities while in the 90' only one out of 130-140." "the level of unemployment in rural areas reaches 32%" "monthly per head in - come in the household of AGRAFKA (scholarship programme) grantee amounts $ 72"
Data of the Central Office of Statistics

"It`s a poor town and people are used to looking after themselves. To make something work, there has to be co-operation between people. We started this mutual learning process in 1990" - member of the Biłgoraj Community Foundation.