About project

It has been estimated that till the end of this year about 3 million refugees will have arrived in Poland. Soon one in ten persons in this country will come from Ukraine. Right now we have been witnessing incredible examples of goodwill and beauty: people have thrown their homes open to refugees, go to the border checkpoints with supplies or to pick up Ukrainian families seeking shelter, collect donations – no matter what their political or religious leanings may be. We are more than united in response to this unimaginable crisis.  We are proud to be Polish and deeply moved by all the gestures of kindness, affection and solidarity – we are the masters of crisis management and mustering support. SLOT’s present job is not to provide large-scale assistance. This has been done effectively by other NGOs and state institutions. Instead, our calling is to create a space for a genuine meeting, where everyone is welcome to give and take. Ours is not a high-speed run but a marathon, which will ensure a sustainable success of our endeavors. Despite meager means, for the past thirty years SLOT volunteers have co-created SLOT Art Festival, the largest festival of alternative culture in Poland. Its traditional venue is a huge, formerly Cistercian palace in the town of Lubiąż, which requires a lot of time, conceptual and material investments every year, like wiring, supplying power, cleaning toilets and organizing more than 150 workshops and lectures. This has been possible because so far more than 1500 volunteers participated in the project. For years we have been dreaming that creative forces which drive the festival could be unleashed elsewhere during the whole year. An example could be a festival of hospitality we are about to organize for our Ukrainian brothers and sisters arriving at our border. As a network of people, SLOT is very good at creating a social infrastructure that supports spontaneous creativity, joyful collaboration and mutual benefits – all that is needed to profit from the presence of the Ukrainians in Poland. Definitely such a huge influx of people will change Poland. Already there have been sporadic complaints about the Ukrainians robbing Poles of their jobs and about difficult moments in our historical relations. The complaints should multiply if the people of good will do not come out and do their job. We strongly believe that everyone has something to give.