Changing the world, heart by heart

The purpose of “Changing the world, heart by heart!” project is educating children and teenagers using innovative teaching methods. Our aim is to sensitise youth to discrimination against the intellectually disabled and to raise young people’s awareness that acceptance for people with mental health conditions is crucial, yet still scarce.

Workshops for children will be based on Disability Awareness Puppet Shows and will include teaching basic sign language and familiarising the audience with daily living aids used by people with disabilities. Furthermore, puppets with Down syndrome designed and built for us by a renowned Icelandic puppeteer and sculptor Bernd Ogrodnik, will be used for the first time. Workshops for teenagers, in turn, will be based on a film entitled “Jestem” (“I Am”) and a multimedia presentation.

The project will give young people a chance to familiarise themselves with “otherness”; to discover the qualities shared by all humans and to learn about the most important aspects of various disabilities. Moreover, the participants will have an opportunity to visit the disabled persons our Foundations take care of and to initiate some activities with and/or for them.

The project will last for 16 months, from April 2014 to July 2015, and will be conducted in małopolskie, wielkopolskie and dolnośląskie voivodships.