Who are we?

Stowarzyszenie Promocji Wolontariatu (SPW) is a Polish non-governmental and non-profit organisation established in 1993. It’s activities include organizing International workcamps, coordinating mid- and long-term voluntary projects in Poland and sending Polish young people to participate in analogues projects abroad.

What is our vision?

SPW defends the creation of horizontal cooperation structures that pursue the ideal of mutual aid. The aim is to support projects that adapt to the interest of local communities and allow the volunteers to become a useful part of the social environment in which they will be introduced temporarily.

What is our mission?

In order to achieve our goals, we promote a responsible approach to volunteering, focused on the principles of sustainability. Our mission is to defend a kind of volunteering that, regardless of its duration, is based on solidarity, cooperation and mutual understanding, enriching both, the community and the volunteer.

What are our values?

Our values are the same ones that guided the group of people, which, under the guidance of the Swiss pacifist Pierre Cérésole, decided to rebuild Esnes, a French village deeply damaged during the First World War. This project, which started in the autumn of 1920, is considered to be the first International Work Camp in history. Cérésole and his mates worked with the idea that cooperation between different nationalities was the best way to avoid future conflicts and build a world based on intercultural understanding. That is the reason we are here and we consider ourselves heirs of those pioneers.