The 2023 Polish Diaspora Forum was officially opened at the Prime Minister’s Office in Warsaw on Thursday, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Jan Dziedziczak, the Polish government’s commissioner for relations with Poles abroad, said that this year’s event would focus on “exchanging experiences to enhance community building.”
‘My Path to the Diaspora and Faith’
The 2023 Polish Diaspora Forum is being held under the motto My Path to the Diaspora and Faith, according to organisers.
Dziedziczak told reporters: “This year we’ll focus on the reminiscences of our elders, encouraging them to tell their stories, tell us about their life path.”
He added that such recollections were “extremely important,” offering an insight into “what Polish diaspora members have been through, how they have managed to maintain their Polish identity, as well as showing the entire context.”
Dziedziczak said the annual Polish Diaspora Forum “facilitates the exchange of experiences and ideas,” enabling the Polish government “to offer solutions to issues faced by Poles living abroad,” while giving diaspora activists the chance “to highlight problems” and suggest new projects and initiatives.
The event also “helps develop ties between our compatriots living abroad,” the official added.
Thursday’s meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office, which was attended by dozens of Polish community campaigners, focused on “Poland’s image abroad, the issue of elections and education, among other topics,” Dziedziczak told reporters.
He said the government was in the process of setting up a new agency, the Maksymilian Kolbe Institute, “to support the education of Poles living abroad,” and “invest in the new generations” of Polish people living outside their home country, the IAR news agency reported.
After Thursday’s launch in Warsaw, the 2023 Polish Diaspora Forum was set to continue on Friday, with a host of events scheduled to take place in the northern city of Toruń, Polish Radio’s polskieradio24.pl website reported.
The day’s programme was due to start with the laying of flowers at Toruń’s memorial to the late Polish-born pope John Paul II, according to officials.
Then participants were set to "share their life experiences," including from “living abroad during the Soviet era” and “fleeing Poland after the communist government introduced martial law in 1981,” reporters were told.
Poles living in Europe and Australia were expected to take the floor in the morning, followed by an afternoon session featuring Polish expats from North and South America, polskieradio24.pl reported.
Dziedziczak said their reminiscences would be recorded and archived “as an important testimony for posterity."
'Passing on Polish identity and culture' to next generations
Dziedziczak added that participants would also discuss “the role of Polish priesthood in working with Polish communities abroad.”
He told reporters that Poles living abroad “must have access to Polish priests … for faith reasons, but also for community reasons.”
He said such contacts helped expats “meet fellow Poles, people with whom we can become friends,” and counteract “the loneliness and isolation,” which was often “the price paid for living abroad.”
Dziedziczak also said that Polish expats, by involving their children and grandchildren "in Polish church life," were "helping them learn about Polish identity, spend time in the Polish-language community and meet Polish friends.”
He stated that “passing on Polish identity and culture to one’s children and grandchildren is one of the key parts of being a Polish patriot abroad.”
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, polskieradio24.pl, tvpparlament.pl
