On Friday, 30 November 2007, in the Wroclaw Town Hall, the second pre-auction exhibition was opened. There were about 60 works exhibited out of 257 donated for auction "Blizniemu swemu 2008". Among the several dozen of guests were MPs: Ewa Wolak and Slawomir Piechota. There were also members of our Society, with the Chair, Bohdan Aniszczyk and Emil Jurkiewicz, President of the “Blizniemu Swemu…” Foundation. The exhibition will last until 20 January, then it will be held in Katowice, Cracow and Rzeszow. The auction of all works will take place on 30 March in Rzeszow. For more information and reproductions, see the website of the “Blizniemu Swemu…” Foundation, organizer of the auction.

On Friday, 16 November, in the Warsaw Zacheta gallery, works given for the tenth auction “Blizniemu swemu…” ("To one's neighbour ...") were exhibited.

A collection held in cemeteries on All Saints’ Day has already become a tradition in many Circles of our Society. Its aim is not only to collect money for maintenance of institutions, but also to remind the society about the homeless and people in poverty. This year, in Podkarpackie Voivodeship, the 9 circles collected a total amount of 89 000 PLN ( the most in Krosno – 25 000 PLN).

From 16 to 18 November 2007, the 3rd Homeless European Indoor Football Championships for the PZPN (Polish Football Association) Cup will take place in Gdansk. Teams from Austria, Chech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Holland, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Ukraine are to participate in it. There will also be a match with the participation of stars and break dance show. The matches will take place in the City Sport Hall at ul. Kolobrzeska 61 on Friday at 6 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday at 9 a.m. We encourage you to come and cheer on both teams. Admission free. Organizer of the competition is the Pelplin Caritas and Gdansk Circle of our Society, and the strategic partner – the city of Gdansk. The website of the championships:  www.bezdomnosc.org.pl/championships

In the Reports section you can find the annual report for 2006. We invite you to read it.

On 11 November 2007, awards of the 9th edition of the “Pro Publico Bono” competition were given in Cracow. The aim of the competition is to support social development and building the new, democratic country through awarding the most interesting civic initiatives.
The competition committee, chaired by Prof. Andrzej Zoll, awarded the first prize to Fundacja Pomocy Wzajemnej “Barka” (Barka Foundation for Mutual Help) from Poznan for creation of the European Network of Migrants in London and Dublin.
First prizes and distinctions in five categories were also given.
In the “health protection, social and charity support” category, the first prize and 45 thousand PLN were awarded to the Sanok Circle of our Society for “assistance and bringing light into the life of bedridden people.”
Awards were given as part of the Independence Day ceremony in Cracow.

Two websites of our Society have just been created: www.tpbasilesia.pl (Silesian branch) and www.tpbagliwice.pl (Gliwice Circle). We invite you to visit them. Addresses of all branches of the Society are in the Links section.

Yesterday, Punkt Aktywizacji Bezrobotnych (Professional Insertion Centre for the Unemployed) was opened at 49 Strzegomska St. in Wroclaw. It is the 12th institution of that kind in Poland, run as part of the Equal Community Initiative project “Wyprowadzic na prosta” (“Back on Track”). The President of Wroclaw, Rafal Dutkiewicz, took part in the opening. Read more about the project at this website.

Lately, the Circle in Swidnica has created its website: www.bratalbert-swidnica.pl
We would also like to inform about the website of the Pabianice Circle www.bratalbert.com, which has already existed for a few months, but only recently has been added to the catalogue of links. We invite you to the Links section, where you can find Internet addresses of all Circles.

On Sunday, 23 September 2007, the 7th Society Football Championships (five-man teams) finished. 6 teams from: Gdansk, Gorzow, Lodz, Przemysl and Wroclaw competed for the Society Chairman’s Cup. A team from the Wroclaw night shelter won before a team of the Wroclaw hostel and a team from Gdansk. As usual, the organizer was the Gorzow circle. This time it was the outdoor competition that took place in Dlugie by the Lipie lake.