Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Days In Poland: A Time of Reconnecting

One of the joys of continuing our work in countries where we have been before is reconnecting with friends we have made.  Our fourth trip to Poland enabled us to do just that.  We had the privilege of once again staying in the foster family home of the Wojtasinska family. They have been foster parents for 19 years to over 30 children. Many of those children (now young adults) remain in contact with the family.

These youngsters will grow up in the same foster home and be a permanent part of this family.  Standing next to David is Anya, 21 year old daughter of the foster parents. This is the only life she knows and is an amazing big sister to these kids.


Edyta and Jarek are key leaders in the national foster parent coalition and have been instrumental in changes that are happening in Poland.
After spending time in this foster home, David and I traveled to Warsaw for 4 days of training.  The group that assembled are key trainers that we have worked with before. The trainers that are a part of the Polish foster parent coalition are currently training the 3 day trauma series that we shared with them last year all over Poland. We were so excited to hear that.   This trip, we followed up on what we did before and added training on teens and trauma and how to conduct TBRI Nurture groups.  One of our commitments is to follow through with how the training is going and implementation of the principles we shared.

There was a lot of laughter amidst so much learning.  










Here is a short video of our time with our friends and colleagues - all who share the vision of helping wounded children heal. Like so many of us, they also dream of their country to become a Poland without Orphans.