"Our Belief" program

International Co-operation

International co-operation is essential for the healthy future of our planet and is essential in our work. We work with organisations, groups, institutions and individuals around the World who work for human rights, animal rights, for nature and our healthy environment. At focused campaign level, we especially work with those who oppose the mismanagement of water resources and who promote pro-ecological, pro-social solutions, and especially with those who oppose destructive dams and river regulation. We also work very closely with those working for animal rights and animal welfare.

For the Vistula river, we instigated and form part of the international coalition with World Wildlife Fund, IUCN, Birdlife International/OTOP and Wędkarski Świat (this is the national magazine "Angling World" which co-ordinates the input from anglers who wish to work for the Vistula). We are part of the Coalition Clean Baltic.

We have been visited by and run workshops with people from all over the World. We have hosted young activists from Kazachstan and Kirgistan providing a training programme for them. We have hosted and been part of a winter meeting of the European Youth for Action Network. In 1998, we hosted and organised the First International Meeting of Non-governmental organisations: Dams, Water and Life, Bielsko-Biała, organised specifically to address co-operation of non-governmental organisations who work against destructive dams and river regulation and which promote pro-ecological pro-social alternatives. The meeting focused on co-operation at the European level, between the northern and southern hemispheres and with the World Commission on Dams (WCD). We presented the Vistula as a case study at the European Hearing of Non-Governmental Organisations with the WCD and represented Polish NGOs at the World Water Forum in the

Hague in March 1999. In our centre, we have held international meetings of people who are in the Waldorf education movement. Exchanges have taken place with environmentally active young people from the UK, delivering concrete input from each participant in campaign and environmental education work.

In May 2002 an international youth exchange meeting took place in our centre, hosting young participants from the Netherlands, Romania, United Kingdom and Sweden entitled: We are one - all for earth, earth for all. The meeting's aim was to bring together young people from various parts of Europe with view to the accession process with the European Union and to broaden young people's understanding of different cultures. The meeting culminated with a parade through the streets of Bielsko-Biala in artistic expression of young people awareness and involvement in environmental and social issues related to unifying Europe. 

We work closely with NGOs who are concerned about animal rights and animal welfare issues. Our focus is the transport of live animals for meat; in particular, the transport of live horses for export from Poland for meat. We are an Associate of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and are invited as an observer to Eurogroup for Animal Welfare made up of representatives from NGOs in the European Union Member States. We are a member of the Vegetarian Society and European Partners for the Environment.

In summer 2003 Klub Gaja hosted and organized together with Stowarzyszenie Inicjatyw Babiogorskich and Babiogorski National Park a conservation holiday for BTCV (British Trust for Conservation Volunteers), biggest organization in the UK engaged in various forms of practical work for the environment and the local community. The volunteers who came to Poland  worked in Babiogorski National Park cleaning the tourist paths and building wooden fences.

"Let others not be alien for us"

Within the program "Let others not be alien for us" Klub Gaja organized and co organized  several events in 2002.
It all started with a cycle of meetings with people from different cultures, among others with a monk from a Chinese monastery Shaolin and a Canadese Indian. The following meetings related to the Indian and Japanese culture. 
On 9th March 2002 Klub Gaja organized an action under the Chinese embassy in Warsaw demanding respect for human rights in Tibet.
We collected  signatures under the petitions to liberate Panchen Lama, the youngest political prisoner from Tibet and presented materials on fight against racism and intolerance during concerts of hard core groups 1125 and Blame on 15th  March 2002  in Bielsko-Biała in club Alternatywa and during another concert of reggae-club-ska groups Akurat and Jasiu with  KOSMOS MEGA SOUND SYSTEM.
On 24th March 2002 another concert of hard core scene took place in Bielsko-Biała's club Alternatywa with groups OM Kara, 100 twarzy grzybiarzy and Minority where we also managed to collect many signatures under the above petition.  

The next concert reggae-ska was organized  with the message "One world, many cultures" with the following groups: DODGERS, ŁINDOWS, TAUMATURGIA and TRANSFORMACJA. 250 people came to this event.
The concert was a charity event like every year. This time we were collecting money to finance the purchase of a computer for  disabled  Krystian.
Also on invitation of Klub Gaja the lecturers from Polska Akcja Humanitarna (Polish Humanitarian Action) have led two workshops against racism. One of the workshops took place in Klub Gaja and the other one in a secondary school of Bielsko-Biała.