WOŚP donates beds and chairs for children’s psychiatry in Poland

The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy/WOŚP) has purchased nearly 3 million PLN worth of equipment to support children’s psychiatry in Poland.

The donations include around 1,300 beds and specialized children’s seats for 34 youth psychiatry centers across the country. The organizations’ co-founder and figurehead, Jerzy Owsiak, lamented what he views as a lack of concern in the Polish healthcare system for mental health, while 20% of children require some form of psychiatric treatment.

WOŚP, consistently ranked the country’s most-trusted non-governmental organization, has raised over 1.1 billion PLN for general children’s health since its founding in 1993. Its largest annual fundraising drive is the Finale – the next is set to take place on 12 January 2020.

The support for psychiatric health comes at the end of a difficult year for WOŚP which began with the assassination of the mayor of Gdańsk onstage at an event celebrating the previous Finale.