Cultural: Let's do it Again - Szlachetna Paczka - Noble Packages!
Last November 30, I told you about this Polish -led initiative called “Noble Packages”. It is a Christmas outreach by Poles for people in Poland who are the most needy.
To make a long story for those of you who don’t know, don’t remember or didn’t read it last year - here it is in short.
In Poland, it is as if we have “two people groups”. One - “with money” and the other “without money”.
I know, I know.
Many of you are saying the same about the Americans.
No—it’s not the same.
Maybe there are some Americans who have no money, but our social net for the poor is much, much bigger in the USA than the one here in Poland. No comparison bigger. If people choose not to go and get help, whether it is food banks, food stamps, cash, free phones, housing help, or whatever, that is a different matter. Here there may be a small amount of $$ they give people, but there are no food stamps or housing allowances (section 8) or free phones. Occasionally social services agencies do help out individual families with once or twice a year money to pay electric bills and such.
If you come to Poland and only stay in the nice hotels in built up areas, you may never see these poorer areas. That is to be expected.
I don’t need to go there - that topic could be a whole ‘nother post (or two or three).
It’s just different. By comparison, poor Americans are rich if you look at the material things they own. I have no doubt there are some areas in the states that are terribly poor - especially in the Appalachia region of the US. Also - people with serious drug issues often are poor (as is true here - alcohol is a big problem here).
What’s happened is this. An organization was started about 20 years ago now for a special Christmas outreach to the most needy. It’s called “Noble Package” or, in Polish “Szlachetna Paczka”.
People’s names get submitted if others think they are needy - by a social services organization, the police, a neighbor, or maybe even themselves, etc.
This organization has volunteers who go to people’s homes and check out their situations - obviously only if the family is interested in participating - not everyone is.
The volunteers find out the details about people’s finances and check out their homes to try to find out the whole truth about their physical and financial situation. In other words - are people lying about what they make in order to get help? (I especially appreciate that point.)
In fact, the volunteers visit twice. They seek to find out if people are alcoholics or drug addicts, thus not using the money they do get already in a good way. If so, they will not sign them up for this program.
There is a criteria - a line - that cannot be crossed as to how much money per person per month the family has as spendable on food and living expenses If it is below a certain amount - I think it is about $200 - maybe $175- then their names are submitted to this charity. They then make a profile for each family where their situations are described, but they do change the names. Let me show you.
I’m using Google translate everywhere you see it in English - so just try to figure it out if the wording doesn’t make perfect sense to you, okay?
You can first go to the area where you want to look by looking at areas of Poland and then towns.
They then encourage you (us) to sign up to sponsor a family - to buy presents and then wrap them and bring them to a common place such as a school or fire station, church or community center where the presents are gathered, checked off and then volunteers take them to the families. That weekend is called “the Weekend of Miracles” (Ok, that’s a bit strong, but it probably feels like a miracle for some who receive amazing gifts!)
The website came active on Saturday morning, Nov. 13.
People who want to ‘sponsor’ another person can then go to this website, read the family situations and needs and decide if that is a family that they want to help. if so, they click on “I choose this family”. At that point, that name/family is shown as “taken” and in a few minutes is taken off the website and no one else chooses them to sponsor.
Once you decide to sponsor the family, you can get an email with the name of the volunteer who is the intermediary between you and the family.
Also in that initial email you get to download the story of the person or family you chose. In that story is a list of items that they need. When you say that you want to sponsor that family, you are, in effect, promising to provide the three most necessary items that have been listed for the family. In fact, the organization emphasizes that. They want you to realize that you need to do this - it is a commitment.
That volunteer then calls you and talks with you about the family you’ve chosen and asks if you understand what they need and asks if you have any questions.
Last year I didn’t choose any family until the 30th or so of November, as I didn’t really think “I” could do it. Then, once I realized I wanted to do more than just buy a bag of groceries for someone else’s family, I decided to just “go for it”. I talked about it with Rachael and she said she was sure her customers would want to help out. So we shared this opportunity with you - you caring people of blog-land and Rachael’s (our) customers.
And support you did!
As a result of the outpouring of wonderful support, I was able to sign up for a total of 6 families. In doing so we kept 4 families warm all winter - and boy did I feel good about that when it turned quite cold last year. We also bought all kinds of other necessary supplies ranging from beds/mattresses to furniture to a blood sugar meter for a diabetic girl to a special shoes for a lady with bunions, to food and cleaning supplies. I went through it all here and here and here if you want to read what all we did.
Because it was such a wonderful effort by you all and so much fun for us - I really wanted to do it again. Rachael has said that she has had people asking if we are going to do it again.
The answer is YES!
On Saturday when the website opened, I started reading the stories. This time I really wanted to find some more people who were local - ones who are in Otwock - “our town” where our church and charitable organization are located - so I read and read.
I started reading about 7 am and then after breakfast, after reading some more, I decided to choose the first family - a family of 3. To make the story short - the mom and dad had 4 children - three are grown and gone but the fourth is 20 years old and has Down’s Syndrome. They need some things for him including clothing and some food for the special needs for some of his physical problems he has.
(We have a friend who has a Down’s Syndrome child. I think she is about this young man’s age.)
I was intrigued - mainly because the man helps his son all day - the wife works. However, one salary alone has left them with some severe needs. I wanted to help them.
So I chose them.
The types of things they need are -
coal for the winter (1 ton) to keep their house or part of a house warm,
some new clothes for their Down’s son, and
some food that is especially for him that is gluten-free - along with other staples for the family.
The child also has diabetes with an insulin pump, so the clothes have to be purchased with that in mind. He also needs a bed as his bed is falling apart - the dad and son need some shoes - winter boots for the son and some tennis shoes for the dad - desperately. They also list some other things we can get - but the three things we commit to are the ones I listed first - coal, clothing for the son and food.
I then got to thinking - that’s only three people and I want to “get” the ones locally that I can, so I actually chose three more families - why?
Well, because these people are close to us - in our area and it makes delivery of the presents easy. Last year I didn’t even start looking til Nov. 30 and there was no one left in our town, so I had to start looking “out”. That’s fine, but delivery packages can be a bit ‘iffy” if the weather is bad. The delivery takes place in December and I’m a total wimp when it comes to driving in snow. That’s my “real” motive for going close!
Anyway…to keep this long blog post from getting any longer - let me ask you - do you want to help as well?
I need your help. I will do the work, along with Ewa, one of my elves, and (probably) our two husbands by default as they can’t help but get roped into our projects!!!!!!!!!
LOL.
Rachael collects the money and then ALL of it (nothing taken out for fees) gets designated for this project here in Poland - where I will spend it in the best way I know how, to get the best deals - for these people. Nothing goes to overhead or gas or salaries or anything as might normally in a charity. Our income is the same whether we do this project or not.
literally - a ton of coal
Because the price of coal has gone up so much - almost doubled - I would like to raise $2000 per family - so far I’ve got 4 families. I’ll see what I can do with this amount of money. If one family has a greater or lesser need, I can hopefully substitute it with other money. I’m going on average here.
Let me talk about the first family.
The biggest needs are coal - let’s say $500 for that,
food and clothing. I’d like to be able to spend $200-300 on clothing - several sets of sweat pants, a coat, and some other items including pajamas, plus food. Food can be more or less - I’d like to spend about $500 on staples for the family. This will help them out in the future as they wouldn’t have to spend that themselves. Then, the mom has asked for a food processor as she does like to make cakes when she’s at home, but does all the mixing by hand - a machine would make it easier - and the son needs a new bed as his is falling apart. With a new bed means other things to go with it (I’m adding that - a new pillow would be nice, etc. :) Plus shoes, plus an actual “present” such as men’s cologne, etc. You get the picture.
This first family - I went ahead and translated the information so you could see how it works in English.
a”dres” means sweat suit - or track suit.
Mostly I wanted to help this family because as this child is the fourth child in the family - the parents successfully raised the other three who are functioning as adults on their own, I thought we could be a real encouragement to the parents as they get older.
I know from life experience, as we get older, working “harder” is more difficult and sometimes, especially when there is illness or disability involved, a little boost is welcome.
(Oh, I did go and pick out quilts for each of the three already - today - Sunday.)
And that’s just the first family.
If I went into each family it would make this blog post simply too long. I will at some point. Just not today.
To make this long post shorter - I’ll get to the point.
Would you help?
If so, click below.
Any amount is appreciated and I will try to “squeeze” each groszy to get the best deals with the best quality I can possibly get! (Groszy are the smallest coins we have in Polish money.)
I will try to let you know how it goes and keep you updated on how much we raise.
At the moment of this writing, you all have given $6055! Thanks so much! (Wed. am)
If we raise more than the $8000 I will see about taking on more families - even if we have to drive farther to deliver packages. They daily put up more families on the website from now til about December 6.
I did have some leftover money (933 zl or $230) from last year’s gifts which I will apply to this year’s. Some had suggested that if I had anything leftover to use it for batting for the quilts I make, but I decided to just wait and use it this year for this particular effort.
Also, a good chunk from last year was never spent because the dad we raised money for the truck driving school never took the course. As a result, this money is going towards this year’s project ($1500) as I cannot “keep it in reserve” any longer. It was because I had this money that I knew I could sign up for several people even before I asked for any help at all. :)
I would still like to raise $8000 in addition to this money I already have. Inflation has hit Poland hard in the last 12 months and I’d like to have the extra padding to help pay for things that have gone up significantly that I don’t even realize because we don’t buy them often (for example - pieces of furniture).
Thank you so much for considering helping - even if you can’t help out this project!
You all are the best! We do appreciate you and thanks for reading this far!
Have a great day wherever you are reading this! Thanks for coming along with me on my quilting/sewing journey!
Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store here!
Here’s one of the beauties we have!
