Beskrivning av organisationen

Stowarzyszenie Jeden Świat, eng. One World Association (OWA) was registered in 1994 by a group of very motivated young volunteers and local activists. Since then it has become a well-established voluntary organisation, appreciated and recognised by both national partners and local, grassroots communities.
Our mission is to promote the idea of peace and understanding between people through international and national volunteering and non-formal education programmes. We are the Polish branch of Service Civil International (www.sci.ngo), a global movement that has been working for peace for more than 101 years now.
Our actions are based on the belief that one of the most important things that we all need to gain today is the ability to cooperate peacefully between people, communities, cultures and nations. Therefore, together with volunteers and partners, we implement the vision of our Association by educating about the modern, diverse world and building mutual trust between people, regardless of their identity, physical abilities, orientation, or national, ethnic or religious affiliation.
Working with the youth is very dear to our hearts, as it allows us to shape a generation that will work for a peaceful, united Europe (and beyond).
Main target groups is youth between 13-30 and people working with them like teachers, trainers, local leaders.
We create and work on good quality partnerships between NGO, public institutions and grassroots communities.
Since 2004, we have had the status of a Public Benefit Organization.
The goals of the One World Association are realized through various forms of activity:
- long-term volunteering projects (EVS, ESC) - we used to send abroad about 40 long-term volunteers per year, and host up to 4 foreign volunteers and coordinate around 10 more working for our partners in Poland and abroad. Covid-19 pandemic has changed the numbers of sent volunteers but we are already back on track.
- short-term international volunteering - usually 10-15 workcamps per year in Poland, where work is performed by international volunteer teams,
- global education programme, including activities in schools and among young people,
- workshops, training courses, film screenings, narrative and musical performances and other cultural activities,
- publications and educational materials;
- building partnership between different sectors, groups, and stakeholders.
Examples of thematic projects implemented by us are:
- Educational Programme "Different - Equal" (“Różni-Równi”) on refugees and national minorities,
- Educational programme "Antidiscrimination every day",
- "Uwolnij pomysł" - educational project on local volunteering and leadership,
- "Emotive" on development cooperation,
- "Go visual! Creative education on migration" on visual thinking in education,
- “Challenging Propaganda Through Remembrance, CHAPTER”- international volunteering project on working with history, fake news, antidiscrimination.

Our members and volunteers conduct classes on volunteering, peace, refugees, human rights and national minorities, organize and go on short- and long-term volunteering projects.
So far, we have organized 334 workcamps in Poland, hosted over 2,600 international volunteers, and sent over 7,200 volunteers from Poland to projects.

People
One World Association is based primarily on the people who create it. Mutual support in action and joint development are important, as well as a spirit of openness and kindness to new people who want to start their adventure with volunteering.
Awards
In recognition of efforts to promote peace and understanding between nations, Service Civil International (the global peace movement of which we are the Polish branch) has been honoured by the United Nations with the title of Messenger of Peace and has been nominated numerous times for the Nobel Peace Prize. It acts as a consultant to UNESCO and the Council of Europe. SCI is also a member of the Coordinating Committee of the International Voluntary Service (CCIVS) and the European Youth Forum (EYF).
Locally, in Poland, One World Association - SCI Poland was honoured with the Sergio Vieira de Mello Award for activities in the field of promoting democracy and the peaceful coexistence and cooperation of societies, religions and cultures.
The Chapter of the European Citizens' Prize awarded us, as well, with the Civil European Premium title for the campaign promoting volunteering and the European Year of Volunteering: Passion - Cooperation - Opportunities.
We also received an award from the President of the Republic of Poland, Mr Bronisław Komorowski for promoting the idea of international volunteering.
In 2018, we won the prestigious Special Award on the 25th anniversary of the Foundation for the Development of the Education System for activities for the benefit of non-formal education of young people.