Please, help and go to the homepage www.pajacyk.pl and click on the Puppet's belly to help feed a hungry child. After clicking, you will see the banners of the sponsors. Each of them pays approximately 1.5 cents for your visit. In such a way, you can easily support this program and the children they serve by donating no more than a minute of your time. You can do it only once a day.


The name "Pajacyk", roughly translated from Polish, means wooden puppet in English. More precisely, the image of a wooden puppet is closely associated with the childrens story about Pinocchio, the creation of Geppetto, an Italian carpenter, whose dream of having a son is realised when a good-willing fairy makes Pinnocchio into a human child. The wooden puppet that serves as our programs image has an empty belly, representing the hunger that we strive to eliminate from the lives of the children we work to help.

There are at least 330 thousand children in different parts of Poland that desperately need nutrition support, but the child nutrition program is carried out only in several places in Poland. Information based on application forms sent to us by school principals, helps us decide which schools qualify for help.

Nutrition for children in schools is the best way to support a child, her family and her school. It gives a guarantee of putting the money to proper use and enables clear accounting. We wish to provide at least one hot meal, every day of the school year to children in need.

The Polish Humanitarian Organisation began the child nutrition program in 1996 in regions where state collective farms were located during the communism period. As a result of Polands economic changes in the last fifteen years collective farms were shut down, leaving many families unprepared to deal with the new socioeconomic situation. The Polish countryside has had the most difficulty in adjusting to the changes. Farms in these regions are very small and very underdeveloped, the farming culture is low and there is a huge unemployment rate (in some areas peaking at 90%).

As is often the case, children are among the most severely affected by the poverty. Many children travel over 10 km to school every day. There have been cases of children fainting during class or eating leftovers that another child left behind. Some children say that their only reason for going to school is the bowl of hot soup that they will get there. The resources of the Local Social Support Centres are too small to provide the necessary help. Children tend to stay home to help their parents earn money rather than attending school; thus, the level of education remains low and perpetuates the cycle of poverty.

The nutrition support program introduced by the Pajacyk Campaign provides children from the poorest families with one hot meal a day. We hope that by improving the nutrition of our children, more children will stay in school, gain an education and continue to grow with the pace of our developing nation.

Success from the school term 2002/2003:
During the 2002/2003 school year PHO provided meals to 4,681 children in 100 schools, every school day in 11 regions (voivodships).

The fall school term 2003/2004:
In the 2003/2004 school year PHO started out by providing meals to 2,665 children in 63 schools in 13 regions.