For 18 months a video featuring the Foundation Towards Dialogue will be broadcasted on British Airways planes. Travelers of British Airways planes will be able to learn more about the life of Roma community that fled from the war in Ukraine to Poland and the activities of our foundation. This is the result of visit of British Airways representatives to Poland who in cooperation with the Disaster Emergencies Committee (DEC) and Oxfam came to visit key organizations working for refugees.
“Sky is the limit” – literally! Starting November 29, for 18 months a video with a focus on, among others, the Foundation Towards Dialogue and the community centered around our organization will be transmitted on British Airways’ internal TV channel. This means that British Airways passengers from around the world will have the opportunity to see and hear the voice of people from the Roma community and learn what the foundation’s work is all about. This is a big step towards building bridges between the Roma community and people not only from Poland and Europe, but from all over the world.
At the Foundation Towards Dialogue
Under the airline’s partnership with the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), British Airways representatives visited Warsaw in July 2023 to learn about and see firsthand how work organizations supporting refugees from Ukraine. The Director of Sustainable Development, Carrie Harris, along with Daniel Varni, who is responsible for crew development at British Airways, met with people representing the Polish Migration Forum and the Empowering Children Foundation that supports refugee children by offering them psychological assistance. Representatives of British Airways also visited the Roma Community Center hosted in Warsaw by our Foundation (i.e., the Foundation Towards Dialogue) as a local partner of Oxfam. This meeting with British Airways and DEC teams was attended by members of the Foundation’s team – Joanna Talewicz, Olena Vaidalovych, Natasha Yazepchuk, Luba Vaidalovych and Paulina Pulkowska, as well as its beneficiaries. Based on these visits, a short film was produced documenting Carrie and Daniel’s trip from British Airways to Poland.
Aid counting in millions
British Airways has been working with DEC since 2013, involving itself in multiple activities such as aid for Pakistan where the crisis was triggered by flooding; in Turkey and Syria, that were plunged into crisis by an earthquake; or in Ukraine, that has been attacked by Russia. Thanks to British Airways’ passengers and its staff, the airline has raised more than £2 million from on-board collections and through the BA Better World Community Fund crowdfunding site.
