Speakers
Janina Ochojska was elected to the European Parliament for the 9th legislative term. She is member of the Development Committee, Human Rights Committee and substitute in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.
Graduate of the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, where in 1980 she obtained a master's degree and began scientific work in the astrophysics laboratory in Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She was involved in the opposition activities and creating of the NSZZ Solidarnosc in Toruń. From the early childhood, due to the polio disease, she is physically disabled. As a teenager, during her stay in France in the 1980s, after the lifesaving surgery and medical treatment, she became a volunteer of the EquiLibre -organization providing humanitarian aid for children in Poland. In 1989, together with other people, founded the first Polish EquiLibre foundation, which since 1994 has been operating under the name of the Polish Humanitarian Action, and is the first that king of organization created in Poland. In December 1992, Janina Ochojska organised and personally took part in the first humanitarian aid convoy to Sarajevo which lead to the involvement of the polish society in help not only for Sarajevo but also for Belgrade, Kosovo, Skopje and Tuzla. During her work for an organization, she visited many countries and the most remote parts of the world providing help for inhabitants.
The successful creating of the first Polish Humanitarian Action and the 25 years of the foundation’s activity lead to providing help to 9,6 million people, building 58 schools, undertaking action in 44 countries, building 943 water intakes and creating better sanitary and living conditions for people all over the world.
She is also the winner of many awards, including: “The Woman of Europe” conferred by the Commission of the European Communities (1994), the Pax Christi International Peace Award (1995), the Atsuhito Nakata Memorial Foundation Award (1996), the Order of the Legion of Honour awarded by the President of the Republic of France (2003), the Józef Tischner Award (2006), the Bene Merito honorary distinction conferred by the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs (2009), and the Lech Wałęsa Award (2010). In 2011, the President of the Republic of Poland awarded Janina Ochojska the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.