By a Notarial Deed dated 2 April 1992, the private ANIMO Health Protection Foundation was established, based in Bolesławiec—temporary address: Bolesławiec, 19/2 Piastów Street, tel. 82-40.
The Foundation was established by: Lucyna Dygas, MA; Bogdan Dygas, MD; Danuta Bygas-Ostrowska, MA; Wojciech Ostrowski, MSc Eng.; Jerzy Kaczyński, MD; Władysława Tarczyńska; Krystyna Ratajska, MD; Józef Kupka, MD; Dariusz Fułek, MSc Eng.; and Maria Fułek, MA.
At the first general meeting, the Foundation’s authorities were elected. Lucyna Dygas was appointed president, Bogdan Dygas vice-president, Władysława Tarczyńska chief accountant, and Maria Fułek secretary. Jerzy Kaczyński became chairman of the Supervisory Board, Banuta Dygas-Ostrowska deputy chairwoman, and Józef Kupka secretary.
The Foundation’s main objective is to provide specialist medical assistance, undertake preventive activities in the field of health and environmental protection, provide rehabilitation, and help obtain essential orthopedic equipment, particularly for people with locomotor disabilities. As the Foundation develops, it also plans to establish a hospice and rehabilitation and therapy centres. We intend to achieve the Foundation’s objectives by acquiring property rights and financial resources from donations, inheritances, bequests, grants, funds obtained from membership contributions, and business activities.
The idea behind establishing the Foundation is a simple consequence of the obvious truth that human life and health are the highest values. Based on social solidarity, the Foundation offers an alternative means of ensuring access to specialist medical, psychological, and nursing advice, particularly for the poorest people, the chronically ill, people with disabilities, and pensioners. We are aware that the Foundation’s activities will not replace systemic healthcare solutions. Nor are they intended to compete with other forms of medical services, such as private or cooperative services.
The ongoing reorganization of healthcare, whose social consequences are not yet fully known, may perhaps provide solutions to the problems of disease prevention and public health protection. The budget funds currently allocated to medical activities are essentially sufficient only to finance the so-called “medical minimum”: basic medical care, treatment of infectious diseases, and cases requiring immediate life-saving intervention. The need to economize will result in a tendency to significantly limit most of society’s access to the specialist medical assistance most desired and expected by patients.
The Foundation’s articles of association provide potential donors with specific membership rights and privileges. We will make these known in greater detail among residents interested in our activities by means of a Questionnaire–Declaration, counting on their understanding, financial, material, and moral support, kind advice, and constructive criticism. We would also like to point out that the Foundation’s previously mentioned authorization to conduct broadly understood business activities may create employment opportunities, with preferential treatment for people with disabilities, highly qualified specialists who are unemployed, professionals representing various occupations, and even people without qualifications.
In view of the objectives precisely set out in its articles of association, the Foundation envisages close cooperation with municipal and self-government authorities, the management of the ZOZ, the Provincial Hospital for the Nervously and Mentally Ill, institutions serving the wider public interest, and with every individual for whom the fate of other people, beyond their own, is not a matter of indifference.