Rehabilitation center for 60 disabled in Poland

Click here to watch "Doctor Piotr" - the movie.

Doctor Piotr

Let's imagine Poland in the 1980s: grey, dreary, there’s nothing in shops, endless queues everywhere, because there was a shortage of everything and, what's more, you couldn’t leave the country easily. And in such unfavorable conditions, Doctor Piotr, a specialist in orthopedics and rehabilitation, decided to completely change the world of disabled people. And how did he do it? He began to take disabled people out of their homes, where they had been confined since birth due to various barriers. Thanks to "Doctor Piotr", people with disabilities went to scout camps, learned to live independently away from their parents (some of them peeled potatoes on their own for the first time in their lives during the camps) and realized that "I can't do it" does not exist .

Mielnica near Goplo

He was an exceptional man. Whole-hearted, good, brave, righteous, wise, hard-working, talented, creative, witty, patient, who completely revolutionized the world of disabled people. To this day, thanks to Him, people with disabilities are able to live their lives to the fullest. They start families, work, study, perform in the theater, sing, travel, write books, give birth to children, fly paragliders, pursue their passions, are self-reliant and independent, conquer peaks, can make delicious coffee, make a career, help others... Despite many obstacles, they try to live normally. And they are guided by the idea of Doctor Piotr, the prematurely deceased Patron of the Doctor Piotr Janaszek’s PAY IT FORWARD Foundation in Konin, that the impossible does not exist!

- Dad always set the bar very high for himself and he never failed to reach it. His most important goal in life was to help those in need. He loved children and devoted his entire, much too short, life to them. His greatest work was certainly the summer rehabilitation scout camps for disabled children, during which rehabilitation was combined with fun. The camps were held in Mielnica near Lake Goplo. It was Mielnica that charmed him the most. He put a lot of work and enormous effort into creating a rehabilitation center for disabled children. Mielnica was his third „child”. In difficult times, he fought for it with determination using all available means. In 1989, he created the "Mielnica" Foundation in Konin. He was called "Doctor Mielnica" by his children, all of whom he loved very much.

Letters to the center in Mielnica were also addressed in this way. They contained requests for admission to rehabilitation camps. About 250 people come every year from Poland and abroad. Thanks to this "island of happiness", many disabled children sailed on a boat for the first time in their lives, swam in the lake, slept in a tent and spent unforgettable moments around bonfires. Most importantly, they experienced a lot of love, friendship, understanding and happiness here. And all this away from my parents. And Dad loved them all. He played his guitar for them around the bonfire. It was truly revolutionary! - recalls Zuzanna, president of the PAY IT FORWARD Foundation.

Modest and demanding

Mielnica has grown enormously over the years. The first in Poland Occupational Therapy Workshops, a Sheltered Workshop, a Rehabilitation Clinic and a Sports Club for Disabled People were established there. The first National Skills Olympiad for Disabled People "Abilimpiada" was organized, and a Hostel for Mothers with Disabled Children and a Community Self-Help Home for People with Mental Disabilities were established. But it is not everything. Doctor Piotr, as one of the few in Poland, showed that a disabled person can travel to the furthest corners of the world. Doctor Piotr had many friends all over the world. Thanks to his foreign contacts, he managed to organize stays for disabled people in Sweden, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and France. When he was in the United States, he immediately organized the trip of groups of disabled youth to New York! He was a hard worker and demanded a lot from others and, mostly, from himself.

- Dad was a very modest man. Whenever he received an award or distinction, he claimed that it was due to the entire team of people. He never boasted about the awards and distinctions he received, he hid them deep in the bottom of a drawer... and he received many of them. It is known, however, that the most important decoration for him was the Karol Marcinkowski’s Medal awarded by the Medical University of Poznan, of which he was a graduate, the Hanna Dworakowska's Heart in the Hand award and an award from children who nominated him to the Order of the Smile - for them he was "Doctor Mielnica", a man who treated them with a smile and infected them with the joy of life. And that's how he was as our Dad and as a Man. He did not rest until he set himself a new task and launched a new venture. And he did all this for the good of other people. He simply loved people - adds Olga from the PAY IT FORWARD Foundation.

December 6th 1998

It was a very frosty and gray day. Doctor Piotr and his wife Joanna were returning from Warsaw, from a St. Nicholas Day meeting with disabled children. Near Krosniewice, his car skidded and collided head-on with another car. Doctor Piotr died on the spot. His seriously injured wife, Joanna, was saved. The President of the Republic of Poland posthumously awarded Doctor Piotr the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. The following were also awarded posthumously: the "Creator of Polish Rehabilitation" Medal and the title of "Man of the Great Heart".

Zuzanna and Olga

Life writes amazing scenarios. Both of Doctor Piotr’s daughters were raised by their father as if he had a premonition of something, as if he knew that he would not be allowed to work at the Foundation until old age... Both sisters are just like him: hardworking, talented, honest, creative, empathetic, but also demanding from themselves and others. For both of them, the PAY IT FORWARD Foundation, created in 2004, is a continuation of Doctor Piotr’s idea that "the impossible does not exist" and that goodness can be passed on.

Doctor Piotr's short memoir

The doctor, specialist in orthopedics and rehabilitation, was born in Poznan into a family cultivating the ethos of organic work. A student of the world-famous doctor, Professor Dega, creator of the idea of global rehabilitation.

During his studies at the Medical University of Poznan (1965-1971), he co-founded the "Untrailed Trail" Teams at the Orthopedic Clinic in Poznan, implementing a form of rehabilitation through scout camps.

Immediately after graduation, he worked at the District Hospital in Konin, where he created a very warm and friendly Pediatric Rehabilitation Department (the first in Poland in a provincial hospital), the Orthopedic Supply Clinic, the Provincial Branch of the Polish Society for the Fight Against Disability (from 1993 he was the president of the Management Board of TWK) and one of the first Occupational Therapy Workshops in Poland.

He created the innovative Children and Youth Rehabilitation Center in Mielnica.

He was also a publicist and columnist. He published, among others, in "Nowy Medyk", "Szpilki", "Ilustrowany Kurier Polski", "Gos Wielkopolski", the Polish "Kurier" and "Biay Orze", as well as the New York’s "Nowy Dziennik".

We would like to present you the first story of one of the heroes of the GENE OF INDEPENDENCE project. The rest of them in forthcoming reports :)

There were 3 of us in this car. We were returning from a party. The driver fell asleep. We hit a tree. I fell through the windshield. My spinal cord is severed quite low.

Links:

• THE GENE OF INDEPENDENCE official page
• THE GENE OF INDEPENDENCE movie