About us

Ewa Kozdraj

In 1995, together with a group of friends, I brought to existence „For the Earth” Association. Initially, my activities were directed to the local youth of the rural areas, focused on local development, international exchanges, living in accordance with the principles of sustainable development. I have been working “with and for refugees” for nearly 10 years. A certain part of my activities is carried out through culture and art. I function in quite an extensive range of activities: I run workshops, organise meetings with refugees in villages and small towns, as well as conferences and training sessions on e.g. education of refugee children, to name but a few. I actively engage people from the Lublin Region and other regions of Poland in helping refugees. In 2015, I was awarded the title of „The Active Woman of the Lublin Region.” I am a Tutor at the School of Leaders of the Polish-American Freedom Foundation, I graduated in Political Systems from UMCS in Lublin, and I am a cultural animator who is passionate about playing percussion instruments (I was a member of the first Polish female percussion band „Mama Bum”).

I am French. I have lived in Poland for over 40 years in a village near Lubartów. I profoundly love the land on which I live. Ever since I remember, I have been trying to restore harmony and balance in myself and my surroundings. I am a member of the board of „For the Earth” Association. My work for the Association comprises three important elements: I have been in the management board of the GEN – Global Ecovillage Network Europe and created the Polish network of Active Rural Communities, I issued a magazine „Positive News” (Polish: „Pozytywne Wiadomości”) and have initiated signing the partnership between our commune, Kamionka, and the French commune, Gourin, in 2006. For a dozen or so years, the exchanges between youth and local government officials from both countries have continued. In 2014, I received the title of „The Active Woman of the Lublin Region.” In addition to social work in the Association, I run my own company (using my degree in Management and Marketing from WSPA in Lublin), which promotes environmental regeneration technologies by means of Effective Microorganisms, and provides services in the sphere of cleaning water reservoirs and lakes.

Born and raised in Lubartów, I can truly say „I’m a local.” As a secondary school student, I took part in youth projects of the Association. Initially as a volunteer and later as a coach, I co-created projects under the Youth Initiative of the „Youth in Action” Programme, addressed to local teenagers but also to refugee children. I have graduated in Computer Graphics from UMCS in Lublin and completed a post-graduate programme in Pedagogy. My passion – gardening – stops me from limiting to the cosiness of my own countryside garden where I live: I create gardens for others, for example in the Wild Children Reserve in Lublin. My responsibilities in the Association primarily focus on projects addressed to children and teenagers, of both Polish and foreign background. I run artistic workshops in: art, film, creating fairy-tale gardens, kites, etc. I also deal with the graphic side of the Association’s projects, creating e.g. project logos.

I am a graduate of the Faculty of Political Sciences at UMCS in Lublin and Tourism and Recreation at Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw. My doctoral dissertation was devoted to the problem of representing the Holocaust in the public discourse in Poland. I am a university lecturer in the field of International Relations at the State School of Higher Education in Chełm. My primary point of interest is in the ways of „talking” about the Holocaust and education about It.

My second area of interest is intercultural education. I am constantly broadening my knowledge and experience in the field and actively share them with the Association and get involved in activities supporting the education and integration of applicants for Refugee Status in Poland. I also co-create Digital Culture Institute Foundation.

I am a fan of active tourism and passive resting.

I am a passionate musician and creator of instruments made-by-hand (including recyclable instruments), used e.g. in theatre performances, ethnic, jazz and folk music. My activity in the association predominantly revolves around music: during workshops I teach children and teenagers to play and show them how to make simple musical instruments. For years I have been working with refugees, managing music formations, preparing with them music for performances and recording (below links to selected songs), which is our particular way to talk about them. My music is co-created with children and is, for instance, used as a background to Aesop’s Tales (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXgjV5oYpt4). In 2016, I was a Grantee of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage – I created music with foreigners and Musical Playgrounds. Currently, in the second edition of the project „Our Lublin-Our Home – II,” I am recording music pieces with Seniors from University of the Third Age in Lublin and with musicians – representatives of other cultures.

A graphic designer, a filmmaker, a computer scientist, an administrator. In the Association I deal with running websites, designing graphics and repairing anything that falls into disrepair. I thoroughly enjoy it – IT is more of a passion than mere qualification. My educational background is culture and the visual arts, having completed the Secondary School of Fine Arts in Lublin, I subsequently proceeded to explore the field by becoming a student of Cultural Studies at UMCS. I live a few houses away, I grew up here and I have built my home here. I have been participating in the life of the Association since its infancy: as a child – taking part in projects, later co-realising them.

By the time I joined the Association in 2009 (when „For the Earth” Association began to work “with and for refugees”), I had already known a lot about the interesting place and people in the Lubartów area. Ever since that day, I have been co-creating a spectrum of projects, having been involved in the majority of them. I am a graduate in Ukrainian Philology, and for many years I was the vocalist of The Saint St. Nicholas Orchestra, and also an actress of the Gardzienice Theatre Association, and of the Chorea Theatre Association. I am involved with many cultural institutions in Poland and abroad, I conduct numerous workshops, I play and sing, and occasionally create choreography and music for performances. I have received the award of the Honoured Worker of Polish Culture from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. Quite fortunately, I am a keen traveller – as I have to travel a lot as part of my work. I love to sing and dance, and recently I have become fascinated by permaculture.

In 1974, I received a diploma from the Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology, and in 1979, I graduated from the Directing Department of the PWSFTviT in Łódź. In the 1970s, I co-founded the Salon of the Independent cabaret (Polish: Salon Niezależnych). Subsequently, I was mainly involved in filmmaking: as an actor I played, in such films as „Man of Marble” and „Wodzirej.” For years I have been connected with the neighbouring communes and the Lubartów County, and even during the martial law, for two years I lived in Dąbrówka village. This relationship lasts mainly thanks to the cooperation with „For the Earth” Association, of which I am a member. For many years I have been conducting film workshops in which children and teenagers produced their films: „Kayone,” a film about the Lubartów Romani, was realised by high school students from Lubartów as part of the project „Different – means interesting;” the „Communal Film Chronicle” is a work of high school students from Firlej under the project „Bridge the Generations;” „BębnoDłuby” is a reportage from drumming workshops for the Lubartów teenagers – within the framework of the project „Equal Opportunities;” „Tara Mandala” is a film made during the Tibetan Buddhist ritual of Sand Mandala, portraying the creation and destruction of the symbolical Mandalas by a Buddhist monk – as part of the project „Around the Roof of the World – the Culture and Human Rights;” and finally „Organic Waste – Life After Life” – a film promoting waste segregation in the Lubartów County, as well as “Letter to the World” – music video clip with the participation of Polish and refugee children and teenagers shot in Lublin.

In my film activities I also travel the region far and wide, and in 2000 I realized „The Core and the Apple Blossom” – a documentary about the community of former city dwellers who emigrated and settled in villages scattered around the Kozłówka Landscape Park.