Where does the name come from? What do you do? Or maybe it is some kind of a cult? Many people with who we talk have these secret, lingering thoughts, and probably you too! Well, many have tried to explain the existence and principles governing the Association of Impossible Initiatives "Motyka”, but probably no one has ever succeeded.
With "Motyka" is just like with its Polish namesake - hoe (which means “motyka” in Polish) - an agricultural tool. It is hard to guess what the hoe actually is: if we show this three-pronged tool with the handle people will name it differently, depending on which region of Poland they live in. And let’s keep it that way.
Another thing worth mentioning is a Polish idiom “to jump at the sun with a hoe” (“Porywać się z motyką na słońce). It means “to bite off more than you can chew”, so we can say that in “Motyka” all the time we are trying to do things which seem to be too difficult.
In any case in 1999 this tool inspired us to found an association with this name. Since then “we climb the sun with Motyka”, once more quickly and efficiently, sometimes slower, because "stairs" appear somewhere.
Tolerance and respect for other people, different cultures, the environment; equality; being sensitive to others’ needs - these are values on which we base our activity, and which for us - the people who created and create “Motyka” - are important and timeless.
The main goal of "Motyka" is to increase the life chances of children and youth through non-formal education and volunteering. With our actions we want to reach out to residents of countryside, small towns and communities threatened with social exclusion.
We are achieving this goal through:
- non-formal education activities and projects for children and youth;
- international youth exchanges;
- promotion of foreign volunteering (EVS, holiday workcamps in Germany and Eastern Europe).
Since 2001 we have the status of a central unit of Polish-German Youth Cooperation. Since 2006 we are a public benefit organization.
In the years 1999-2015, "Motyka" has carried out over 30 Polish-German and three-national exchange projects (with the participation of a German partner) and over 20 multilateral international projects. "Motyka" was a sending organization for about 50 EVS volunteers and 5 volunteers visited Toruń.
From October 2015 we have a new office in the “Brama Klasztorna” (“Monastery Gate”), a historic building at Ducha Św. Street 2a in Toruń.
We invite to cooperate everyone with open mind and readiness to share their free time and ideas with others! Just write, call, make an appointment.
