Speaking at the Polish Pavilion, deputy lower-house Speaker Dorota Niedziela said Poland had made “security in the broadest sense”—including military, food, pharmaceutical, mental and physical security—the central theme of its EU presidency.
“None of the changes we pushed through in the EU over the past six months would have been possible without dialogue,” she said, pointing to progress on financing European security as one of the key successes.
Polish Day in Osaka also included a conference on children’s mental health, organised as part of a “Day of Kindness” at the Polish Pavilion.
It featured representatives from the Polish parliament and civil society, including civic group leaders and medical professionals.
The evening concluded with a concert featuring the premiere of a new European symphony by Polish rapper, composer and producer Łukasz “L.U.C.” Rostkowski.
Jerzy Owsiak, founder and head of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (WOŚP), Poland’s largest foundation focused on medical aid, spoke at the event about the power of mutual support.
Over more than three decades, WOŚP has raised funds to buy over 78,000 pieces of medical equipment worth around USD 700 million.
Owsiak praised the Polish Pavilion’s creative design and invited Japanese visitors to explore Poland, emphasising that “Poles have a lot to learn from Japan's organisational culture and discipline.”
Earlier in the day, a panel discussion on child mental health stressed the role of adults in recognising and responding to children’s emotional needs.
Magdalena Skarżyńska, vice president of the Polish Investment and Trade Agency, said that in the rush to build careers, many parents miss warning signs and fail to listen to what children are trying to communicate.
Speakers from the Czepczyński Family Foundation invoked the teachings of Janusz Korczak, the 20th-century Polish educator who championed children’s rights.
Foundation president Damian Kupczyk said that Korczak’s child-centred approach was not abstract theory but “daily, empathetic practice based on trust and partnership.”
Korczak (birth name Henryk Goldszmit) – a doctor, educator and writer murdered at the Treblinka extermination camp during WWII, along all of the children of an orphanage where he was working – is revered in Poland as a symbol of integrity and empathy, having refused multiple offers of assistance in escaping.
Conference participants also cited recent research: 8 percent of children and adolescents are diagnosed with ADHD, 9 percent of preschoolers experience speech disorders, and between 5 and 15 percent of children struggle with learning-related issues.
Medical professionals at the event highlighted the importance of designing hospital environments to reduce stress in children, including the use of avatar-based rehabilitation technologies that allow children to perform exercises in partnership with a virtual character.
Expo 2025 in Osaka runs from April to October 13 on Yumeshima, an artificial island in Osaka Bay.
With the theme Designing Future Society for Our Lives, the World Expo is expected to draw more than 28 million visitors, mostly from Japan.
This is the second time Osaka has hosted a World Expo, the first having taken place in 1970.
The tradition of international exhibitions dates back to the Great Exhibition held in London in 1851.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP
Click on the audio player above for a report by Agnieszka Bielawska.