OUR RESPONSIBILITY IN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

In a symbolic gesture of thanking the medics for fighting the pandemic on the first front in March 2020, on one of the covers of the issue of Wysokie Obcasy a unique drawing by illustrator Marta Frej appeared. In this way, the editors encouraged everyone who would like to express their gratitude to the medical service to stick this cover on the window, car window or share it on social media. The poster can be downloaded here.

In April, Wysokie Obcasy and Gazeta Wyborcza in cooperation with the Kulczyk Foundation launched a social campaign called “Tenderness and freedom. Let's build a balance in relationships” („Czułość i wolność. Budujmy równowagę w relacjach”), the aim of which was to support readers in surviving the difficult time of the pandemic and to provide ideas and reflection on how to prepare yourself and your loved ones for life in the world “after the coronavirus”. Another initiative aimed at supporting the readers in coping with reality during the pandemic was the special action “Superheroes save us” („Superbohaterki ratują nas”). To this end, the editors invited the participants of the “Superhero of Wysokie Obcasy” („Superbohaterka Wysokich Obcasów”) plebiscite – activists, stars of the stage, science and business to participate in the initiative. In a series of videos published on Instagram of Wysokie Obcasy they told, among other things, how to cope with quarantine or look for joy and strength in moments of doubt.

From May 2020, the Agora Publishing House together with the Agora Foundation was involved in the unique charity campaign under the name “Hope”. As part of this initiative, the publishing house has published a book of the same title in cooperation with 40 prominent Polish writers and poets, incl. Olga Tokarczyk, Wiesław Myśliwski and Mariusz Szczygł. The entire income from the sale of the issue was allocated to helping hospices and social welfare centers for seniors and people with intellectual disabilities, who, especially during the pandemic, did not receive sufficient support from the state and are struggling with, among others, with a lack of staff, equipment, masks, as well as basic necessities.

On the day of the presale announcement, on May 22, all the media and brands of the Agora Group involved in the campaign as a sign of support for the initiative, changed their logos by adding a green color – referring to the colors of the “Hope” campaign logotype.

In July 2020, musicians also joined the action by creating the song “Hope All Stars – Over the Rainbow”. All people involved in the campaign and the creation of the book worked for charity.

As part of the project, employees of the Commissioner for Human Rights and the Agora Foundation made several hundred phone calls to selected centers from May to September in order to conduct in-depth interviews. Then 58 centers were selected from the database of over 460 centers. Each of the centers defined a priority list of needs, the costs of which were covered from the account, to which Agora Publishing House transferred funds obtained from the sale of the book “Hope”. In July 2020, the Biedronka network joined the group of donors in the action, which donated PLN 1,062,038 to support seniors. In total, over PLN 1.5 million was collected under the initiative in 2020.

The organizers donated the entire income from the sale of the book to help 58 social welfare centers and hospices. The obtained funds were used to purchase, among others, personal protective equipment, chemicals and disinfection products, it was also possible to buy hot meals, increase the number of hours of psychologist and psychotherapists' care, or equip 2 rehabilitation rooms.

HRlink from Agora's capital group together with partners from the HR industry launched a unique project in April 2020 aimed at people, companies and institutions affected by the current crisis. #HRsupport (#HRwspiera) was an action that combined technological and psychological support, proposing concrete actions and real help to dismissed employees, companies reducing employment and those that still recruit employees – mainly online. The HRlink platform included, among others tools for people with a notice who are looking for a new job, and companies could take advantage of a series of free online events – conferences and webinars. As part of the project, in July 2020, a comprehensive set of outplacement advice and solutions was published in the form of an e-book. This is a company's proposal for entrepreneurs, prepared by experts on the basis of experience and webinars taking place from April 2020.

Faced with the pandemic and in view of its serious impact on many areas of life, AMS has committed itself to numerous social campaigns. These included, among others, creating offers to support businesses and entrepreneurs, and building a community during the fight against the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of them was the #AMSnextdoor (#AMSpoSąsiedzku) initiative, aimed at local entrepreneurs, to encourage them to take advantage of the company's dedicated offer and to help them promote their products and services during the pandemic. In these difficult times, also the cultural sector was targeted with a campaign from AMS called #AMSsupportsculture (#AMSwspieraKulturę), thanks to which cultural institutions, such as theatres, museums, cinemas, publishing houses or opera, could benefit from promotional terms of cooperation. A similar offer was made to public benefit organisations as part of the initiative #AMSItisworthtohelp (#AMSwartoPomagać).