Volunteering as an ESL/English literacy in Krakow

I am an ESL and English literacy volunteer in the states. I have helped doctors, engineers, foreign-born writers, etc, improve their English. I have helped an MD improve his English so he could pass the oral boards, an Indian engineer improve his technical writing to submit IT articles to a trade magazine and helped a female Pakistani PhD candidate so that she could speak more cleraly so her classroom students could better understand her.

I also can help with basic literacy (reading comprehension, vocabulary building, slang comprehension, word etymology).

I have a BA in English, summa cum laude, am native to the midwest USA and am 40 years old. We will be coming over by Fall 2007. We will live in Poland for up to three years. My hubby will work there with his company.

I also volunteer my time doing family tree/genealogy lookups and original document transcription work online, for various websites (Rootsweb, Italianagen NYC Lookups, etc) and orgs.

Is there a grassroots movement of UNPAID people like me, who give their time and energy to Poles in Krakow?

I am looking for something unconnected to a Catholic church or church organization, as I do not share that religion and want the services I provide to be open to all.

I would like to continue this work there if I am allowed to; I assume I can do so without trouble from anyone, if I am not paid for my time or materials.

Does anyone know anything about volunteer orgs there in Krakow?

I am interested in learning about art conservation (oil paintings, specifically) or antique bookbinding and would volunteer my time doing that as well, if someone would agree to teach me the basics for free.

Any ideas where to start looking?

Hmmm, Soros foundation. google it

Thanks Giles, the site for volunteer opportunities thru SOROS in Poland is:

public.soros.org/initiatives/regions/central-eastern_europe

solves most things i must admit. often i say to people in work, before you ask me, did you google it? :P

bookratt, is it Krakow only your interested in volunteering? Wroclaw cross your mind? well worth a visit :) Internationalhouse are always looking for people like you

Yes, only Krakow, as I will live there, have a young son, will not have a car at my disposal and will need to volunteer close to home.

I have a car here in the US and free tutoring rooms are available on-call at my local library, so that's how/where I do it here.


Tried before using google and kept getting political groups and/or church things. Never heard of SOROS before this, so.....

I also asked my local GPLC coordinator and she knew nothing about Poland, either, so I appealed to you.

Thanks again, you guys/gals/whichever you may be.

cool cool, well, may i invite you to join the forum :) it would be great to have you 'Volunteering' here :)

and you can tell us about your experiences in Krakow and how the volunteering goes :)
be a nice, practical guide for us :)