Our team

Board of Directors

Krzysztof Jarymowicz

Krzysztof is a graduate of Psychology and Ethnography at University of Warsaw. One of the founders of Foundation for Freedom, now the chairman of the board. Originator and coordinator of Etnoliga and other integrative and sport related projects in Foundation for Freedom. Laureate of the POLCUL Foundation award, ambassador of the EPALE platform. Former journalist. Privately, a father of three children, a football enthusiast, chess-player, and cyclist.

Magdalena Zaborowska-Gumieniak

Magda is a pedagogue and organizer of cultural activities. A graduate of the Faculty of Education and the Institute of Polish Culture at University of Warsaw. An activist in Foundation for Freedom since 2010 where she deals with non-formal and cross-cultural education. A founder of the Recreation Room for Refugee Children. She has worked with refugee families pedagogically for more than 10 years. Additionally, she conducted international youth exchanges and trainings on fair play and cooperation with refugee children. A coauthor of “Sport for dialogue” and a practical manual for teachers, animators, and local leaders on fair play game (“Graj fair z innymi”).

Governing Council

Antoni Adamowicz

Antoni is a diplomat, graduate of Institute of Sociology at University of Warsaw. He worked at non-profit organizations in Italy and Spain. He’s an originator of social campaign “Tiszert dla Wolności” (T-shirt for Freedom). He’s one of the founders of Foundation for Freedom. He currently works at The Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Privately, he’s a passionate of cinematography, photography, and travelling.

Dora Montagna

Dora is a translator and linguist. Graduate of Lingue e Letterature Straniere Università degli Studi in Turin. She studied in Spain and Warsaw. She is a co-founder of Foundation for Freedom. She worked as an theatre animator in schools, prisons, and hospitals. She’s interested in European projects of mobility and integration.

Julian Kutyła

Julian is a lead editor of Krytyka Polityczna. A doctor of Philosophy, publisher, translator of English and French (e.g. Žižek, Hardt, Badiou, Erlbruch.) Has published in newspapers such as Gazeta Wyborcza or Rzeczpospolita.

Our team

Martyna Łukaszewska

Martyna is a graduate of International Relations at University of Warsaw and graduate school of humanitarian aid. A certificated trainee of social competences who works in the approach of Positive Discipline. A coordinator of the Recreation Room for Refugee Children, and a tutor. She conducts a workshop for youth on cross-cultyral education. She also works at Ta Szansa Association, before also at the Polish Humanitarian Action. She’s a passionate of Africa and Middle East countries and their cultures. She travels all around the world and always carry a Harry Potter series in her suitcase.

Izabela Orłów

Iza studied anthropology and art therapy in Warsaw and Tallinn. She works with children at Przystanek “Świetlica”. Co-leads intercultural and development workshops. She is also the foundation’s liaison with the Grupa Granica and other grassroots initiatives. Author of the slogan “playing ia a human right”, which decorates our notebooks and bags. She also works for people on the move, locked up in guarded refugee camps. Member of the ecofeminist collective W(y)puszczone. Rests in the mountains and dances.

Volha Kalakolsava

Volha was born in Belarus. She studied at a music school, and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Minsk at the theater department. She works as a theater and film actress, conducts acting workshops for children and adults, as well as self-development and intercultural classes.

Elmira Abasbekova

Elmira comes from Kyrgyzstan. She graduated from the Polytechnic University in Saint-Petersburg. Mother of three. She has been living in Poland for several years and has a refugee experience. She has been associated with the Foundation for Freedom since 2021 as an assistant to refugee families as part of the “Recreation Room” activities. In addition, she works at the Foundation for Somalia as an integration advisor, conducts intercultural workshops in schools and handicraft classes. – I like my job because I can help others – she explains.

Mateusz Stefański

Mateusz studied Iran Philology at University of Warsaw. In Foundation for Freedom, he makes translations from Persian, works with children and youth, teaches Polish language and manages projects.

Karol Mikulski

Karol has been a football referee for a dozen years and a manager of the team of Etnoliga referees since the beginning.

Nadia Poveshchenko

Nadia is a tutor for preschool children, a rhythm teacher. She graduated from the Artemivska School of Pedagogy in Donbas, Ukraine. She came to Poland with two children as a refugee in 2014. In the center for foreigners in Targówek, she actively participated in the initiatives of the Recreation Room. She co-created and conducted the foundation’s intercultural workshops for children and trainings for teachers and social workers. Since 2022, she has been coordinating a common room for Ukrainian children in Warsaw.

Alicja Gorońska

Alicja studied social anthropology at the University of Warsaw as well as ceramics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. She works with children at Przystanek “Świetlica” and runs handicraft workshops for adults. She also co-creates Grupa Wolne supporting young people with experience of migration.

Roxana Szyszko

Roxana is and educator and linguist. A graduate of English Philology at the Academy of Humanities in Krzemieniec, Ukraine. She has many years of experience working with children, e.g. as a teacher of foreign languages (English, German). Organizer of the Association of School Educators in Ukraine, which develops innovative educational and practical methods. Volunteer at the Family Support Center “Rodzinna Warszawa”. She has been working with the Foundation since 2022 as a tutor of Ukrainian youth in the #Play4Ukraine sports project and an intercultural assistant at schools. In the private life, she is interested in psychology, law, historical literature. She is a lover of winter sports.

Andrzej Matusiak

Andrzej studied clinical psychology at University SWPS. Since childhood, he has had a passion for Slavic culture. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, he has been an active volunteer, e.g. at border help centers. He has been associated with the Foundation for Freedom since October 2022 as an educator of Ukrainian youth and assistant coordinator of the support program for children with migration experience in community centers in Warsaw. In his free time, he shoots a bow and relaxes in a banya.

Yuliia Zeleniuk

Yuliia is a music teacher by profession. She graduated from the Zaporozhye P. I. Mayborody Music School and the Donetsk S. Prokofiev Music Academy. She worked at the Zaporozhye Children’s Music School No. 3 as a deputy director and a piano teacher. From July 2022, in the foundation’s team as a tutor in the day room for children at the “Plicz o Plicz” Center in Warsaw.

Ilya Semashkevich

Musician, a graduate of Jazz and Estrade Music in PWSZ in Nysa. He’s working as a composer and musical producer. Until now he has worked with cchildren as a karate instructor assistant in Belarussia, run music classes in a preschool in Głogowo with children aged 3 to 5. He’s a multicultural educator in Foundation for Freedom from 2022. He runs multicultural workshops in Varsovian elementary schools.

Olga Kurczak

Olga is studying International Relations at the University of Warsaw. After a few months of volunteering at Etnoliga, in 2022 she joined the team permanently as a person responsible for social media. Privately, an admirer of art and other cultures. She always carries at least one book in each of her bags.

Yuliia Nikitchenko

Yuliia finished a Musical College in Zaporozhye in a piano class and Berdian Pedagogical University as a preschool pedagogue. She worked in the Dniprorudne musical school as a teacher of piano, head of piano department and concert master. She has been working with the Foundation from July 2022 as a recreation room tutor in Center for Guidance and Coordinated Aid co-run with Polish Migration Forum.

Natalia Michalska

Natalia studies Arabic Phylology in University of Warsaw. She work as an animator in Varsovian residence centers for Ukrainian refugees. In June of 2023 she joined the team as a tutor in the recreational room in Linin, where she runs classes for children with refugee experience in the Przystanek “Świetlica” programme.