Project HOPE Honored for 41-Year Partnership with Children’s Hospital in Poland
Project HOPE was honored with a medal of recognition for our 41-year partnership with the University Children’s Hospital of Krakow (UCH).
Krakow, Poland, January 21, 2016
On December 11, 2015, Project HOPE was honored with a medal of recognition for our 41-year partnership with the University Children’s Hospital of Krakow (UCH). Dr. Tom Kenyon, President and CEO of Project HOPE, accepted the award from Dr. Krzysztof Fyderek, Medical Director of UCH, at a celebration commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the hospital in Krakow, Poland. John Walsh, the son of Project HOPE founder Dr. Bill Walsh, was also recognized at the event.
UCH, formerly known as the Polish-American Children’s Hospital, was conceived as a gift to the people of Poland from the people of the United States in 1965. In 1974, the U.S. government asked Project HOPE to be the coordinating agency for the expansion and development of the Polish-American Children’s Hospital.
Since 1974, more than 700 Project HOPE volunteers have provided medical training to more than 6,000 UCH health professionals. Project HOPE has also enabled more than 300 Polish medical professionals associated with the hospital to travel to children’s hospitals in the United States for medical training. UCH is now considered a “Center of Excellence in Poland, performing highly advanced cardiac procedures, all made possible through the long-term partnership with Project HOPE.
In more recent years, Project HOPE has been involved in preparing UCH to serve as a training platform to raise the neonatal and other pediatric capabilities of select hospitals in Central and Eastern Europe. Most recently, Project HOPE-trained consultants from UCH have trained health professionals in the Brasov region of Romania in neonatal care and the Papa region of Hungary in pediatric respiratory care.