Anna Dymna started the Against the Odds Foundation on 26 September 2003. The Foundation is a public benefit organization. Our main aim is to help adults with intellectual disability. The president and founder is Anna Dymna, who serves in these roles for the public good. The transparency of our activities is confirmed by an international certificate CAF International Validated Organization Badge.
We built and run two therapy and rehabilitation centres: The Valley of the Sun in Radwanowice near Kraków and the Artistic Therapy Workshop in Lubiatowo by the Baltic Sea. We also support treatment, rehabilitation and education. So far we have helped 35,000 people with diseases and disabilities from all over Poland.
The idea that has always guided our actions is to provide equal opportunities for able-bodied and disabled people. We want to remove mental barriers that mark off their worlds, which are only seemingly separate. We do this by carrying out various projects: Win Against the Odds Poland National Integration Days, Magic Song Festival, Regained Hope Academy, Index of Dreams, Albertiana Polish National Theatre and Music Festival of People with Disabilities, and more.
Awards and honorary mentions for Anna Dymna’s Against the Odds Foundation
• Flag of the Republic of Poland – award granted by the President of the Republic of Poland
• Pro Infantis Bono – award granted by the Polish Ombudsman for Children
• Icebreaker (Lodołamacz) 2007 – award granted by the Polish Organization of Disabled Persons’ Employers
• Award in the Polish National Competition for Healthcare Leaders in the category Activities for the benefit of patients
• Pearls of Medicine – gold statuette and diploma granted in the Pearls of Medicine Polish National Competition
• Benemerenti diploma – award granted by the Military Ordinariate of the Polish Army
• Healthcare Success of the Year 2007 – Leaders of Medicine – award granted by the Menedżer Zdrowia monthly
• Gaga’s Hearts 2014 The Best for Children in the Foundations category
• Eagles (Orły) awarded by Wprost
• Viventi Caritate – award granted by the Jan Chrapek Fund
Our logo was designed by Małgorzata Serafin, who graduated from the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. The topic of her M.A. thesis was designing a visual identity system for our Foundation. Anna Dymna was inspired to name her foundation Against the Odds when she saw these very words engraved on one of the shelters run by Mother Teresa in Calcutta.
People are illogical,
unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of
selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful,
you will win false friends
and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today
will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
People really need help
but may attack you
if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have
and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
Kent M. Keith
The beginning of our activities
Anna Dymna registered her Against the Odds Foundation on 26 September 2003 in the 9th Commercial Department of the District Court Kraków-Śródmieście. She started the Foundation to save a group of adults with intellectual disability who lost their right to use the Occupational Therapy Workshop run by the Brother Albert Foundation in Radwanowice near Kraków due to an amendment to the Act on Occupational and Social Rehabilitation and Employment of People with Disabilities of 20 December 2002.
Anna Dymna publicly announced the establishment of her Foundation on 21 December 2003, at the Voluntary Service Gala in the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków.
On 20 February 2004, The Artistic Therapy Workshop run by the Against the Odds Foundation were opened in the Shelter for People with Disabilities operated by the Brother Albert Foundation. The Workshop provides professional care to 26 adults with intellectual disability.
On 13 June 2004 on the Main Square in Kraków we organised the first Win Against the Odds Polish National Integration Day. One year later, as part of the second edition of this event, we organised the finale of the 1st Magic Song Festival, a competition with several stages for people with disabilities who have a talent for singing. The festival was organised together with the Polish Public Television.
The year 2004 marks the beginning of the Young Office of the Against the Odds Foundation, which brings together several hundred volunteers.
In 2005, we started two long-term construction projects: the construction of the Valley of the Sun centre in Radwanowice near Kraków and the Let’s Meet centre in Lubiatowo by the Baltic Sea. At the same time, we carried out new projects. Year by year, our Foundation has taken care of a growing number of people with diseases and disabilities all over Poland.
In 2008, our Foundation carried out a project called ‘Everyone Has Their Own Kilimanjaro’: 9 people with different physical disabilities set off for Africa to reach its highest peak (5,895 m above sea level) and prove that a disability does not need to take away your dreams and that the biggest barriers are those in our heads. The trip was a success. In the same year, together with the Kraków Philharmonic, we organised the first charity concert for artists with diseases and disabilities who were in a difficult financial situation.
On 26 September 2013, on our 10th anniversary, we opened the Valley of the Sun, our modern therapy and rehabilitation centre in Radwanowice near Kraków. The next year marked the opening of the Artistic Therapy Workshop in Lubiatowo by the Baltic Sea. Both centres were built and are run mainly thanks to the people who donated 1% of their personal income tax to our Foundation.
The Artistic Therapy Workshop built in Lubiatowo by the Baltic Sea started to operate on 14 November 2014. It is the only facility of this type in Choczewo commune and the area surrounding it.