Guiding Principles

1. The people, organisations and local communities with which we co-operate in the East are our partners. As partners, they have the right to know and understand the essence of a joint project.
   
   
2. We do everything to ensure that our partners are independent, we do not patronise them and do not make them dependent on us.
   
   
3. By our attitude, we show that the idea of democracy and civic society are not just empty slogans.
   
   
4. In programs that we conduct we are economical and reliable. We require this from ourselves and from others. We do not make partners in a more difficult situation bear the brunt of financing a program. We never make rash promises.
   
   
5. We do not participate in programs that do not lead to the realization of socially important goals.
   
   
6. In preparing to conduct a program outside the borders of Poland, we familiarize ourselves with the culture, history, language, customs, the bases of the legal and political systems, realities of life as well as the religions of the countries and peoples with which we will work. We build our programs respecting local culture and traditions.
   
   
7. We make every effort that our programs are conducted in the language of the participant. We limit the use of international languages to a minimum.
   
   
8. We care about the safety of our partners. Working in totalitarian countries, we always remember that it is mainly the local activists who bear the risk.
   
   
9. We build understandings across borders. For us, the citizens of Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine are the hosts in their countries. We want to support them in activities to establish democracy, independence and a strong economy in their countries.
   
   
10. Working abroad, we try to create a good image of Poland. Whenever possible we maintain contacts with Polish diplomatic posts.