Aleksandra K. Wiśniewska was born in Lodz. She is an expert and a head of humanitarian missions. For our university community, the meeting will be a unique opportunity to understand the realities of working on the front line and management in crisis situations. Aleksandra will share her experiences from, among others, Ukraine, Yemen and Syria. She will raise topics related to the essence of humanitarian support. She will also tell us how each of us can engage in challenges also closer to our local Lodz community.
She has just completed a one-year mission in Ukraine, where, as the head of mission of the international humanitarian organisation INTERSOS, she built a team of 250 experts providing medical, psychological and material assistance to 118,000 civilians in the most severely war-affected areas. In the first days of the Russian invasion, she coordinated the evacuation of 2,000 civilians, including 1,400 children and caretakers from Ukrainian orphanages. Her humanitarian work started when she was securing sinking refugee boats in the Aegean Sea, inspiring the creation of the first Polish rescue patrol. She conducted research in refugee camps in France informing a bill calling for taking in Syrian children by the UK.
While working for the United Nations in Turkey and Jordan, she developed a humanitarian response plan to the war in Syria. During the Battle to retake Mosul from ISIS in Iraq, she co-managed a camp for 70,000 people relocated due to the fighting. From 2019 to 2021, she was the Head of the Mission of the Polish Humanitarian Action in the war in Yemen, leading the team responding to the largest cholera epidemic in history. After the outbreak of the pandemic, she has started the first medical activities in the 30-year history of the Polish Humanitarian Organisation, managing 7 clinics in frontline areas and helping 200,000 people in need.
She is a winner of the "Green Hero" award of the UN Global Compact Network Poland and the Green Festival Foundation for "steadfastness in actions for human rights and climate"; the KARSKI 2020 award for civil courage and taking actions in the spirit of Jan Karski's values, and the Forbes Polska award "25 under 25′′ in the Social Activity category.
The event will be held under the patronage of the Dean of the Faculty of Law and Administration – Professor Monika Bogucka-Felczak.
Aleksandra K. Wiśniewska is a political scientist, graduate of Oxford University and the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is a humanitarian expert, head of missions providing assistance to victims of armed conflicts.
Source: Students' Government Council of the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Lodz
Edit: Communication and PR Centre, University of Lodz