POLAND

MATIO Foundation was founded by two people of good will in Cracow.

Our Foundation's initiator was Paweł Wójtowicz, whose child had died from cystic fibrosis. He was the one to register the Foundation at the end of 1996. The project came into being in March 1997. The full name of our Foundation is as follows: Foundation for help Cystic Fibrosis Sufferers and their Families MATIO (Polish Cystic Fibrosis Foundation MATIO). Our legal status, goals and principles are enclosed in the Foundation's Statute (in Polish).

MATIO Foundation is an independent organization which points towards helping children and their families who are suffering from this incurable sickness. The Foundation intends to cooperate with all research and development centers in Poland and abroad which focus their attention on cystic fibrosis issues.

Our main objectives are:

* educating the public, the sick and their families to increase awareness about mucoviscidosis,
* helping the sick with buying required medicine and rehabilitation equipment,
* organizing and financing home care trainings for sick children?s relatives,
* financing mucoviscidosis-related publications,
* advocating increased support for comprehensive scientific research and clinical trials
* taking care of the sick and their families

Apart from Paweł Wójtowicz, the foundation's initiators team consists of:

Stanisław Sitko (Foundation's Committee chairman),
Andrzej Pietrzak (Board's vice-chairman),
Barbara Zdebska (Board's vice-chairman),
Wojciech Cichy (Foundation's Committee member),
Bożena Woźniakiewicz (Foundation's Committee member),
Adam Rakoczy (Foundation's Committee member).