The Volunteer Centre at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the Medical University of Bialystok was opened in 2000 under the supervision of Professor Elżbieta Krajewska-Kułak, MD, PhD, Vice-Dean for Student Affairs at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the Medical University of Bialystok.
The objectives of the Centre are to promote volunteering, humanitarianism, and charity among the academic community, to increase general health awareness, to promote Białystok among other Polish cities by establishing volunteering cooperation, to promote Podlasie as a place of open hearts sensitive to the needs of others, and to promote Białystok as a good place to study.
Its activities include organization of auctions, lotteries, fairs, charity concerts and drives for poor families in the academic community, mothers and children staying at the House of Mother and Child, foster children, child and adult hospices, special schools, and animal shelters.
Furthermore, volunteering students work together with uniformed services in support of the homeless in projects such as the following: Student Wings of Help – a campaign aimed to provide assistance to people at risk of becoming homeless in winter; Student Meetings with the Homeless – Hope: YES, Indifference – NO; Without Home, Not Without Help.
Volunteers are also involved in international campaigns of the Redemptoris Missio humanitarian foundation, including the Magic Pencil, Magical Glasses, and Dressing Wounds, which organize rallies for people in need in third world countries.
The Volunteer Centre also sets and promotes positive social trends through campaigns such as Adopt a Refugee Lifejacket.
The activity of the Volunteer Centre was recognized by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education as a good practice project in the field of social responsibility of science.