First Polish cyber charity launched to combat child hunger

The Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH), known for its work both at home and in humanitarian crises in Bosnia and Chechnya, hopes that a new website called the "Polish Hunger Site" (www.pajacyk.pl) will help expand its programme of school lunches which currently provides hot meals for 5,000 of Poland's poorest children. The site shows an unhappy wooden toy clown, or "pajacyk" in Polish, with an empty stomach. For each click of the mouse on the empty tummy sponsors will donate 1 cent to the school lunch campaign.

Head of the PAH, Janina Ochojska, says she hopes the site will help fill even more empty stomachs of children touched by rural poverty. Expert studies show that over 40 per cent of Polish families live below the poverty line, with rural families hit by mass unemployment in connection with the closure of state farms following the collapse of communism in 1989 suffering the most.

(la/dpa)