Charity - Robert Szustkowski

CURRENT CHARITY ACTIVITIES

MAY 2024 – present, 5P Europe Foundation

During the World Children’s Day with the Pope in the Vatican, which took place in May 2024, Robert Szustkowski was appointed Ambassador of the 5P Europe Foundation. The event gathered 50,000 children from various countries, including those affected by the armed conflict in Ukraine and Palestine. The 5P Foundation conducts charitable activities in accordance with the values that this organization places at the center of its activities. The Foundation is guided by five principles: People, Planet, Partnership, Peace and Prosperity. As an Ambassador of the 5P Foundation, Szustkowski emphasizes that in today’s world, the most important thing is to protect the youngest from the effects of war and to make every effort to bring peace to the earth.

One of Robert Szustkowski’s first significant actions as an Ambassador of the 5P Europe Foundation is an initiative to help those injured in the armed conflict in Ukraine, implemented in cooperation with the Lviv rehabilitation center Unbroken. As part of this project, Robert Szustkowski and the 5P Europe Foundation cover the logistical costs related to the transport and treatment of the injured in rehabilitation centers abroad. This action emphasizes Szustkowski’s commitment, as an ambassador, providing humanitarian aid and supporting the victims of conflicts, in accordance with the values of the 5P Foundation.

Robert Szustkowski, through his philanthropic involvement, actively supports projects aimed at social development and the protection of life. His cooperation with the 5P Foundation emphasizes the importance of global responsibility for the future of our planet and the need for joint action to create a better world for future generations.

PREVIOUS CHARITY ACTIVITIES

2008-2016 Orimari Foundation and helping children in Poland
In 2008, Robert Szustkowski founded the ORIMARI charity foundation, within which he was involved in broadly understood help for children, especially in the field of protecting their health and development. During charity events organized by the foundation since 2009, a few million PLN has been collected. These funds were entirely allocated to the purchase of medical equipment for children’s hospital wards. The Foundation was involved in, among others: in helping sick children mainly by purchasing equipment for hospital wards (including the Children’s Health Center, the Bone Marrow Transplantation, Oncology and Hematology Clinic in Wrocław, the Provincial Specialist Children’s Hospital in Olsztyn, the Children’s Clinical Hospital in Lublin, the Provincial Specialist Hospital in Kielce ). ORIMARI also financed orphanages, conducted preventive examinations and rehabilitation programs for children staying in care and educational institutions and family orphanages, and was involved in various actions supporting people in need – such as helping families that suffered during the flood in 2010.

Charity and charitable diplomatic missions around the world:
Order of Malta
In 2010-2011, Szustkowski conducted charitable activities while working in the diplomacy of the Order of Malta. He was offered an opportunity to work in the diplomacy of the Order of Malta in the Caribbean. There, Szustkowski introduced his own program for using portable R1 rescue kits in the event of disasters hitting the Caribbean islands. It was strictly charitable activity, having nothing to do with political, economic or business activities.
As part of a diplomatic mission, Robert Szustkowski also financially supported, from private funds, the first hospice operating on the islands of Antigua and Barbuda.

2014-2016 Chargé d’affaires of the Embassy of The Gambia

GENESIS
In 2014, an Ebola epidemic broke out in West Africa. At that time, Szustkowski maintained relations with a friend from Senegal, a country bordering Gambia. Malik Gaku, because we are talking about him, is the former president of Dakar and recently the candidate of the democratic opposition for the president of Senegal. Szustkowski met Malik while taking part in rallies. Malik asked Szustkowski to help his poor neighbor – Gambia – due to the spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa.

Gambia is a country in West Africa bordering Senegal, which is also one of the smallest (2 million inhabitants) and poorest countries in the world. In 2014, the Republic of The Gambia recorded a GDP of just $562 per person. Only for a few years has every Gambian citizen been guaranteed one nutritious meal a day. The Gambia has no natural raw materials, except maybe peanuts. Considering the poverty that Gambia is facing, Szustkowski decided to help. He was the first in the world to send there a medical air transport with equipment to fight the virus, providing complete equipment for one of the medical laboratories.
After this gesture, the president of Gambia, through the Senegalese ambassador to Gambia, Abubacar, contacted Malik to invite Szustkowski to Banjul. At the meeting, Szustkowski received thanks from the president and was awarded honorary citizenship of the Gambia, which later turned into citizenship and naturalization.
During the conversation, the president offered Szustkowski the diplomatic mission of Gambia in Poland. However, he ultimately decided that it would make more sense for Gambia to help open The Embassy of Gambia in Russia. Szustkowski promised to help.

DIPLOMATIC MISSION
Szustkowski opened a diplomatic mission in Moscow. He held the rank of chargé d’affaires as interim, de facto administrative director, which he held in 2014-2016. Chargé d’affaires ad interim, a temporary chargé d’affaires, is the title of the deputy head of a diplomatic mission of a higher class during his absence in the host country, in the event of a vacancy (permanent or temporary) of this office, waiting for the arrival of his successor, or in the event of his illness. In this situation, the reason was a vacancy in the ambassador’s position. Therefore, the function was held for an incomplete term and lasted from 2014 to 2016.

The purpose of the diplomatic mission was:

obtaining the opportunity to educate students of Gambian origin in Russia;
assisting Gambia in obtaining the opportunity to sell fishing rights at that time;
interest of Russian tourists in trips to Gambia, which could strengthen GDP.

After some time, the representative of Gambia, Mr. Aki Bayo, arrived with letters of credence which he submitted to the President of Russia. He was admitted to the Kremlin and received accreditation.
In 2016-2017, Szustkowski also held the title of counselor of the Gambian embassy in Moscow. In 2017, Szustkowski’s diplomatic mission in Russia came to an end.

During his diplomatic mission, Szustkowski took an active part in supporting various charitable initiatives. One of them was support for Cancer Walk 2016, for which he received a letter of thanksu from Her Excellency Mrs. Zineb Yahya Jammeh, First Lady of the Islamic Republic of Gambia.

Szustkowski will say years later: I never did any business with Gambia, or between Gambia and Russia or any other country. I didn’t buy anything, I didn’t sell anything, I didn’t earn a penny in Africa. My activities in Africa were limited solely to the desire to help one of the poorest countries in the world. I could do it, I had the ability, so I did it.

2018-2019 SUPPORTING THE LOCAL ANTIGUI COMMUNITY IN THE CARIBBEAN

In 2018, Szustkowski, together with Caritas Polska, donated computer lab equipment to students of the local Cobbs Cross primary school in Antiga (Caribbean). The children received, among others, laptops, printers and scanners. https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zeglarstwo/752700/polacy-pomogli-zdrowiem-a-takze-sa-blisko-zwyciestwa-w-antigua-sailing-week

In 2019, Szustkowski donated a valuable, fully equipped rescue bag to young sailors from the sailing school in Antiga. https://zagle.se.pl/sport/robert-szustkowski-i-r-six-team-wygrali-antigua-sailing-week-aa-91c7-ZcaS-PXTS.html

2020 – CHARITY ASSISTANCE IN THE FACE OF COVID 2020

In 2020, during the COVID wave, the new president of Gambia, Adama Barow, again asked Szustkowski for help. Szustkowski sent several hundred thousand masks, disinfectants and suits to Gambia.
Szustkowski also helped to supply Polish hospitals with the necessary equipment.
https://pap-mediaroom.pl/biznes-i-finanse/robert-szustkowski-wspiera-walke-z-koronawirusem-w-polsce-i-afryce

2014-2022 – HELP UKRAINE
Since 2014, Robert Szustkowski has also been constantly involved in various activities aimed at helping Ukraine and Ukrainian citizens suffering from hostilities.

In 2014, after the first Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea, Szustkowski was asked by his colleagues from Switzerland for financial assistance from the Swiss Foundation Verein Strassenkinderprojekt Kiev (https://kievstreetkids.ch/), which ran an orphanage in Ukraine. In previous years, Szustkowski was on the Supervisory Board of this foundation. Of course, he fulfilled the request.

In 2022, when the war in Ukraine began, Szustkowski helped organize the transfer of children from the above-mentioned orphanage in Ukraine to Switzerland. The mission was accomplished.

In the same year, Szustkowski also supported the Foundation Society of Friends of Ukraine of Weronika Marczuk as well as Open Dialogue Foundation and RA Foundation, which helped refugees from Ukraine start a new life in Poland. He financed, among others: renting several dozen apartments for over 100 refugees from Ukraine, mainly mothers and their children.

2014-2015 – THE ART OF BOLESŁAW BIEGAS IN POLAND
Robert Szustkowski was also involved in promoting culture – he brought to Poland a collection of paintings and sculptures by Bolesław Biegas – a Polish artist who worked in Paris at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and whose dream was for his works to return to free Poland. Thanks to his initiative, the Bolesław Biegas Museum was established in Warsaw in 2015, where most of the artist’s works are currently exhibited.