Prevention

Promotion of safety in the mountains is possible due to the collaboration with the Voluntary Mountain Rescue Service (GOPR). PZU has been supporting GOPR for over 15 years now, by, among others, providing equipment for administering rescue operations, financing rescuer training, carrying out joint educational activities. In collaboration with GOPR, PZU has launched an e-learning platform dedicated to safety in the mountains.

In 2021, PZU, together with the GOPR Foundation, launched cooperation on the GOPR Academy educational project. The GOPR Foundation has conducted numerous educational and prevention projects, in which GOPR rescuers have conducted preventive workshops as well as participated in various educational ventures throughout the country – working to protect and promote health, as well as popularize an active and safe lifestyle. In 2022 alone, we managed to conduct more than 150 free GOPR Academy lectures dedicated to children in schools and other educational institutions. The Academy was also present at the Andrzej Zawada Mountain Festival in Lądek Zdrój, the Kraków Mountain Festival and 25th Świdnica Mountain Days – Świdnica Mountain Festival. PZU has also developed content and commercially conducted GOPR Academy trainings on mountain safety. Training topics included skitouring, avalanches, winter mountaineering, climbing, caving. The trainings were conducted in the Karkonosze, Sudety, Jura, Beskidy and Podhale GOPR groups, by GOPR Academy instructors and at the same time GOPR rescuers for individual and business clients in the autumn/winter 2021/2022 period. Commercial trainings were carried out for individual clients, but also for business clients, such as KGHM, ING Bank Śląski, Polish Tourism Organization, etc. Educational support was also provided by the PZU Foundation, acting as a partner of the nationwide information and education campaign of the Police (the Prevention Department of the General Police Headquarters) entitled “Kręci mnie bezpieczeństwo na stoku” (Turn On Safety On the Piste). The campaign is directly addressed to children, youth and adults. Its primary objective is to develop responsible behavior of skiers and snowboarders, raise the awareness of legal liability for breaches of regulations applicable on skiing slopes, and dissemination of the rules of the Decalogue of the International Skiing Federation (FIS). Course participants received information and educational materials, and over 10,000 safety-symbolizing gadgets, provided, among others, by the PZU Foundation.

PZU has also got financially involved in avalanche training organized by the Polish Freeskiing Association and TOPR. The participants learn how to engage in proper planning of mountain trips, how to avoid the avalanche hazard and how to behave after an avalanche. Mock rescue operations are also organized with the use of detectors; they learn how to find people buried in an avalanche and how to administer first aid to avalanche victims. All these activities take place in the PZU Avalanche Training Center in Kalatówki.

PZU has been influencing safety by the water for many years, helping rescue units financially, especially on Zegrze Lake and the Great Mazurian Lakes route. In 2022, Legionowo Water Volunteer Rescue Service (LWOPR) used the financial support it received from PZU to purchase diving equipment, clothing for rescuers for work in water and winter conditions, tools for repairing and maintaining rescue equipment and small rescue equipment. In previous years, from the prevention fund as well, LWOPR purchased a rescue boat equipped with the necessary water rescue equipment, as well as sonar for searching for people under the surface of the water. It is planning to modernize and expand the video surveillance network in the Zegrze Lake area, with particular focus on the spots customarily used for bathing, but so far not covered by video surveillance and guard supervision. From the prevention fund, the 2022 unit of the Mazury Volunteer Rescue Service purchased and replaced the air tubes in two hybrid RIB-type rescue boats, thereby restoring them to full working order. CPR teaching phantoms with computer software were also purchased. They will raise the level of training of MOPR rescuers and be used to teach first aid to schoolchildren. A year earlier, the unit was equipped with the basic equipment necessary for rescue operations: neoprene foams, dry and wet suits, portable radios, signal and sound tubes and GPS.

Alike in mountain safety education, the PZU Foundation is a partner of a nationwide information and education campaign of the Police (the Prevention Department of the General Police Headquarters) devoted to safety of persons in the water or by the water, entitled “Kręci mnie bezpieczeństwo nad wodą” (Turn On Safety By/On The Water). The scope of the 2021 edition has been extended to include activities covering safety in the mountains. The campaign was directly addressed to children, youth, adults and seniors, and its indirect addressees included managers of bathing beaches and entities from the water recreation industry (including water sports equipment rental outlets, holiday hotel facilities, and tourism and recreation companies, etc.). During debates, meetings at schools and picnics, the participants received information and educational materials, as well as 209,000 gadgets provided by the PZU Foundation.

PZU also supports voluntary fire brigade units by subsidizing the purchase of specialized equipment and protective clothing. Voluntary fire brigade units are active even in the smallest towns, and volunteer firefighters are most often the first to help those in need. They put out fires, rescue victims of traffic accidents, provide assistance during floods, storms and other natural disasters.

PZU is the first insurer in the world to have an Insurance Museum. The Museum’s collection includes documents related to the beginning of insurance in the Polish lands. In an effort to preserve the collection in the best possible condition, selected objects were digitalized. As a result, the exhibits are safely stored in optimal storage facilities, and their digital representations can be made available on websites.