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This time we have two pieces of news for you and it is quite easy to guess that there is bad news and good news. The bad news is that the calendar inexorably heralds the middle of September and sunny summer days are almost over. The good news – is that it is high time to uphold our monthly tradition of supporting open source projects and charities! For the first time, the responsible task of selecting the recipients has been given to our new colleague Tadeusz “Tadzik” Sośnierz who joined us a few months ago.

Our support goes to OpenStreetMap Project, an initiative that has operated for the last 12 years in an attempt to create a commonly accessible and free map of the globe edited by the user community (similarly to Wikipedia). This ambitious project is managed by the OpenStreetMap Foundation established in 2006. It is especially notable that the maps created in the framework of the project have proven to be very useful for humanitarian organisations providing assistance to the needy in crisis situations, for example after the Haiti earthquake in 2010. We would like to express our appreciation to the creators of the project and the community and wish them every success in further endeavours.

This month we are also providing financial aid to “Na Paluchu” Animal Shelter, which is proud to be the oldest animal shelter in Warsaw dating back to the 1950s. Currently, the shelter is home to over 800 dogs and almost 100 cats – warm greetings to all of our four-footed friends and their two-footed helpers!

As it is already halfway through August, the time has come for a new edition of our monthly support initiative. This month the person responsible for the choice of beneficiaries is Jakub. He has decided that the financial aid should go to the Python Software Foundation and to Bartosz Radoń, who suffers from cerebral palsy.

Python is one of the languages which for several years now we have been using practically non-stop. We have previously supported the Python Software Foundation, which takes care of Python’s development, and we are happy to have an opportunity to do it again. We would like to thank the Foundation for all the activities undertaken so far and wish them luck in the years to come.

Bartosz Radoń is a four-year-old boy afflicted with cerebral palsy. With the aid of the “Miej Serce” Foundation, the family of Bartosz is raising money for an expensive surgery thanks to which the little boy may be able to walk. All the best to you, dear Bartosz!

The beauty of summer has arrived (well, sort of), and it’s time for the 51st edition of our monthly support initiative. This time it was Krzysiek Skarbek, a developer from our Łódź branch, who got to choose the beneficiaries.

Krzysiek is the team’s expert for the Solr search platform: he has been involved in Solr deployment for several of our website projects, and gave a presentation about it some months ago (available on Speaker Deck). This motivated his choice of the Solr project, which we also supported back in April of last year. Solr development is managed by the Apache Software Foundation, whom we would like to thank for its efforts in carrying out the project.

Our support also goes to Dawid Rutkowski, a six-year-old boy from Łódź who has battled cancer for a year and a half now. The “Happy Kids” Children’s Aid Foundation has been collecting donations to continue his treatment and fund a diet therapy. Dawid, we wish you and your parents the strength and endurance to beat your illness. Take care!

A month ago we celebrated the fourth anniversary of our initiative to provide support for open-source projects and charities. Today we are celebrating another little anniversary – we have already reached our 50th edition! This month the recipients were chosen by Rafał Bujak, a project manager from our Warsaw office.

Rafał focuses mainly on projects related to OTRS (Open-source Ticket Request System), and since OTRS is written in Perl he decided that our aid should go to the Perl Foundation. We have already supported the Perl Foundation in the past, as this is one of the languages that we use on a daily basis for many projects. Once again we would like to thank the Perl Foundation for the effort it puts into the development of the language, and wish them the best of luck in their work.

The second donation chosen by Rafał goes to Miłosz Kozon, a three-year-old boy from Wyszków (Rafał’s home town), who is under the care of the “Help on Time” Children’s Foundation. As Miłosz was born with spina bifida, myelomeningocele and hydrocephalus, he requires continuous treatment and rehabilitation. We hope that through our donation we can help him at least a bit. We send our best wishes to Miłosz and his parents!

Today is a day for celebration: it’s been four years since we launched our initiative to provide regular support for open-source projects and charitable organisations!

For the past four years we have focussed on supporting projects that we find useful in our day-to-day work, such as developer tools, libraries/frameworks, etc. Today, we would like to recognise a project that, while not strictly about programming, is an essential tool in our business: the LibreOffice productivity suite.

LibreOffice came about in 2010 as a fork from OpenOffice.org, after it was acquired by Oracle. The LibreOffice project is run by the Document Foundation, founded to oversee its development.

Our 4th anniversary support also goes to the Committee for Helping Animals Association, which has been out there doing the right thing since 1998. It runs the Rescue Haven for horses and other animals. By the way, it was the first organisation to receive our support four years ago, so it holds a special place in our hearts.

This entry officially marks the start of the 5th year of our action. Visit us soon to check out our next month’s edition!

It’s already mid-April, and time once more for our next round of donations. This month the choice was with Mariusz Kalota for the first time.

Mariusz has decided our support should go to the Git project, which means it’s now the third time we have supported it as part of our initiative. Git (and recently GitLab) has become an essential tool for our day-to-day work, and using it is now “second nature” for most of our team. Many thanks and regards to all involved in the development of the project!

Our donation also goes to Michałek Flakowski, a boy from Mariusz’s home place of Teresin, who has been fighting leukaemia for a year. Michałek, we send you and your family our warmest regards, and hope that you recover as soon as possible.