We are supporting the digitization of the archive of Poland’s LGBTQIAPF++ community resources

We will support the digitization project of Lambda Warszawa Association’s Archive. It is the oldest and largest collection of resources focused on the non-heteronormative community (LGBTQIAPF++, queer) in Poland.

Currently, the archive includes about 100,000 items, including full issues of print media and press clippings, published magazines dating back to 1983, posters, leaflets, brochures, as well as documents, presenting the legal situation of non-heteronormative persons in Poland and others.

Supporting diversity and inclusion is of great importance to us. Through the daily work of many committed people we are able to create an inclusive and flexible environment, where everyone can be themselves and realize their potential, all whilst making a positive contribution to our organization. In addition, as a member of the local business community, we support initiatives that promote diversity and raise awareness of the important role of inclusive culture in the development of an open society. The digitization of the Lambda Warsaw Association’s Archive is a great example of such an initiative, and I am very happy that we have the opportunity to support it. Additionally, helping to preserve the unique resources of knowledge about the community of non-heteronormative people in Poland is not our sole reason for getting involved in this project. We also wanted to make access to these resources easier for people who are closely related to this subject for personal and/or professional reasons.

Ewa Kuchcińska, Compliance Head at Standard Chartered’s global service centers and Head of the SC Pride Employee Resource Group operating from the Polish global service center in Warsaw.

The Archive presents the queer history of Poland, shows the roots of our community, and further builds its identity. It exists to support the education process of both our community and the wider group of people interested in this subject. Thanks to the financial and competence-based support from Standard Chartered Bank, we will be able to transfer this unique collection to the digital world. This will enable the preservation of the Archive in an electronic form, and provide access to its resources to people who, for various reasons, cannot visit our headquarters to read the physical, paper versions. We hope that it will also facilitate the popularization of knowledge about the existence of this Archive, as well as improve the process of knowledge transfer between successive generations of LGBTQIAPF++ community leaders in our country.

Krzysztof Kliszczyński, Chairman of the Board of the Lambda Warszawa Association, which has been collecting resources related to the functioning of the queer community in Poland for the last 20 years.

The Archive’s collection is used by academics working at universities, as well as students, journalists, and historians. In many cases, the archives contain the only copies of a given newspaper or magazine that are available in Poland. Ultimately, in the next 5-6 years, the Lambda Warszawa Association wants to create a research, museum, and cultural unit in Warsaw under the working name of the Queer Museum, similar to the Schwules Museum in Berlin, with the Archive  to be an integral part of it.