On 15 December, 2014, the Minister of Internal Affairs granted to our Foundation, a license for trading in bulletproof vests and helmets. The granting of the license was preceded by the obtainment of a number of positive expert opinions issued, among others, by the Polish special services, which expressed their trust in the ODF.
Under Polish law, vests and helmets (i.e. lifesaving equipment) are treated on a par with automatic weapons or explosives. In order to be able to trade them, or, to put it more simply – to transfer them to the people whose life is in danger, it is necessary to meet a number of conditions. The process is also time-consuming (we applied for the license as early as in July), requires sacrifice, work and financial resources. In order to be granted the license, we had obtain positive expert opinions from the state forces, responsible for national security in Poland: the Head of the Military Counterintelligence Service, the Minister of Economy, the Head of the Internal Security Agency and the Commander of the Metropolitan Police. All the expert opinions, granted to the Open Dialogue Foundation and its authorities, were positive. Representatives of the Foundation have successfully undergone a psychological and psychiatric examinations, and completed the training required by law. As a result, on 15 December, 2014, the license was granted to us.
