An Inverness woman has scooped a top award for her efforts to help Polish migrants integrate into Highland life.
Zosia Wierzbowicz-Fraser, who lives in the city’s Ballifeary Lane and is of Polish origin, was awarded the prize and title of Outstanding Pole in Scotland at a gala event in Edinburgh’s George Hotel on Friday.
Since the European Union opened its doors to Poland in 2004, she has been helping Polish migrants all across the Highlands with learning the language, finding places to live and work, and resolve legal issues.
Mrs Wierzbowicz-Fraser is chairwoman of the Inverness Polish Association in Church Street, which has a library and opens every Monday night for Polish people to get advice from the association’s committee volunteers.
The committee was initially set up in 2006 by a friend, Pat Bloczynsky, who had been running a Polish cafe close to the city’s Crown Primary school, and Mrs Wierzbowicz-Fraser decided to join up.
In 2008 she decided to open a Saturday school for Polish children to learn English at St Joseph’s Primary school in the city’s King Street.
Mrs Wierzbowicz-Fraser has also been teaching a group of Polish school pupils who last year created history by becoming the first in the Highlands to pass a GCSE-level exam in their native language.
The seven youngsters from Inverness High School are now studying for their Polish A-levels.
Mrs Wierzbowicz-Fraser, who currently teaches chemistry at Inverness Royal Academy, said: “I am very excited to have won the award. It is a reflection of all the hard work I have been doing with the Polish community to help them integrate with society over the last 10 or 11 years.
“An awful lot of difficulty has been caused for many Polish people who have come here. They had no English and needed help finding somewhere to live and finding work, as well as filling in forms and registering with the Home Office. We decided we could not leave them to struggle, because they simply did not know how things worked.”