11 children, a great passion: music. The 2019 Elfac Family Award was presented on Saturday 1 August in Warsaw during an official ceremony with the President of the Polish Republic Andrzej Duda in the wonderful setting of the presidential palace gardens. The Debora and Joszko Brodów family, popular faces of Polish pop music, won the award. The prize, a figure made by the Catalan sculptor Joan Escudé, was handed over to mother and father Brodów by the Polish president Andrzej Duda and the president of the European Large Families Confederation, Regina Maroncelli.
The ceremony represented the culmination of the annual meeting of large Polish families. About a hundred Polish families gathered for the renewal of their board members, appointing Radek Waszkiewicz – member of the ELFAC board of directors – president of the association. On the occasion, the Forum of “family friendly” cities was also held, which in recent months is preparing the “family” certification process to join the European network of Family Friendly municipalities.
The award ceremony was held on the day dedicated to the memory of the Warsaw Uprising, which in 1944 cost the lives of over 200,000 civilians, murdered by the Nazi invasion forces in the absolute indifference of the Russian army, stopped on the opposite banks of the battered city. Life and death, pain and joy: “With the Brodów family we celebrate the joy of living, the beauty of the family, music, children, youth, what makes our existence beautiful and precious” said the ELFAC president during the course of the ceremony, defining a choice “that supported by the board to award the prize to the family of singer-musicians, by decision taken before the pandemic”.
Who are the Brodów family?
Popular singing group all over Poland, the Brodów family has been chosen to represent large European families for 2019 among a large number of large groups from all over Europe. A family of musicians, who raised 11 children and goes to parental school. In their case, the decision to become a large family was something natural. “I’ve always wanted to have many children. I come from such a family, I have 11 brothers and 2 sisters, ”says Debora Brodów.
After the birth of their eleventh child, they recorded a thank you song on the occasion of the appearance of the new other member of the family. During this time, they began to appear more often in the media and talk about their family life and their musical projects. Meanwhile, however, negative comments were also growing. The Brodów family did not let themselves be intimidated and recorded a new album under the auspices of the Polish Association of Large Families 3 Plus.
Josefz, the father, is a musician, music producer, multi-instrumentalist, author of CDs, music for film and theater. Debora, the mother, creates music videos and scripts for children’s television programs. Music producer and co-creator of educational projects, she is interested in home education and rhetoric. Manager but above all wife and mother.
The children: Jasiek (19) – sculpts, paints, draws. Fast, independent and uncontrollable: leader. Maciek (18) currently focuses a lot on mathematics: negotiator. Tomek (16), open mind. He reads more than he writes: poet. Mikołaj (14) – still water. Effective and reliable. Jeremi (13) – master of the word. Use irony: he follows his mother’s footprints. Iwo (12) – Without compromise. In everyday life and in dance. Marysia (10) – her world is an unlimited space for singing. Roch (8) – Another teacher of the word is being prepared: philosopher. Józio (6) – golden boy. Power. Piotruś (3) – child dynamite. Tosia (13 months) – the sweetest.
