From 15th to 19th December, 2015, I took part in a project trip, organized by ForumSYD. We visited Chisinau (the capital of Moldova) and Kyiv (the capital of Ukraine). The goal of the trip was to broaden cooperation between civil society organizations of the Eastern Partnership. Among the participants were the representatives of several Swedish organizations: ForumSYD, FN-Förbundet (United Nations Association in Sweden), Män för jämställdhet (Men for Gender Equality), PRO Sverige. I was there officially as a representative (and a boardmember) of Sveriges Belarusier (Belarusian community in Sweden), however during each presentation of myself covered also my EVS volunteering.
At the very beginning of the trip I met several representatives of Belarusian diaspora in Moldova, among them - the leader of cultural Belarusian movement Hanna Mazur. Among those, who came to the meeting, where people, who had moved to Moldova 40 or more years ago, and those - who had done it just several years ago.
Together with all participants of the project trip we had numerous visits to other Moldovan NGOs, for example - Moldovan Institute of Human Rights (IDOM), UNDP Moldova, Legal Resources Centre from Moldova (LRCM/CRJM), East Europe Foundation and branches of Swedish organizations Civil Rights Defenders and Individuell Människohjälp. On the second day we took part in a big meeting of different Scandinavian, Western European and local civil society organizations at the Swedish Embassy, where the representative of European Commission described the new program "EU Roadmap for Engagement with Civil Society".
In the morning of the 18th November we arrived in Kyiv and on the same day had visits to organizations Convictus and Studena, who work particularly with gender-based discrimination. The same evening I met the leader of the Belarusian language club, where the majority of the participants (including the leader himself) are Ukrainians - so it was really a good example of how people of the neighbor country behave about my Homeland.
From the 19th till 21st of November Kyiv was a meeting place for an annual Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum. Most of the participants, including the Belarusian National platform, arrived the day before. So in the afternoon of 19th of November, on the last day of my networking and study trip, I had a great chance to get acquainted with big group of representatives of different Belarusian civil society organizations, including youth NGOs. Obviously, with youth NGO's, who, among all, work with Erasmus+ program, we had a lot of common topics to discuss and even had some kind of short brainstorming about possible cooperation and project ideas.
Together with all participants of the project trip we had numerous visits to other Moldovan NGOs, for example - Moldovan Institute of Human Rights (IDOM), UNDP Moldova, Legal Resources Centre from Moldova (LRCM/CRJM), East Europe Foundation and branches of Swedish organizations Civil Rights Defenders and Individuell Människohjälp. On the second day we took part in a big meeting of different Scandinavian, Western European and local civil society organizations at the Swedish Embassy, where the representative of European Commission described the new program "EU Roadmap for Engagement with Civil Society".
In the morning of the 18th November we arrived in Kyiv and on the same day had visits to organizations Convictus and Studena, who work particularly with gender-based discrimination. The same evening I met the leader of the Belarusian language club, where the majority of the participants (including the leader himself) are Ukrainians - so it was really a good example of how people of the neighbor country behave about my Homeland.
From the 19th till 21st of November Kyiv was a meeting place for an annual Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum. Most of the participants, including the Belarusian National platform, arrived the day before. So in the afternoon of 19th of November, on the last day of my networking and study trip, I had a great chance to get acquainted with big group of representatives of different Belarusian civil society organizations, including youth NGOs. Obviously, with youth NGO's, who, among all, work with Erasmus+ program, we had a lot of common topics to discuss and even had some kind of short brainstorming about possible cooperation and project ideas.
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