BALTIC PROJECT
Nordic Council of Ministers´ Support Program for Non-Governmental Organisations in the Baltic Sea Region
Women Rights Institute
European Anti-Poverty Network - Latvia
Women’s Union of the Kaliningrad region
Eesti People to People
Lithuanian Multiple Sclerosis Union
Stowarzyszenie VESUVIO
ALLIANCE – Russian-speaking youth organisation of Helsinki
Svefi - Sverigefinska folkhögskolan
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Humana People to People - Norway
The title of the project
“Support for Civil Society and Equality in Baltic”
With the project “Support for Civil Society and Equality in Baltic”
Women Rights Institute of Latvia as the leader and coordinator of the project in partnership with 7 non-governmental organizations of 7 countries of the Baltic Sea Region - Poland, Russia, Estonia, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway and Finland – would like to support the promotion of democracy and civic society through co-operation between NGOs.
To reach the set goal by realization 7 activities, partners of the project will organize 9 workshops, 7 seminars and 1 conference with participation of 693 leaders and volunteers of NGOs, including 35 NGO experts, will use the website of the project and will collect and distribute 1 brochure of the proposals and 2 booklets of the activities in 8 countries.
Seminar in Russia – Kaliningrad 18-19 March 2015
16 experts ( Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, Russia, Lithuania) from collaborating NGOs from Baltic region have taken a part in joint project meeting in Kaliningrad to discuss project activities and exchange opinions between the representatives of non- governmental organizations.
The seminar was organized by Women’s Union of The Kaliningrad Region with the support of the project manager Women Rights Institute from Latvia.
2 days discussion was based on research on experiences of project partners through working in the groups, Power Point presentations, analyzing documents and statistic data.
The topics were dedicated to gender equality, education and research issues, civil society and NGOs, economic questions, Nordic Cultural co-operation, sustainable development, labor market and working environment policy, tolerance and positive steps towards the discrimination of disability, cooperation the Nordic countries with other regional and international bodies, youth cooperation. All experts took a part in a fruitful discussion presenting own attitude to undertaken questions, comparing and sharing the experiences from the point of view of working in own countries. The discussion allowed to make a great progress towards the development of project issues and brought to all experts and partners new look for common problems and search positive solutions on international level of working.
Local Russian press and TV were invited to make the interviews with all experts in order to disseminate project activities and make the project issues more visible to wide audience. The seminar was enriched by cultural visit in Museum of Amber and visits in main historical points in Kaliningrad City.
More information in project website http://www.eapn.lv/baltic_project
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Baltic Project: Seminar in Rzeszów 10-11 June 2015
In the frame of the project "Support for Civil Society and Equality in Baltic" Stowarzyszenie VESUVIO with the support of Regionalny Osrodek Debaty Międzynarodowej organized 2-days seminar for representatives of non-governmental organizations. In the seminar attended 34 people representing NGOs from Podkarpackie Region.
Invited guests: project manager from Latvia (Riga) - Mrs. Laila Balga and 2 experts from Finland (Helsinki): Mrs. Galina Yudin-Lazarev and Mr. Alexander Yudin Lazarev presented their NGOs, their profiles, networking opportunities and possible collaboration in international projects.
Discussed issues were related to the European Year of development of cooperation in the context of the Baltic countries, strengthen cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, local government and non-governmental organizations, European networks of cooperation: Europe Direct, Eurodesk, education and culture in the context of cooperation between Polish, Latvian and Finnish NGOs and Youth collaboration in the Baltic countries, the importance of intellectual capital for the wealth of societies and for deepening the integration process in Europe, the prevention of discrimination in European Union countries including aspects of sex, race, age, national origin and religion and opportunities for cooperation with European NGOs in the Baltic countries in Erasmus Plus Program.
The participants exchanged experiences, opinions, discussed bothering topics in groups, presented sources of information on European level, that are useful in the activities of NGOs, have entered into friendly relations with Latvia and Finland.
The seminar resulted in the idea of a joint project with Finland and Polish NGOs.
Power Point Presentation of the project - Support for Civil Society and
Baltic Project: Workshop in Rzeszów-Poland
In the days 27-28.10.2015 workshop was held within the project "Support for Civil Society and Equality in Baltic", with participation of 52 representatives of NGOs from the Podkarpackie Region.
The workshop discussed issues related to: cooperation between NGOs and other actors in the Baltic Sea Region, in particular, with local authorities and decision-makers, the subject of the labor market and workers' rights, economic issues, cultural cooperation, educational and scientific collaboration of Baltic NGOs, sustainability issues, gender equality and other.
During two days of discussion participants developed recommendations and proposals for improving international cooperation of NGOs in the Baltic countries, which will be presented at the summing up conference in Riga (coordinator), with project partners: Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia and Poland.
Among many affairs, participants emphasized the need to unify the legal principles of creation NGOs in the Baltic countries, as well as the legal principles of their functioning and collaboration with local bodies and authorities as equal partners.
Necessity is to create an Internet portal with a database of non-governmental organizations in Baltic countries to easy find a partner for international cooperation.
An important element is the need for closer cultural and educational cooperation through mutual exchange, organization of cultural events, promotion of national heritage and culture, educational and tourist trips in the area of the Baltic countries.
In the field of social economy and labour market recommendations relate to more effective cooperation between the private sector and the NGOs of Baltic countries, and develop the employment possibilities for citizens of the Baltic states in any country on the same basis.
In the area of sustainable development and environmental protection of the Baltic Region, proposals relate to increase environmental education with international initiatives, such as youth meetings to raise awareness of segregation of garbage, participate in the activity-cleaning the world and other.
On the issue of gender equality recommendations relate to the creation of the Women's Forum for stronger and more noticeable voice of women in important social and family affairs, as well as their professional development and social promotion.
