Archive

Projects from 2004-2008

Projects implemented from 2004 to 2008 include:

• Children of our Yard has provided a healthy and safe environment for children under 12 in the town of Komarin through the reconstruction of two playgrounds, as well as informing the local population about child safety.
• Green World, based in Stolin secondary school, has given schoolchildren an opportunity to learn landscaping and gardening skills.
• The Road to Life 2: this follow-up to the original project in 2005 aimed at raising the incomes of disabled people living in Stolin district via career guidance and training in the local pottery centres. The additional skills learned by the disabled children and their families enabled them to supplement their income from selling the goods they made.
• Healthy Child: this follow-up to the 2005 project A Window of Hope made technical improvements to the kitchen in Terebezhov kindergarten, thus enabling healthier cooking for the children, as well as improving the quality of the drinking water and the air.
• Comprehensive training courses on the sustainable economic development of agricultural businesses were organized for small-scale agricultural producers. The courses covered the following subjects: economy of farming systems, producer strategies and tools for development and project management.
• The Road to Life was a project implemented in Stolin by an NGONGO
  non-governmental organization for children with disabilities, which set up a small shop where the NGO was able to sell the goods it produces.
• Under the Chernobyl Heritage project, a local museum in Bragin was able to launch their website (www.bragin-museum.org) in Russian, English and German.
• The project A Window of Hope in the Stolin region helped to equip the local school with healthcare and medical equipment.
• In Chechersk region, the project Enlargement of the 'Dream' Fruit Orchard allowed a local school to earn some extra money for its needs.
• Under a project in Slavgorod, a sewing workshop was set up which trained teenagers from troubled families in the relevant professional skills.

Environmental education and awareness

The Office has also sponsored a study on introducing the 'Green Pack' multimedia teaching materials on the environment into the education system in Belarus.
These multimedia educational materials were developed by the UN-led Regional Environmental Centre (REC) in Hungary. They aim to influence students' behaviour, rather than simply impart knowledge about particular environmental subjects. Students and teachers take part in various activities together, such as role playing, decision-making and discussions.
The feasibility of introducing the 'Green Pack' materials was assessed by REC experts, and the parties then agreed to put together a project proposal.

Bringing tourism to rural Belarus

The Office has supported several projects to develop rural tourism in Belarus. Throughout 2004, it supported an initiative launched by a local NGO, Agro and Eco Tourism, which produced a catalogue of more than 45 houses that offer bed and breakfast facilities in rural Belarus. Such projects offer an opportunity to revive the Belarusian countryside and to bring employment to areas that would otherwise enjoy little economic development.

The Office contributed to the initiative through the provision of financial assistance in the inspection of houses, assessing their quality and categorizing them. It also organized several sponsored workshops for bed and breakfast hosts on how to improve the quality of services.

The Office continued to work together with Agro and Eco Tourism on promoting rural tourism in 2005, as the NGO started a programme to develop the existing network of rural farmsteads into 'Green Ways', which are tourist routes that promote a healthy lifestyle and environmentally friendly (i.e., non-motorized) means of transport.

A group of activists from rural farms and tourism specialists participated in special training sessions in Poland, after which they developed 'Green Ways' near their farmsteads (sometimes stretching as much as 150 km), engaging the local population and local resources.

Following the development and equipping of the 'Green Ways', ten booklets on Green Trails of Belarus were published and presented at the country's annual tourist exhibition.