Elena Palivoda, Author at Fellows eapcivilsociety.eu

Strengthening the CSOs’ and Young Leaders’ Fundraising Capacities & Promote the Culture of Philanthropy in Armenia

The action aimed to strengthen the CSOs’ and Young Leaders’ fundraising capacities and promote the culture of philanthropy in Armenia. To achieve the above objective, Anna conducted the fundraising capacity needs assessment survey for the 54 organizations in Yerevan and Tavush region. Then, she designed the training module and delivered interactive seminars for the young civil society activists from the Yerevan and Tavush regions. Following this, to build international cooperation and extend her networks worldwide, Anna organized business trips to the leading fundraising/international organizations in the Netherlands and the UK. During her visit to the Netherlands, she met the representatives from the European Fundraising Association, Goede Doelen Nederland/Charity Netherlands, Netherlands Red Cross and Han Valk Consulting. On the other hand, to familiarize herself with the British fundraising market, she visited the Institute of Fundraising (IoF), Fundraising Regulator, Astarita, Aldrich & Ward (AAW), Resource Alliance and attended a Fundraiser’s Club Event at Impact Hub King’s Cross in London. At the final stage of the fellowship action, Anna organized a panel discussion on “Fundraising in Armenia: Current Challenges and Opportunities” engaging the local experts, CSO representatives, media and other stakeholders.

The project raised awareness of 64 civil society activists in fundraising with a specific focus on digital fundraising tools, proposal writing, mentorship, project design and crowdfunding. Also, the action formed a community of fundraisers and hosted the official networking event involving 83 participants from 70 organizations. The panel discussion served as a platform to build dialogue among the fundraisers and encourage new partnerships. For example, the Association of Fundraising Professionals of Armenia made 5 successful partnership agreements with the international organizations to engage in cross-country collaborative initiatives․ The international business trips in Amsterdam and London gave Anna an immense opportunity to enhance her qualification and contacts in a global environment.

Country	Armenia
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Team

Laying the first bricks for the Zaharia Foundation for Documentary Photography Research

This action was a follow-up initiative of the creative project: Zaharia’s World: Restoration and Digitalization of the Zaharia Cusnir Photography Archive previously implemented by Nadejda Cervinscaia, EaP Fellow 2017. To promote the heritage of Zaharia Cusnir – the Moldovan photographer and film-maker, Victor formally established a non-profit organization – Pod to proceed with the further projects linked to Zaharia’s creative materials. Also, the action aimed to digitalize the full photo archive and launched it from the very early stage. Following this, Victor created a website and professional social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, etc.) to present the digitized photographs. Even two years after the project, the Archives are still in the spotlight and attract world-renowned magazines and media.

The action raised the visibility of the Moldovan non-material heritage from the ’50s-’60s and produced 3,751 high-quality digitized negative photos from Zaharia Cusnir’s archive. Additionally, Victor established a Non-governmental organization – Pod; the organization revives Zaharia’s World as it has already delivered a documentary film about the photographer. Other tangible deliverables of the project are the website www.zaharia.md and the social media pages, including Facebook hitting 2,000 likes in 6 months after it was first launched. The website and social media channels enable the local and international public to return to history and enjoy the Moldovan ethnocultural identity. Through the restoration, digitalization and dissemination of the archive, both projects provided access to knowledge and cultural heritage of Soviet Moldova which has never been disclosed before.

Country	Moldova
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Lusashogh With Medical Clinic and Public Transport

The action is aimed to resolve two issues faced by the Lusashogh rural community: A lack of public transportation and poor medical services. To address the above challenges, Narine conducted public surveys among the locals and organized meetings with the authorities of the Ararat Regional Municipality and the Vedi BUAT road serving company. Following this, she held additional two meetings at the Ministry of Territorial Administration of Armenia and engaged relevant high-level officials, including the Prime Minister of Armenia, the Minister of Territorial Administration, the Head of Ararat Regional Municipality, the Head of Lusashogh Municipality. Then, Narine renovated the old medical clinic and recruited specialists to deliver training on positive parenting, first medical assistance and teeth cleaning for the local people; the training raised the interest among young parents, their children and even the grandparents who actively attended the workshops.

The action facilitated dialogue among the Ararat municipality authorities, the private company and the local residents resulting in the extension of the bus line from the city to the Lusashogh village. The latter eased communication and mobility of the people from 3 local villages to the regional city. Thus, the project delivered the renovated local medical center providing access to the emergency and other medical services for the Lusashogh and other neighboring settlements. On top of that, the courses on positive parenting, emergency assistance and teeth cleaning enhanced awareness of the young parents and saw a high participation from the local community.

Country	Armenia
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Team

Voting is not only our right, it is our power!

The action aimed to encourage the first-time voters (18 years old) from Moldova to vote at the Presidential Elections (October-November 2020) through the national advocacy campaign: Voting Is not only our right but also, Our Power! To enhance the young people’s political knowledge about the electoral process and transform their general anti-system attitude into constructive criticism, Ludmila conducted research, educational, community outreach and large-scale communication campaigns. To identify key messages, Ludmila conducted desk research and drafted a policy brief on youth voter participation in the Republic of Moldova. Following this, she developed educational videos and the e-learning course: Learn Elections with the Online Election Courses explaining the specifics of the Presidential, Parliamentary and Local elections. Then, Ludmila launched a social media campaign: My First Vote and encouraged electoral participation through the Facebook and Instagram platforms. In the last stage of the project, she engaged the members of the National Network for Legal Education comprised of the Judges, Prosecutors, Lawyers, Anti-Corruption Officers and Civil Society Leaders to create the concept of the Democracy Classes containing 8 thematic webinars on the political engagement targeted on the high school students aged 17-18.

The Action produced a policy brief: Why You Should Vote along with 10 visual designs, promoting electoral participation among the young people in Moldova. Through the e-learning course and its 5 educational videos, the project engaged 200 users and raised their awareness of the national electoral systems. Also, the extensive advocacy campaign: My First Vote generated 32 Facebook/Instagram posts reaching and encouraging more than 76,000 young people to vote. On top of that, the Democracy Classes involved the field experts and educated 277 participants via the 5 live streams on the CIPM Facebook page.

Online Course: Learn Elections with the Online Election Courses

Atributiile presedintelui / Duties of the President:

7 motive pentru care sa votezi / 7 reasons to vote:

Publication “My first vote”

Country	Moldova
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Promoting Direct Democracy for Strengthening Human Rights in Armenia

The action: Promoting Direct Democracy for Strengthening Human Rights in Armenia aimed to monitor the implementation of the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights and its Implementation Action Plan (2020-2022). The project engaged local authorities, public officials, lawyers, young activists, civil society representatives, and watchdog organizations. At the beginning of the project, Syuzanna researched the Swedish and Georgian experience in CSO engagement in policy making and effective monitoring of policy implementation. Then, she organized 4 awareness-raising workshops for the public officials from state and local government bodies, lawyers, CSOs and other interested stakeholders from 3 regions and Yerevan. The seminars were followed by the national youth conference: The RA National Strategy on Human Rights Protection: Challenges and Perspectives engaging young professionals in discourse. Afterwards, Syuzanna conducted online in-depth interviews and focus groups with the field experts to identify the possible gaps in the strategy and produce the monitoring report. Finally, she organized the CSO-Government Dialogue Conference to discuss the report findings and proposed amendments in the National Strategy.

The project delivered the evidence-based monitoring report and recommendations to the Republic of Armenia tailored to the National Strategy and Human Rights protection. The research ensured the accountability of the RA Government and the Ministry of Justice in the sector of human rights. The final conference facilitated the Public-State consensus on the various issues, including the necessity to amend the RA National Strategy. The majority of the recommendations were taken into account by the Government and the process to amend the National Strategy was about to start as of the end of the Fellowship.

The seminars and workshops raised awareness of 157 young professionals from the civic and legal sectors. Then, the youth conference engaged 21 researchers, out of whom 11 produced a research paper on the National Strategy. The events engaged the high-level officials, including the Human Rights Defender and Deputy Minister of Justice of Armenia, and the EU-Delegation representatives to Armenia.

Evidence-based Monitoring of the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights and its Implementation Action Plan for 2020-2022

Project in media:

Country	Armenia
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Citizen Engagement for Transparent Land Management in Rural United Territorial Communities of Ukraine

The project aimed to foster citizens’ engagement in the rural United Territorial Communities (Hromadas) and promote transparent land management in Ukraine. To achieve the above objectives, Oleksandra applied high-quality and user-center IT solutions & GIS technologies to the research and visibility campaigns. First and foremost, she created the opinion polls for Hromadas and researched the problems of AHs, data mining to explore the land management practices on the local level. Then, she mobilized the field experts and organized the online ideation to exchange expertise with the rural community. Finally, to increase the land management transparency, Olaksanda disseminated the results of the research and online webinars/ideathon with the local people and the decision-makers.

The action raised awareness of the local authorities and civil activists from more than 150 rural areas of Ukraine. Also, the project delivered a research document and opinion poll summary to enhance citizens’ access to information about the effective management of land resources. Within the frame of the fellowship, Oleksandra created a Facebook network of the Project Ambassadors unifying the community representatives and experts in one group. To disseminate the project deliverables and reach a larger audience, she developed an online course comprising 8 educational webinars and engaging more than 900 participants. On top of that, the project created a map of good practices for better engagement and facilitated the dialogue between the local community and the authorities via sharing the recommendations based on the results of the online ideathon, research & opinion poll summary, webinars and joint action plan.

Project website: Transparent Lands with the Map of good practices for the better engagement and educational video lectures.

Research Paper (in Ukrainian):

Project in media:

Залучення громадян для управління земельними ресурсами у громадах – результати дослідження

Country	Ukraine
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Young Guardians of Digital Rights

The action: Young Guardians of Digital Rights aimed to enhance the digital literacy of teenagers all over Ukraine and engage youth in the discourse of cybersecurity. To achieve the above objectives, Viktoria created a concept for the target-specific course and delivered the training through the Mizmin online platform. In the first stage, the team developed 9 short educational videos explaining the fundamental digital rights (privacy, access to information, freedom of expression), and safe navigation on social networks, such as Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc. Every thematic course comprised interactive tests, practical exercises and suggestions on the educational online games/books. Also, the action produced Chatbot Digital Foot of Support in Telegram (@DigitalChat_bot) stimulating discussions among the stakeholders. To raise the project visibility, Viktoria and her team conducted social media communication campaign through the Facebook, Tik-Tok and YouTube Channels of the Minzmin platform and produced two articles (Internet as Opportunity and Treat; Digital Security of Children: How to Protect them on the Internet) on the Ukrainian media platform Ukrainska Pravda and two videos on the min.zmin Tik-Tok channel.

The action created the first Ukrainian Online Course: Digital Rights and Safety for Children targeted at teenage groups, teachers and parents; the materials are public and can be accessed by any interested party on the Mizmin platform. Through the various media outreach instruments, including Mizmin website (1,159 involved participants), YouTube (10,430 views), Facebook (118,000 views) the project reached larger audiences and raised the digital competence of children and their teachers/parents. Also, Viktoria engaged the local authorities, including the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Digital Transformation, and 24 Regional Departments of Education of Ukraine and facilitated collaboration among educational professionals, teachers, students and their parents.

Project in media:

Інтернет як можливість і загроза для дітей: як знайти баланс

Цифрові права та онлайн безпека: як захистити дітей в інтернеті

Country	Ukraine
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Team

Monitoring 2020 Youth Budgets Execution at the Local Level in Moldova

The project aimed to develop an open source of data on youth budget in Moldova, raise visibility of the budgetary process and build capacity for the young leaders to monitor and advocate their initiatives at the local level. The project was implemented in five stages. First, Anna researched data on the Ministry of Finance of Moldova, developed an evidence-based youth budget map and integrated it on the website of the National Youth Council of Moldova. Then, she developed an online course (#YOUr(th)BUDGET program) on budgetary participation for young activists; 7 training sessions with a clear illustration of the public process of budgeting, methods and tools to participate is available on Youtube channels of Invento and NYCM. Following this, Ana conducted mentoring webinars and one offline training for the young people and youth workers from the eight regions (Comrat, Șoldănești, Fălești, Chișinău, Drochia, Rezina, Glodeni, Cimișlia) of Moldova. Afterwards, she launched the YouthPodcast: #Public Money for Youth, producing 3 video and 3 audio podcasts to promote youth leadership and budgetary participation. The last phase of the project comprised the Local campaigns on #knowYOUr(th)Budget. Once trained and mentored, the young people from the above regions developed proposals on youth budget and action plans for 2021 that were submitted to the local authorities. In total, 7 action plans were proposed.

The action raised awareness of the youth budget monitoring and developed/promoted evidence-based initiatives through the official page of the National Youth Council of Moldova reaching more than 20,000 young people. Also, it advocated for youth budgetary participation on the local level through the online course and mentoring webinars engaging more than 430 young leaders from the 8 regions of Moldova. Moreover, youthpodcast #Public Money for Youth promoted the success stories of meaningful participation by the executives of the National Youth Council of Moldova, Municipal Youth Center from Chișinău, etc. and reached more than 3 000 young people. Finally, as a tangible deliverable of the #knowYOUr(th)Budget campaign, two regions (Fălești and Rezina) integrated the youth proposals to the municipal budget for 2021.

Project infographics:

Online course (#YOUr(th)BUDGET program) on budgetary participation for young activists (in Romanian):

Buget public pentru TINEri – Episodul 1: Introducere | #You(r)th Budget

Buget public pentru TINEri – Episodul 2: De ce este importantă participarea #You(r)th Budget

Buget public pentru TINEri – Episodul 3: Structura Bugetului Public #You(r)th Budget

Buget public pentru TINEri – Episodul 4: Structura Bugetului Public #You(r)th Budget

Buget public pentru TINEri – Episodul 5: Procesul bugetar #You(r)th Budget

Buget public pentru TINEri – Episodul 6: Cum participăm? #You(r)th Budget

Buget public pentru TINEri – Episodul 7: Cheltuielile de tineret #You(r)th Budget

Country	Moldova
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PROVIDNYK – Interactive Map for People with Mobility Limitations

The PROVIDNYK Action aimed to improve the quality of life of Ukrainians with limited mobility by contributing to the development of accessible infrastructure in their hometowns. The project was implemented in several stages. First, the project team tested and fixed the defect of route planning features for the PROVIDNYK platform. PROVIDNYK is an interactive map tailored to people with mobility limitations to help them navigate in the cities of Ukraine, review the accessibility of places and send automatic complaints (requests) to governmental bodies. In the second stage of the project, the team developed the Users’ Rating and Gamification Feature to the map to increase the users’ engagement and data contribution. Following this, Pavel expanded the map coverage in the additional 3 cities of Ukraine (Vinnytsia, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia). The development of the inclusive map was followed by an online promotion campaign to cover more potential users. Finally, the project team conducted the Online Kyiv Inclusive Roundtable involving the stakeholders from business and governmental sector, as well as civil society activists, and live-streamed the event in Zoom & YouTube.

The project developed and launched two advanced PROVIDNYK features – Route Planning and Users’ Rating & Gamification. As of 30 November 2020, Version 2.0 of the PROVIDNYK map has been successfully covering three additional cities of Ukraine – Vinnytsia, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia; the registered users from those cities already mapped and rated 722 objects (places) on the web-platform. The online visibility campaign and roundtable reached more than 371,000 people and raised public awareness regarding problems of employment of people with disabilities and the creation of a barrier-free infrastructure; Over 80 participants joined/watched live discussion of the Online Kyiv Inclusive Roundtable. On top of that, the implementation of the PROVIDNYK Action has contributed to consolidating the efforts of civil society, state, business, and the public in building an inclusive society in Ukraine.

Online Kyiv Inclusivity Roundtable | 20.11.2020 (in Ukrainian):

Country	Ukraine
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Team

#protect_your_info (Safe Internet and Media Literacy)

The project aimed to raise awareness of cybersecurity and media literacy in teenage students of Kyiv, Ukraine. To enhance critical thinking in the youth groups, Yuliia developed a special program #protect_your_info tailored to media literacy and personal privacy on the internet. Then, she created the Facebook and telegram groups #protect_your_info as a communication platform for the project beneficiaries. To advocate for internet security in a creative way, Yuliia designed the informative booklet/posters and an interactive quest game on the Playbuzz platform. Applying the special program and creative visibility materials, she delivered trainings on #protect_your_info thematic topics for the local students with different backgrounds in Kyiv.

The project raised awareness of the Ukrainian teenagers in media literacy and information security through a number of instruments, including the training, social media channels, creative materials, online role-plays and quest games. Within the frame of the action, Yuliia conducted 5 one-day training and engaged more than 75 students from the 5 local schools of Kyiv. Most importantly, the action taught young audiences how to search and communicate online safely and protect their privacy. The social media channels on Facebook and Telegram, as well as the informative posters and quest games advocated the active “fact-checking” of the information and engaged/covered large audiences.

#protect_your_info Brochure (in Ukrainian):

How to protect you personal information Poster (in Ukrainian):

Country	Ukraine
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