1. Strengthening the civil society’s ability – mainly of young people, women and local government representatives – to jointly solve real problems of local people in the Moldovan region of Cahul.
2. Building an effective mechanism of local citizens’ and local government’s support of civic activities and civic participation.

• 30 young people (students aged 14 to 20)
• 10 teachers from 5 high schools
• 65 women from villages of the Cahul region
• 50 volunteers
• 15 local government representatives

Country/region: Zîrnești, Colibași, Brînza, Slobozie Mare and Giurgiulești in the Cahul region/Moldova

 

Description of the project: Caritas CR and Success follow up previous successful cooperation in the Cahul region, namely on a 2013 project which was focused mainly on strengthening skills and abilities of women, youth and citizens of five communities of the Cahul region. The project also tried to engage these groups in the matters of their communities.

 

The aim of the current project activities is to teach the participants how to use the acquired knowledge in practice, especially when interacting with local government bodies (which were involved only marginally in the last project). The project also aims at improving knowledge and skills of citizens of local communities as well as of local government representatives. This should lead to an increase in local government’s workers motivation to cooperate with citizens and to engage them in decision-making processes.

 

Caritas CR and Success will organize interactive workshops to create partnerships and establish cooperation between citizens and local governments. The project will also try to strengthen the citizens’ role in community development and to improve identification of citizens’ needs. 15 women who took a training course called “LeaderSHE” under the previous project will, through follow-up trainings for trainers, learn how to share the knowledge they acquired with other women.

 

This year, local government members will take part in the meetings of work groups from the villages of Zîrnești, Colibași, Brînza, Slobozie Mare and Giurgiulești. The workshops will be held every two months. Participants in these meetings should jointly prepare at least three proposals of minor community initiatives. One proposal from each community will be selected for financial support through a tender. The proposed initiatives should primarily address the issue of cooperation with local governments: the local government should either provide financial support or get involved actively in the initiative.

 

Though the local governments are obliged to organize public hearings, it is often the case that no such events take place or that they are promoted insufficiently and the information does not reach the citizens.  

 

The Success organization will therefore make sure that the highest possible number of local citizens know about the public hearings, during which local budgets for the following year will be discussed and decided, and thus can take an active part in them. Further, there will be local debates, meetings with citizens and local government representatives at five “round tables”, where issues faced by the villages will be discussed. In addition, a forum will be organized on the regional level, where representatives of villages (both involved and uninvolved in the project), local and regional governments will be present. The aim of the forum is to support and spread the idea of civic participation and its positive impacts to other villages and cities of the region.   

 

Last but not least, the publication of school newspaper by young journalists/students will be supported with the help of teachers from the target schools.

 

Total Budget: 56 505 EUR

 

Donor: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the CR – Programme of Transition Cooperation