Civil Society Leaders from Moldova visit Poland
2007, Warsaw, Poland - Civil society in Moldova is still very much a work in progress. New citizens’ initiatives are launched each year, but many lack support from community groups and local government authorities. A six-day study tour to Poland by 10 outstanding Moldovan NGO leaders granted them a unique opportunity to learn about Polish civil society groups’ successful poverty-reduction projects. The tour – organized by Partners for Democratic Change, the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), and facilitated by Partners-Poland – allowed these ambitious Moldovans to learn from the experiences of local actors who solved pressing problems by encouraging cooperation between diverse citizen groups.
“This visit gave us a full overview of Polish local activism,” a smiling Nicolae Curecheru of the NGO “Marlon-Judith” said. ”We met with big organizations managing large annual budgets and small organizations staffed by volunteers. And we could see that not only money, but good ideas and heart are important.”
Participants learned how law — for example, Polish laws covering Public Benefit Organizations (established in Poland in 2003) and Contracting Social Services (1997) – can support community development efforts. “Now I see how important law is to civil society development. It makes so many things more simple and easy for both NGOs and local authorities,” Natalia Cernat of IREX Moldova said.
Participants also learned about the work of 14 Polish organizations. They learned about new ideas for mobilizing community members to solve problems like unemployment, the low quality of education in villages, gender inequality, and rural development in the Mazovia region in Central Poland. A particularly popular site visit was to a project in the village of Korzecznik. An NGO in the village organized a program to hire women to produce salt sculptures to sell as souvenirs. The Moldovan guests were impressed that the sale of hand made trolls, flower bouquets, and animal figurines brought a substantial profit for women from neighboring villages. The project gave participants an idea of the work Polish non-profits do to reduce unemployment in rural areas.
As many of the Moldovans are residents of rural farming communities, Partners-Poland also organized several site visits to Polish NGO farming projects. A visit to the Agricultural Resource Center in Płońsk (a government agency working closely with local government representatives and NGOs on farming issues) impressed site visit participants: “We need such practical and modern approaches for training our farmers in Moldova. The center relies on local capacity to develop (Polish) rural areas. I am glad they expressed interest in implementing joint programs with us.”
However, according to participants, the most inspiring visits were to organizations devoted to enhancing the quality of local educational systems. Poland has a long history of independent education and in recent years, local initiatives run by groups of teachers, activists, and intellectuals have continued this tradition. “I was just shocked by the work of small local organizations to develop a small village school,” participant Aliona Carafizi from Saratica Noua gymnasium said about the visit to a school Korzecznik. “The enthusiasm of parents, teachers and NGO activists turned a poor school in a poor region into a modern educational center for the whole community.”
Partners-Poland facilitators helped participants analyze the work of organizations the study tour visited, and helped them prepare action plans for new initiatives in Moldova. “Now I see how I can make people from our community more active,” Ludmila Grigor from TPA Mindicenii exclaimed. Partners-Poland hopes the new relationships fomented by this site visit will create chances for future partnership. Since its accession to European Union, Poland has become a major donor to many Polish development initiatives organized by civil society groups. The guests from Moldova were perceived by many of these NGOs as potential partners in new cross-border initiatives.
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