We are glad to announce to you:
The Connecting With Our Neighbors program is a program with the aim to create long term working relation between different NGO organizations. Organizations of young people, working on different workareas and working in different countries.
The main area we focus on is Eastern Europe. The coordination will be in Sarajevo, Bosnia Hercegovina, in the heart of a destroyed country once called Yugoslavia. The impact of the program will have most of it's effects in that region.
The main focus is on cultural management and ecology. For the simple reason that these fields represent the concern to most of the people in the world. The organizations working in the areas as mentioned above have serious difficulties to survive in the market economy mechanism as it is developing now in Eastern Europe. On the other hand, art and nature are the working areas that connect people in general, throughout the times and all over the world. The art and the nature are our biggest neighbors in daily life besides the people that live next door.
The method of the program is to set up several pilot projects that, in the long run, form the frame of future cooperation between dozens of international NGO's in the workfield of ecology and culture. The expectation is that up to 100 spin off effects might take place in the years to come.
There is a strong interest in Eastern Europe both from ecological and from cultural organizations, to become more connected with one another, to be able to support each others initiatives and to focus on the whole scale of social problems and some of it's solutions, instead of to focus only on a part of it.
A cultural reintegration of Eastern Europe with itself is an important aspect of the CWON program.
There are 5 projects in preparation :
- Meeting with the Friends of Society of Slow Progress (CWON01)
Besides the aims as mentioned, the Connecting With Our Neighbors program uses practical ideas to support intercommunication between people from different area's and administrations which are, not seldom, still hostile to each other.
The Connecting With Our Neighbors program uses a time schedule until 31-12-2000. Most of the outdoors projects will start to take place in the beginning of 2000.
In the preamble of the Connecting With Our Neighbors program POO has educated several local people to work with cultural management and with the internet provider. These students now will be given jobs inside this CWON program. POO will provide an office for coordination including an internet studio.
This meeting will be a meeting with cultural managers and musicians representing most former Yugoslav republics. Meeting is used to exchange ideas and prepare a high quantity of small scale projects and performances in the near future. The meeting will take place in Sarajevo.
- Visiting St. Petersburg and most capitols between Sarajevo and St. Petersburg (CWON02)
This visit will be a great roundabout of international, non commercial and independent cultural and ecological organizations. During this visit and great introduction will take place in the CWON program, performances will be given and a daily journal on the internet will be presented.
- Dalmacija (CWON03)
During this meeting on the Damatian coast several ecological organisations will meet on a boat. This boat will travel along the Dalmatian coast. There will be a great opportunity to discuss, to inform the audience and to invite journalists. Information program for tourists included.
- Zelenkovac (CWON04)
During this working period of four month many old car wrecks will be taken from the land and the old iron will be recycled. This project goes across entity borders in BiH connecting up to 10 ecological organizations. This program will be with the support of international volunteers.
- World Wide Neighbors (CWON05)
The Connecting With Our Neighbors program will provide materials to set up an interactive web site which will be updated and maintained by all participating organizations. This web page will be the center of all communication and publication to each other.
At the end of that period an overall evaluation will be made followed by conclusions and concequences.
All projects have their own specific discription, aims, budget, sponsors and timetables.