Ceremony for awarding human rights promoting projects held in Chisinau

Chisinau, 13 August /MOLDPRES/- The Institute for Democracy announced the winners of the second round of the sub-grant program, the priority of which was to support joint activities of non-governmental organizations on two banks of the Dniester (in partnership with educational institutions or schools) in the human rights education. All projects were submitted on behalf of partnerships of at least two organizations (one organization on each bank of the Dniester River).

This program is implemented by the Institute for Democracy (Comrat), in partnership with the Association of Bulgarian Culture "Rodolubeţs" (Transnistrian region) and the Center for Protection and Promotion of Young Women’s Rights (Chisinau), under the project "Raising mutual trust between teachers on both banks of the Dniestre river – Building regional capacities for continuous development of teachers’ skills of modern pro-active methods of human rights education”, funded by the EU (Confidence Building Program).

The program aims to approach Chisinau and Tiraspol by increasing confidence and supporting joint initiatives, which attract stakeholders from both sides of the Nistru River.

This subgrant program is implemented by the Institute for Democracy, which provided each of the partnerships with a grant of a total amount from 4 to 7 thousand euros. So, within the second round, the Institute for Democracy selected 5 projects:

1) The project "Interaction Between Teachers of Both Banks of the Nistru River in the Study and Promotion of Social Human Rights", presented by the Institute of Law and Civil Society (Tiraspol) in partnership with Comrat State University (Comrat) and the NGO "Program Office of Civil Liability" (Chisinau).

2) The project "Development of Competence in Education for Effective Intercultural Communication", presented by the National Association of European Trainers of Moldova (Chisinau) in partnership with the Center for Rural Assistance “CAR” (Ternovka village).

3) The project "Equal Rights through the Eyes of Young Civil Journalists: New Tools for Teaching Young Women Teachers to Promote Democracy and Human Rights", presented by the Regional Public Association of Mothers with Many Children and Women Entrepreneurs of Gagauzia Vesta (Comrat) in partnership with the non-profit media “Zerkalo-TV "(Bendery).

4) The project "Teachers of the Two Banks - for the Effective and Sustainable Development of their Communities", presented by the NGO "Athena" (Balti) in partnership with the School of Political Studies in Tiraspol.

5) The project "Training of Teachers of International Law", presented by the Center for Innovative and Social Development (Tiraspol) in partnership with the Association of International Law (Chisinau) and the European University of Moldova.

During the award ceremony, the representatives of the EU Delegation in the Republic of Moldova and the Institute for Democracy wished the winners successes, expressed their hope that their projects would achieve practical and important results for local communities and will help to build confidence between the two banks of the Nistru River.

In particular, Fabien Schaeffer - member of the Project and Technical Cooperation Department of the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Moldova, congratulated the winners and wished them success in implementing these projects. He noted the importance of all initiatives in the field of education and human rights, as well as the importance for Moldova of projects to strengthen confidence-building measures between the two banks of the Nistru River, noting the quality of projects selected for financing by the Institute for Democracy.

This is not the first contest of the grant program, organized by the Institute for Democracy.

So, in March 2018, within the framework of the first round of the sub-grant program, the Institute for Democracy selected 3 joint initiatives of non-governmental organizations from two banks of the Nistru River, allocating between 6 and 10 thousand euros for each of the partnerships:

1) The project "Training of Teachers in the Use of Information Technology in the Teaching Process", implemented by the National Youth Council of Moldova (Chisinau) in partnership with the Center for Social and Legal Initiative "Participation" (Bender).

2) The project "Teachers on Both Banks of the Nistru River Teach Democracy", implemented by the Association of Psychologists Tighina (Causeni) in partnership with the non-profit partnership "Today's women" (Parkani).

3) The project "Increasing Legal Knowledge of Future Teachers on Both Banks of the Nistru River", implemented by the Legal Clinic (Comrat) in partnership with the Media Center (Tiraspol).

These three joint NGO initiatives on both sides of the Nistru River aim to enhance trust through educational activities in the field of human rights.

At present, all three projects are implemented, contributing to the formation of sustainable partnerships and the potential of civil society on both sides of the Nistru River by creating joint cooperation platforms for teachers from both sides of the Nistru River.

This project is implemented with the financial support of the European Union. The project Coordinator is the Institute for Democracy - a public organization officially registered in the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Moldova in January 2007.

In 2016, the Institute for Democracy won the UNESCO Club Association's Occupation Prize for excellence in human rights, on the International Human Rights Day. For remarkable achievements in human rights activities in 2016, the international scientific journal "Supremacy of Law" recognized the Institute for Democracy as the organization of the year.