Citizens' participation
in organizing and holding local community holiday –
"DAY OF MICRO-REGION"
Duration of the case: 2 months (August, September 2005)
Prepared by: Ulad Vialichka and Alia Dziarhai
Public Union Education Center “POST”, Republic of Belarus
April 2006
Abstract
This case is a description of successful joint implementation of big community event – “Day of microregion” – that took place in Minsk, Belarus in autumn 2005. This case was chosen by the authors with
the aim to show importance, opportunities and consequences of self-organizing citizens for joint
activities at local level.
In this case the authors try to describe possible ways of changing mentality of local inhabitants, who
have no tradition of self-responsibility and common actions within community and fully rely on the
efforts of local authorities in solving all community problems. There is an example of creating and
cultivating another approach to building relations, cooperation and sharing responsibilities between
various community players and citizens at local level.
Background
Belarus has got its independence in 1991 together with most of other Soviet Republics after being a
part of USSR and Russian Empire for the last two centuries. Therefore it is easier to understand that
our country has got in legacy all strong and weak points of soviet society. After the short period of
both economical chaos and national renascence (1991-1994) during the last 12 years Belarus lives
under the power of Alexander Lukashenko. This first president of Belarus tries "to enter the same river
twice" and build new Soviet Belarus in modern time using wide arsenal of methods: form liquidating
freedom of information till replacing local self-government by president "vertical line". Keeping in
mind that local communities during the USSR times were also very far from the aim of development
of local self-government and citizens' participation it is easier to understand that modern Belarus has
extremely limited social-political opportunities for local community development.
This problem exists in its strongest forms especially in localities with high level of urbanization –
Minsk city as a capital of Belarus as well as other big cities of the country. Additional reason for that
was a lack of social contacts and interaction between people when they live in one part of a city, work
at another part, go shopping or have friends somewhere else because of expanded urban infrastructure.
Our organization decided to put its efforts on establishing and testing an urbanized model of
community development in micro-district “Zahad” situated in western part of Minsk city.
Rather big part of inhabitants of micro-district “Zahad” (as well as Belarusian society at large) has an
opinion that in modern Belarusian social, economical and political almost nothing depends on ordinary
citizens. People think that their living environment is determined from outside and they can’t make
their life better by changing this environment.
It is necessary to admit that there are some reasons for such point of view. The authorities declare their
interest to developing local self-government but in reality they do not initiate any noticeable steps in
this direction. Before starting activity of Education Center “POST” on local level in micro-district
“Zahad” (with 60000 inhabitants) there were no public structures and initiatives involved in analysis
and solving local problems (self-government committees, condominiums etc.). Other initiatives of
active citizens mostly existed on a non-regular basis and didn’t influence the situation effectively
enough. In the same time some local problems in the community are very often more connected to
passiveness of inhabitants or with lack of practical experience in advocating their interests, than to
absence of mechanisms of influencing the situation.
In most of cases local authorities are under strong pressure and control from national authorities, which
are not interested in establishing dialogue with community activists and civil society organizations. As
there is no real local self-government in Belarus such a pressure from higher authorities influences the
position of local authorities rather noticeably. Nevertheless some of them are able to build their own
strategy of interaction with local communities’ activists.
In this direction administration of Frunzenski district of Minsk city is rather unique example of
positive position of local authorities towards raising the role, activeness and participation of population
in solving local problems. With assistance of Center “POST” it became possible to find and build
cooperation with those inhabitants who really have some initiatives and have something to suggest for
solving problems on local level but have a lack of effective mechanisms to reach this aim. They
needed some support and assistance of NGO, which are competent in the sphere of organizing
common work and dialogue between different counterparts and groups of society.
The most active social groups those are highly interested in achieving the task of self-organizing
within the local community are young people (14-20 years old) and retired people. There are 2 reasons
for that. On one hand these groups are very much dependant on situation in the community as they
spend here most of their time (study, spare time etc.). On the other hand these social groups have great
resource of time and energy to be involved in various activities within the community.
With the aim to organize and structure interaction and dialogue between different players in this
community Center “POST” with support of Counterpart Alliance for Partnership (USAID financing) in
year 2003 initiated establishing Public Club of Micro-region “Zahad” – special communication and
interaction platform both for local citizens and various structures and organizations functioning there
(local branch of Red Cross, Center of Social Assistance of Inhabitants, Children Creativity Club
“Harmony” etc.). It took about 2 years to reach first successes and build real interaction between
people and organizations oriented at the aim of community development.
About the organization
Public Union Education Center “POST” - non-governmental non-profit organization - established in
April, 1997. The main aim of activity of Center “POST” is development of individual autonomy and
social competence of Belarusian citizens through organizing and holding various educational and
community activation programs.
Since founding Center “POST” up to now there have been implemented more than 25 various projects,
held more that 250 seminars, trainings, study circles, camps and youth exchanges for teenagers,
students, specialists of education, social pedagogues, NGO leaders and local community activists.
Members of Center "POST" wrote and published 5 books about various aspects of educational activity,
pedagogic and youth work.
For more detailed information about Public Union “Education Center “POST”, please, visit our
website: www.post.adukatar.net
The goal
During discussions at open meetings of Public Club of Micro-region “Zahad” it was made decision to
liquidate an extreme lack of information about local issues and stimulate regular specially organized
situations when local inhabitants can aware themselves as representatives of this local community and
raise their interest and skills to influence local situation in micro-region.
After getting some experience of organizing with such an aim some local events – Festival of Elderly
People, Pancake Week Holiday, Youth Fest etc. – activists of Public Club suggested the idea to make a
huge event for thousands of people with great informational and promotion effect. The most adequate
form for that was organizing special local holiday - “Day of micro-region” aimed at:
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Providing maximum of information about micro-region and available services;
Demonstrating opportunities of self-organization at local level;
Providing possibility for self-determination about participation (or non-participation) for
various structures, companies;
Collecting information about problems and weaknesses existing in the community and
disturbing local citizens.
The idea of holding “Day of micro-region” was suggested already in winter 2004 and included into the
annual plan and budget of activities by local administration for September 2005.
Intervention description
In the beginning of August 2005 there was organized special meeting of Public Club where the idea of
holding Day of Micro-region was discussed in details. It was extremely important to organize this
event basing on non-customer approach i.e. to involve local citizens both in the process of preparing
and holding the holiday. Club activists decided to participate actively in organizing committee of the
holiday and take main responsibility in their hands. The basic concept of the day of Micro-region was
built on four main components:
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Exhibition of state, commercial and non-profit organizations and institutions that provide
different types of services for local inhabitants. It is hardly possible for local citizens to get
anywhere full description of services that are available in their micro-region. That is why such
exhibition is extremely valuable for liquidating this information deficit among local
inhabitants.
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Non-stop concert program of local groups and clubs at specially made scene. It was important
to organize this component of the holiday by using “local talents” and involve into this event
singers, musicians and dancers etc. who live in this micro-region. It is also a good opportunity
to give some real task and activate some creativity clubs, children circles etc. to show their art
to wider circle of people. Each local club, school, sport club after receiving invitation were
have to make their own decision about way of participation in the holiday.
Competition of ideas on the topic "What is necessary to make better in our micro-region". The
question about opportunities of people to influence situation in micro-region was regularly
discussed by local activists. Such a competition was suggested as a kind of organized feedback
from local citizen addressed to local authorities.
Publishing Special edition of Local bulletin "Zahad ХХI". In was necessary for wide
dissemination of information among citizens about various services and opportunities (public
transport system, physical training centers, hairdressers, shops, restaurants etc.) that are
available for them in the micro-region.
Organizing committee decided to act simultaneously in several directions. Local activists for 2 weeks
have knocked almost every door of all organizations and institutions that work in the community and
found out what these services can offer to citizens. At the same time local activists tried to find out the
interest of these organizations to take part in the day of Micro-region. All collected information was
systemized and suggested for special edition of local bulletin "Zahad ХХI".
Activists of Public Club in cooperation with coordinator from Center “POST” hold negotiations with
local administration about the format, the date and the place of the holiday. It was the most
complicated part of the whole preparation process as the date and the place were changing several
times. The most active role from local administration belonged to department of culture and
department of youth. It is necessary to say that the final date was defined only two weeks before the
holiday.
The last phase of preparation was a wide meeting of representatives of all organizations that decided to
take part in this event. All necessary decisions about the way of organizing exhibition, order of concert
performances etc. where made during the meeting.
Organizing such a big and laborious event required using rather wide specter of resources. It is
possible to admit some of the most important resources used for that:
 Resource of experience. Extremely valuable experience was gained by local activists during the
previous year thanks to organizing smaller events for different social groups of local citizens youth, retired people, children etc.
 Human resource – active citizens of the community, members of youth clubs, co-partners from
local partner organizations.
 Intellectual resource – innovative ideas, new methods of organizing different elements of the
fest.
 Sharing responsibilities between people for collecting information, spreading information,
technical aspects of organizing the holiday.
 Administrative resource. A lot of technical assistance (audio equipment, movable scene, fast
food points etc.) was provided by several departments of local administration.
The Day of Micro-region “Zahad” finally took place at the big market place square in one of warm and
sunny Saturdays of autumn 2005. Together with planned big activities local citizens had a lot of other
(sometimes improvised) opportunities to get the fresh look at their community, play chess in teams, get
first impression about Brazilian dance-wrestling Capoeira, meet with small and big animals at miniZoo, play children street games all together, buy some products of children art, sing favorite songs
with Karaoke etc. The final accord of the holiday was the concert of famous Belarusian music group
“Stary Olsa” playing national music from medieval ages. A lot of local citizens discovered their
community this day.
Results
According to observations of organizers there are more than 5 thousands local citizens visited a 5hours holiday – Day of Micro-region this day. Thanks to participation in this event Center of Art, clubs
for children and youth, organizations providing language courses found a lot of new clients, visitors,
participants. Local branch of Red Cross collected rather significant amount of charity donations.
It is also necessary to say a few words about suggestions and ideas for the competition "What is
necessary to make better in our micro-region" received from citizens. The total number of ideas was
more than 40. Local administration took and commented most of them with great enthusiasm as before
they didn’t try using such a way of communication with people. Write after the holiday some people
said “I regret very much that I didn’t write my own suggestion”.
There was also one more positive result for Center “POST”. Initiating and leading this holiday helped
our organization to become much closer to people and reach some level of popularity. Now a lot of
people living in the community don’t ask a question: “What kind of organization is Center “POST”.
Positive image of the organization is a great resource in situation of unfavorable environment for NGO
in Belarus.
But the most important results of this event were the eyes of people visited the holiday – kind,
interested, jolly, emotional, thinking etc. That was extremely important that people finally got a chance
to get a lot of interesting and necessary information about their own community.
Lessons learned
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To get result in community development and citizens participation activities it is necessary to
invest a lot of efforts, energy, enthusiasm and skills. It is even more correct if we talk about the
first steps in this work.
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Success in this work very much depends on the level of transparence and openness in
discussing questions and problems of local community both with ordinary citizens and with the
main players in the community. Communication is both the main tool for local community
development and citizens’ participation and the key process of this work. The more effective
multilateral communication is built within the community – the more productive activity for
people and solving local problems is provided.
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To suggest some new ideas and way of building and activating society it is vital to cultivate
another approach to building relations, cooperation and sharing responsibilities between
various community players and citizens at local level. Unfortunately this sphere of activity is
extremely conservative. Both local community and authorities look at the situation the way: “It
was always like that before, so why we should change anything?” In this circumstances the role
and influence of small and active local organizations that have a wide arsenal of innovative
ideas for community is of great importance for using it as an impulse for changing situation to
better.
Contacts information
This case was prepared by Ulad Vialichka and Alia Dziarhai - trainers of Education Center “POST”.
For your questions and comments please fill free to contact them at:
Public Union "Education Center "POST"
P.O. Box 63, 220028, Minsk, Belarus
Phone/fax: +375 17 298 16 59
E-mail: center_post@tut.by
Ulad Vialichka (Executive director)
Ala Dziarhai (Project manager)