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Description
In our rural region, Iara commune, there is a lack of involvement in the life of the community and limited knowledge of its citizens in fields such as democracy and its particularities, active participation in political processes, right to vote and a good governance regarding the functioning of the Local Council and the public administration. Unfortunately, most of the citizens from our community are not aware about their rights and obligations and are no longer active in the community life. The objective of this project is to increase the civic involvement, the democratic culture and to stop the discrimination based on race, gender and sex in our community, by involving its citizens in activities such as workshops about fake news, active participation, democratic culture, equality and freedom etc. Through the event A Day in the town hall of Iara, young people will meet the decision-makers and discuss the problems of the community, the Civic Involvement activity that follows the development of active participation through volunteering activities such as painting fences and collecting trash in all 13 villages of Iara commune. The "Community Pavilion" activity will provide a physical space of interaction between the community members trough movie nights and thematic debates. Last but not least, the "Civic Involvement Handbook" will be created and will include the topics tackled in our project such as “what does civic involvement and mission as a citizen mean”, “democracy”, “equality and freedom”, “how the state and local institutions work”, “transparency between the city hall and the citizens”, “the power of the media and fake news”. The handbook will be distributed among schools, libraries and citizens of our community. We estimate that a number of 500 people will become more responsible and will get involved in the community life, as a result of this project. Also, our direct beneficiaries, 35 young people, that will be involved in all the activities of the project
Summary of project results
PP held 10 thematic workshops with 35 young people enrolled in the project, had guest speakers and created a presentation with 5 problems identified by the 35 young people in the community. Afterwards they presented the 5 problems at a meeting of the City Council of Iara, where 5 young people negotiated with the councilors and obtained a donation from the mayor''s office of a playground for children that they installed. Within I am involved in my community activity(A5) they undertook voluntary actions in the 13 villages of the commune through which mobilized a number of 28 direct beneficiaries and 26 volunteers. Together they painted the fences of elderly/vulnerable people, playgrounds for children, the gates/doors of places of worship. Within community pavilion activity(A6), 4 film evenings were organized, with 52 participants, on environmental and bullying themes, who, after viewing, also took part in debate sessions with representatives of the town hall and the school in Iara. A Manual of civic involvement was produced that was printed in 450 copies that were distributed in the Iara commune. In the last month of the project the team managed to organize the closing event of the project on 29.05.2022. 476 people participated in the event, of which 121 children participated in sports competitions. 27 participating direct beneficiaries were awarded and the small children enjoyed an inflatable slide provided by the municipality. Through the activities of the project, they fulfilled their objectives, had a positive impact on the direct beneficiaries, created a group in which they discussed the problems of the community, thus the degree of civic involvement of the young people in Iara commune increased exponentially. They have identified an increased cohesion between community members, children, young people, local dissidents, etc.