annual report 2005Falkor is a small NGO based in Groningen, Netherlands. Since 200 we are...

Falkor I.C.Y Annual Report 2005 �

Falkor I.C.Y.

annual report 2005

European Voluntary Service BEM Youth Progressive ActionCentre IT & Activism Water & Youth

2 Falkor I.C.Y. Annual Report 2005

Contents

annual report 2005

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Colofon

About Falkor I.C.Y.

Falkor is a small NGO based in Groningen, Netherlands. Since 200� we are organi-sing, supporting and partici-pating in youth (exchange) projects in Europe and Caucasus. Themes of our projects and activities are: environment, human rights, independent media and youth culture. Also we provide informa-tion about these themes on our website, via our news emaillist and by making and distributing video documentaries.

Stichting Falkor I.C.Y (Inter-national Cooperation Youth)Established: 04-�2-200� in Groningen, NetherlandsFounders: Marij Kloosterhof, Janita Top Board: Theo Kurstjens, presi-dentPaul Giesen, secretaryHarm van der Veen, cashier

postal address: P.O Box �649970� BP Groningentelephone: office + 31 (0) 50-5890899e-mail: [email protected]: www.falkor.org

Annual report: text: Marij Kloosterhof, Janita Toplay-out: Janita Top

Stichting Falkor I.C.Y.- Gronin-gen -Bank nr. 9222�44 IBAN nr. NL52 PSTB 0009 222� 44 - BIC/SWIFT Code: PSTBNL2� address bank: Postbank Fo-reign Operations - P.O. Box 1800 - 1000 BV Amsterdam KvK: 02075681

Mission 3Aims 3Activities 4Falkor projects 5 EVS-project in Netherlands 5 TTT (IT & Activism) youth exchange 6 EVS-project in Georgia 7 BEM Youth Progressive Action Centre 8 EVS-project in Armenia �0Activities �2Publicity �6People �6Partner organizations �7

Falkor I.C.Y Annual Report 2005 3

Aims

Mission

Falkor is constructing and supporting an internatio-nal network of youth protecting the environment, protecting and developing independent media and active in human rights, antiracism, pro-tolerance issues and development of civil society in general.Falkor brings individuals and organizations into contact with each other through exchange projects and information services, with the aim to start and keep up cooperation in projects improving the environmental/social situation both nation-wide in different countries and region-wide throughout entire Europe including Caucasus.

�. To build the fundaments for successful cooperation bringing youth, active in environmental/human rights organizations and inspired individuals from Europe and Caucasus in contact with each other, forging partner-ships between Caucasus and European NGOs. A better mu-tual understanding between different cultures is the first, necessary step on the way to successful cooperation and implementation of projects.

BEM volunteers in Armenia 2. To find new, more effective, strategies to work for protecting the environment, human rights, to foster or be independent media, anti-racism and advertise tolerance, while working and relaxing together, learning from each other in our volunteer-exchange projects, and those offered by other NGOs. 3. To provide a larger audience (not youth only) with accessible, not seen in mainstream me-dia in Europe/Caucasus, news-items covering environmental and human rights protection, anti-racism, tolerance and youth culture. The larger audience reached will increase the atten-tion for (awareness-raising) and impact of (by readers acting in support) the issues published about. 4. To support youth, who are, or want to be more active in protecting the environment, human rights, anti-racism and pro-tolerance issues, who want to be (or to be supporting) independent media together with the bigger audience, “watching” through the network. 5. To share information about cultural life and activities in other countries (music, literature,films, theatre, small-scale tourism and more…) Better known makes more loved?


Activities

1. Falkor “contact agency” -locating active members of NGOs and inspired individuals, encourage, guide and train them in cooperation in the in-ternational network-connect NGOs with each other to forge partnerships

2. Falkor “volunteer-job-center” We implement exchange pro-jects under the YOUTH program of the EU (mainly “east-west” oriented projects) and send vo-lunteers/participants to projects implemented by other NGOs: -EVS: young persons gain expe-rience by volunteering for 6-�2 months in an NGO in another country, while the host organisations benefit from the skills, energy, new ideas and inspiration of the volunteers.-Young people visit another country or host a group of foreigners during one or two weeks and exchange knowledge, satisfy curiosity, do practical tasks, perhaps some action and relax!

3. Falkor “info-centre” -publishing and distributing news especially covering issues concerning youth, environment, human rights, independent media, anti-racism, tolerance and youth culture-publishing information about activities, conferences, meetings in Europe and Caucasus on our website and in our newsletters to encourage and guide young people from Europe and Cauca-sus to join in such events-providing online information not only with various ‘serious’ links, articles and reports, but also about cultural life and activities in other countries (music, films, theatre, literature,small-scale tourism and more…)-producing and and distributing video documentaries about the above mentioned subjects in Europe and Caucasus

4. Falkor “online-support facilitating the sending of support letters by fax or e-mail via our network of NGOs and media in case of pressing issues, in co-operation with the involved NGOs/ activists

Cooking during the TTT project


EVS-project in Netherlands

Falkor Projects

From the beginning of January 2005 until the end of March Fal-kor hosted the second Armenian EVS-volunteer of the project “Caucasus = Europe? Youth extending the European borders”.Due to visa requirements (3 months maximum) we invited two volunteers from Armenia successively for the period of 3 months each, instead of one for the duration of 6 months.Both volunteers, Arthur and Yeva, contributed well to Falkor’s projects and to the local community. They participated in presentations in dif-ferent cities, showed videos, told stories and played Armenian music. With them Falkor’s information about youth projects and youth culture in Armenia became more ‘real’ and alive to our public. This was one of our main aims with this EVS pro-ject. On the other hand, they managed well to inform themselves

about Dutch youth culture and initiatives, interviewed people and made a lot of photos and video’s to present in Armenia. They will use these ideas to develop new projects in their own youth centre.Both volunteers integrated well in the local community and made new contacts and friends. They joined a lot of social and cultural trips and activities with different people. Two presentations about Armenia have been held in the city of Groningen. The first started with watching the movie ‘Ararat’ (telling about the Armenian genocide) and was followed by a discussion with the audience. The second presentation was held during the ‘Caucasus Night’ in youth centre Simplon (see page �2). In the city of Wageningen Yeva gave a performance of Armenian music at a Student Benefit.

Yeva, the Armenian EVS-volunteer in Netherlands

leaflet of the movie-presentation


TTT (IT & Activism) youth exchange

From 24-31 July 2005, Falkor I.C.Y. has been organizing a youth exchange pro-ject for German, Romanian, Estonian and Dutch participants. This project took place in the city of Groningen located in the north of the Netherlands. The main themes were Information Tech-nology in relation with activism, youth and European citizenship. We tried to make a balance in the pro-gram between IT-subjects and other activities like sports, excursions, and dis-cussions and presentations about other subjects.This was both to make the program not too tiring, and because the level of IT-knowledge was very different per per-son/group.

The leaders and participants stayed in the legalized squatted community ORKZ, where we could sleep, cook, eat, use internet and party whenever we wanted. There was a lot of inter-action with the inhabitants of the community (250 people are living and working here). They liked it that we were there during the Aerials project in 2004 and we were also welcome du-ring this project. We could not give a concert for the inhabitants and other interested people this time, but we did organize an intercultural evening with food from the different countries and with videos on a big screen. The partner organizations were SAK from Estonia, TPN from Romania and FFF from Germany.

virtual reality presentation

Workshops/presentations, dis-cussions and excursions/tours were conducted on the follo-wing subjects:

IT/ Telecommunication/ Inter-net/ Media: - Linux/Knoppix - Open Source and Free Soft-ware (in combination with Windows) - Basic HTML (making a web-site) - Virtual reality demonstration in the Centre for High-Perfor-mance Computing & Visualisa-tion (HPC&V) in the university of Groningen - Visit to the ‘supercomputer BlueGene/L ‘, the 4th fastest computer in the world, in the university of Groningen - Indymedia websites (Nether-lands, Global and Romania) - IT and law (legislation in inter-net and email) - Software testing

- The ‘Social Positioning Me-thod’ (research by tracking mo-bile phone users’ movements and chararteristics)

Other subjects: - Tour in the legalized squatted community ORKZ - Wadlopen (walking in the sea) / visit to the seal rescue centre - projects and activities of TPN environmental NGO in Timisoa-ra, Romania - Juggling and acrobatics - Lacrosse (African team sport) - Animal rights - GMO & food production - EVS volunteer work - How does the YOUTH program (of the European Commission) work


EVS-project in Georgia

In September 2005 Dutch volunteer Nikolai Pushkarev started his EVS project in Georgia for six months at the HRIDC (Human Rights Infor-mation and Documentation Centre) in Tbilisi. The purpose of HRIDC is to defend human rights and ba-sic freedoms in Georgia. The HRIDC promotes civil educa-tion and supports the victims of human rights violations. They study the facts in cases of violations and spread this information. The HRIDC also has a corres-ponding database. Periodical-ly they translate and publish reports, manuals, directories, and information booklets.Their on-line magazine www.humanrights.ge focuses on a particular human rights con-cern and makes the relevant public authorities to under-take concrete actions to solve the problem. The magazine is updated daily and high-lights the human rights situ-ation in Georgia. Therefore, the magazine is designed not only for Georgian but also for the international community.

As a result of economic cri-ses, political turmoil and ethnic conflicts about 60-70 percent of the Georgian popu-lation lives below the poverty level. There is a big difference in development between the capital and the rural com-munities. In rural areas the problems with unemploy-ment, poor water supplies and energy crises are more severe. As a result of ethnic clean-sings, thousands of Inter-nally Displaced People (IDPs) moved to a different part of Georgia. People live in schools, kinder gardens and in administrative buildings. Since the ‘Rose Revolution’ took place in November 2003, a new government has been formed and a new president, Saakashvili, is ruling the country. Due to the reforms unemployment rate has even increased in the coun-try; vocational retraining of the unemployed has gained a particular importance. At the moment a lot of reforma-tions are taking place, also affecting the working environ-ment of HRIDC. As a result of Georgia being the former Soviet country there are many remains of the old system which contri-butes to the existence human rights violations, corruption and the civil society of Geor-gia has not yet been comple-tely formed.

Nikolai’s activities at or con-nected to the Human Rights Information and Documenta-tion Center in Tbilisi included:

-setting up a project for em-powerment of socially exclu-ded women with a local newly established women’s organi-zation; -compiling the Center’s annu-al human rights report 2005 on Georgia; -gathering information on a possible project on ethnic conflict resolution in the regi-ons;-assistance in English editing of informational bulletins;-writing some articles about subjects that Nikolai found most interesting himself.

Besides this HRIDC provided him the possibility to work on some other tasks of his per-sonal interest: environment. He has been active -together with CENN (Caucasus Envi-ronmental NGO Network)- in making two short documen-tary films, one on (il)legal woodcutting in Georgia and the other on river poisoning by a very evil company...

More info: see www.human-rights.ge


BEM Youth Progressive Action Centre

The BEM Youth Progressive Action Centre was founded in November 2004 initiated by Falkor. ICCO provided the neces-sary funding for the establishment of a functional infrastruc-ture.

The idea to start this centre evolved out of a need to involve Armenian youth in the future of their country so as to stop the brain-drain that is sending the most talented people out of the country, leaving it in a precarious position for the future.

The main goal of the project is to increase the opportunity for Armenian youth in building an active civil society. This will be done by giving them the tools needed to develop the initia¬tives they think are necessary for the future of Armenia.

BEM brings together young people, NGOs and anyone in-terested in independent media, civil society, human rights, activism, art and culture, subcultures, photography, films, environment, alternative lifestyles, and international exchange projects such as EVS.

The centre seeks to provide the information, the means and the tools necessary for the transition into a civic responsible lifestyle. Through support in the activities and creativity of the youth, BEM hopes to generate the mechanisms of democracy in the new generations.

BEM also provides space for Indymedia. Indymedia Armenia endeavours to empower people to become the media by presenting their own independent reports; to enable people to realize they can take control of other aspects of their lives that they previously left up to “experts” or “professionals”. To

make truly objective reporting, we create a place where many can report on events as they see it, and engage in discussions on any published articles in order to tell all sides of a story. All these are essential aspects of democratizing Armenian society, where media is semi-inde-pendent.

The start-up phase of BEM has been funded by ICCO, during the period of September 2004 until June 2005.The evaluation of the start-up activities has lead to chan-ges in organisational structure that we hope to implement in the second phase, yet to start. ICCO will be supporting the con¬tinuation of the BEM youth center for 2 more years with core-funding. Additional funds for projects are being raised.


In the first fase the following activities and projects have been realised. Concerning volunteers capacity:

A volunteer base was esta-blished and a network with other civil society NGO’s and active individuals;Trainings – 8 young people were trained on video editing, photo-journalism and project management. The training included both theoretical and practical parts, resulted in shaping trainees’ skills in photography, editing a video film on social problems and writing proposals for new funding.

Concerning cooperation with others:

Some volunteers participated in meetings were BEM was invited. Meetings at other NGO’s e.g. CSI and IDHR, 2�st Century Leaders, US Embassy and more. They got more and different information about society issues, opportunities for youth and civil society in Armenia;2 BEM members participated in the Ecotopia camp in Ne-therlands, 9 members and partners in the ‘Aerials’ pro-ject of Falkor in Netherlands, 2 went as EVS-volunteer to Netherlands, 3 members took

part in the seminar “Biking Beyond Borders” in Nether-lands, 2 members in the “N�0 conference” in Netherlands, and 2 Dutch EVS volunteers from Netherlands went to BEM for 6 months;As a result of the project, successful cooperation was carried out with a number of organizations, including ACCEA avant-garde cultural Center, The Club- restaurant and cultural complex, Cau-casus Media Institute, CSI, IDHR, National Center on Aes-thetics (Art-school), Civil Soci-ety Institute, 35mm.am photo site, BEKUM youth movement of individuals active in human rights sphere, Helsinki Citi-zens Assembly, 2�st Century Leaders etc; Also – BEM was invited to Ber-lin in November-January two

times for parti-cipation in two different activi-ties/exchanges organized by the Loesje Inter-national team.

Concerning BEM’s own activities:

Photo-exhibitions - 3 photo-exhibitions were organized in Yerevan to present young people’s attitude towards issues people face in their everyday life, cultural and social traditions of the Arme-nian society, role of a person in the society;Loesje posters – �5 young people participated in posting Loesje at the public places. Eight group actions on Loesje spreading were carried out in

Yerevan;Film screenings - several non-commercial films were shown at the BEM. Young people had an opportunity to collective watching and discussion on the film. Boosted by the film’s issues -globalization, gender, environment, role of society and individuals in the society- the discussions demonstrated the need of the youth to talk about issues they feel impor-tant in group discussions, to share their ideas and receive new inspirations;Indymedia website – a group of editors was established, materials for reporting pre-pared and the web-site cre-ated. Contacts were made with Indymedia Global net-work. Some BEM members participated in an Indymedia workshop in the Netherlands. Already 20 people became familiar with the concept of Indymedia. Also the collabo-ration with Caucasus Media Institute is refreshed and In-dymedia is presented to their journalist students; The BEM - Website was esta-blished and updated several times;T-shirts painting sessions with slogans in ‘ Loesje-style’ and BEM promotion were organi-zed ;A significant amount of video shooting was made on issues related to poverty, environ-ment and civil society. Video materials were prepared by BEM members and are in the stage of editing.

See also www.bem.am and http://armenia.indymedia.org/

�0 Falkor I.C.Y. Annual Report 2005

EVS-project in Armenia

From May until October 2005 two Dutch volunteers have been in Armenia for the EVS-project “Create Europe Yourself”. They have worked as a volunteer for six months in office of the BEM Youth Pro-gressive Action Centre. This centre was officially established in November 2004 and is building an ac-tive movement to foster the growth of civil society and effect positive change in hu-man rights, ecology and the social situation in Armenia, particularly among the youth. The BEM YPAC brings toge-ther young people, NGOs and anyone interested in inde-pendent media, civil society, art, photography, films, and activism. BEM stimulates young people to participate in their activities and programs by providing a space to come together and enjoy music, concerts, documentary and film-watching and making, and photography, while at the same time providing an outlet for artistic and journalistic im-pulses, as well as the training and facilities to realize those impulses.

The Dutch volunteers Marieke and Sanne have helped set-ting up the BEM-office and helped organizing activities, like a BEM-party to meet all the volunteers and film pre-sentations followed by discus-sions about several topics.Also they helped with fundrai-sing, being present in the of-fice to meet people and help volunteers with using internet and computers.They participated in a lot of lectures, seminars and dis-cussions at different NGO’s (CSI, IDHR, Summerschool for New Leaders) and went to

see art- and photo exhibitions (one of them from a BEM-vo-lunteer).Sanne participated together with a group BEM-volunteers in the “Ecotopia“ camp (in-ternational annual gathering of environmental activists) in Moldova in August. In Moldo-va she has given a workshop about EVS. Her personal project consi-sted of promotion of a better relation between Armenia and Turkey. Sanne collected pictures taken in Yerevan and took the same kind of pictu-res in Istanbul. These pictures together were formed into an exhibition called ‘two places’, which was shown in Yerevan. She also tried to establish a partnership with a Turkish NGO, to promote friendly connections between the two countries.

Marieke took part in the Se-minar “Youth making a step towards peace and mutual understanding” organized by ‘Young Georgians for Europe’ and held in Georgia in No-vember 2005. In relation to her task to work on the Indymedia Armenia

website, Marieke has refres-hed and established contacts with other individuals and organizations concerned with Independent Media or Civil Society in Armenia. They can help BEM in developing the IMC (Indymedia) and other plans, by giving advice, pro-viding volunteers and giving other assistance. They sho-wed a lot of interest in youth and BEM’s plans, sharing their information with BEM, and at the same time doing some promotion for BEM and the IMC. Also she gave recommenda-tions about restructuring the BEM website, and both Ma-rieke and Sanne have written articles for this website.Marieke’s personal project consisted of an initiative to give information about safe sex to Armenian youth. Toge-ther with BEM-volunteers she invented the ‘BEMdom’ con-doms with the BEM-logo on it, and distributed them in toi-lets at for example rock-con-certs. Also a BEMdom-book has been made, with funny and informative parts about safe sex, in a very special, eye-catching design.

Marieke and Sanne in Armenia

Falkor I.C.Y Annual Report 2005 ��

Some personal impressions from the volunteers:

Why not Armenia? ‘Why did you choose to come to Armenia?’, is a question we hear at least once a week. We usually say that ‘we didn’t choose Armenia, but Armenia chose us’. Six months ago we were both looking for an adventure abroad. We wanted to experience another culture by living and working in one place for several months. Then we saw the vacancy for two EVS-volunteers for BEM Youth Progressive Action Center. As it happened they looked for two Dutch people under the age of 26 that had time and interest to work abroad for six months in an NGO working with youth, civil society and independent media. There we were: both Dutch, 25 years young and wanting to work abroad in the field that BEM represented. Then we saw Armenia? ‘Romania’, people would say. –‘No, no, ARme-nia’. ‘Ah, where is that?’ Before applying we more or less knew where Armenia was, and also the Armenian Genocide rang a bell. But overall we didn’t know much about Armenia, and despite all the stories Falkor told us, we did not really have a clear image of the country where we would eventually go to. But we did want adventure, didn’t we? The first week we experienced a big culture shock. Soviet looking but chaotic Yerevan surrounded by mountains, and high tempered Armeni-ans speaking an impossible language, is obviously quite different from the flat, organized, familiar Netherlands. BEM volunteers took us on an on-arrival training and showed us Yerevan, Armenian culture, how to use marshrutkas (small mini-vans used as public transport), and… how to cross the road. It might sound funny, that you have to learn to cross the road at the age of 25, but definitely a necessity in Yerevan. Cars, marshrutkas and the lot are passing you in a high speed, ignoring traffic lights and avoiding the holes in the road. It needs some practice, believe us! After the on-arrival training Vahagn (BEM’s project director) introduced us to some partner NGOs. We participated in meetings at other NGOs, in a summer school on leadership, and in other seminars; we visited press-conferences about environmental issues, the constitution, and more. This was a very good way to get to know the insides of Armenia. We got to listen to different views on various Armenian issues, and got the chance to debate with other Armenians, also discussing about Armenian youth and the role of BEM. We got to know a lot of people: Armenian youth, journalists, people working in the field of civil society, environment and human rights. And everybody is showing a lot of inte-rest in youth and BEM’s plans. We work in several BEM-projects. Sanne went with BEM to Ecotopia in Moldova and is now doing research on youth in Armenia, and organi-zing ‘Loesje’ workshops (creative poster making and sticking, see www.loesje.org). Also she is figuring out how the connections with Turkey can be improved within youth organizations and - projects. Marieke is working on the BEM-website and is making some improvements (www.bem.am). She is also developing the independent media tool and doing promotion for that as well. Last but not least, we started the challenge of learning Russian which is a lot of fun. The first lesson Anna, our teacher, would talk a lot in Rus-sian and we would not understand any of it. Four months later, she still talks a lot, but fortunately we understand more day by day! BEM really feels like home (also because it is our home ;-)). The BEM-vo-lunteers and other Armenians are very kind, fun and inspiring. An expe-rience not to forget so we are more than happy that Armenia chose us! Marieke Kitzen and Sanne de Kieviet

The BEMdom-book


Activities

25 February: Participating and Workshop presentation at D’66 political meeting in Utrecht about Caucasus is-sues

Marij and Janita went to Utrecht to participate in a meeting organized by the po-litical party D’66 about Cau-casus. They invited people from different organizations, political parties and the go-vernment currently working in/with Caucasus, with the aim to get information about the region to be able to make a statement in parliament about Dutch interference in the region. There were sessi-ons on three subjects, human rights/democracy, environ-ment and corporate social responsibility, and crisis control and the relation with Russia. Falkor gave a presentation in the second session by sho-wing the video “Orphaned Sources” about radioactive waste in Georgia. After the video the subject was discus-sed and together with some other environmental issues reported to the central mee-ting.

31 March: Falkor & Nieuwe Garde ‘Caucasus Night’ in Simplon Youth Centre

Falkor and ‘Nieuwe Garde’ presented a Caucasus eve-ning in Cultural Youth Centre ‘Simplon’ in Groningen on Thursday 31 March 2005. “Nieuwe Garde” is a network of young creative people in Netherlands, with branches in Groningen and Rotterdam. They invited us to make this presentation, and helped with arranging the accomodation, technique and publicity.

(See also www.nieuwegarde.nl) The program consisted of: �. Introduction by Falkor 2. The idea behind Falkor: The Neverending Story, short pre-sentation by Yeva Sargsyan, Armenian volunteer for Falkor 3. Video documentary ‘Or-phaned Sources’, about ‘lost’ radioactive waste in Georgia 4. Video documentary ‘Aeri-als’, about the rock bands ex-change project in September 2004 with young musicians from Netherlands, Denmark, Georgia and Armenia 5.Presentation about Armenia and the recently openened ‘BEM’ youth cultural centre in Yerevan, Armenia by one of the initiators 6.Questions/discussion 7.Live music by Arthur Bar-seghyan and Yeva Sargsyan from Armenia

Assistance with fundraising and coordination of the Dutch partner group in the ‘Water & Youth’ exchange project in Armenia, August 2005

Falkor has assisted the Arme-nian NGO “Stepanavan Youth Center” in writing the pro-posal for the ‘Water & Youth” youth exchange in Armenia in August 2005, in cooperation with “ Erkyna Youth Group” from Greece and “Century 2�st from Georgia.

The project aimed to connect young people from developed and developing countries to share experience, develop knowledge and skills on en-vironment, water and sustai-nable development issues; as well as engage and empower them to advocate and partici-pate in solving local environ-mental issues, especially in water issues.The theme of the exchange project was water resources. Water is essential to sustain life and that the availability of water in quantities, and of a quality, sufficient to meet basic human needs is a prerequisite both for impro-ved health and for sustainable development.


The sub-themes of the ex-change project included: water situation in different European countries; water protection and sustainabi-lity; water-health impact and assessment; challenges and solutions for healthy drinking water supplies; water quality management, operation, and monitoring; soil and water protection qualities of trees; tree planting and nursing techniques and approaches. The project venue was Ste-panavan, a small town in the northern part of Armenia. International events are not usual in the town, where one of the local government stra-tegies is the development of tourism. This exchange interested not only specia-lists, non-profit organizati-ons, young people, but also local government and state agencies dealing with water issues.

From Netherlands 6 partici-pants and one youth leader, Tabitha van den Berg, went to Armenia.

Report of the project, Sep-tember �6, 2005 by Tabitha: “On the 23rd of August a group of seven Dutch youth, ages in between 20 and 26 got on a plane to Yerevan. Not the most logical place to go for a holiday and indeed, that was not were we were going. We participated in an international youth exchange

on water issues in Stepana-van, a lush, green Paradise in the North of Armenia. Twenty-eighth people from Armenia, Georgia, Greece and the Netherlands gathe-red during nearly one week to exchange their national

struggles with water safety, too much water or a lack of water. A wide variety of topics passed the conference rooms. From global climate change to Dutch dykes, from medicinal Georgian spring water to the pollution of the Debed river that flows from Armenia into Georgia. The days were filled with water. Though water was our main theme during these days, we also found time to see some of the beauty of the Lori re-gion, while visiting a weather station & the environmental impact monitoring center in Vanadzor. Some of Armenia’s ancient culture we witnessed on our visits to the Lori Bed fortress near Stepanavan and the Sanahin Monestry further up north. Apart from information we also learned some things about our different cultures. We now love Georgian Khad-japuri, practiced Armenian dancing (how come all peop-le from Caucasus have such a splendid sense of rhythm

and gracefull moving??), tried some Dutch energizers (sharks all over the place ;-)) and tried some excellent Greek barbecue. A week to remember. At our last day, we tried to contri-bute to the local environ-ment. Unfortunately, due to the rain it was not possible to exercise our original plan, a clean up (of waste) in the nearby river. However, we did not want to leave without making a little statement. So we painted a new type of traffic signs, to remind peop-le to take their trash home and not leave it lingering

around the picknick places near the river. Though there are many dif-ferences between our diffe-rent nations and between us young people from different cultures ourselves, we found we had a lot in common. Regardless of our different backgrounds, we all share a common hope; let us work and face the environmental problems together. Exchan-ges such as these all send us back home with renewed passion and inspiration to work towards a more sustai-nable world. “

Water & Youth project in Armenia


Establishing and registering the Georgian branch of Falkor

Since it appeared to be very difficult to register a real branch of the Dutch organisa-tion in Georgia (this has to go via Brussels so you need do-cuments in three countries), we have chosen to register a legally independent NGO in Georgia with approxima-tely the same name: “Falkor Georgia International Youth Union”. We have a charter in Ge-orgian and English and are registered at the Georgian ministry of Justice. The uni-on’s goals and objectives are mainly the same as of Falkor I.C.Y. The board consists of four Georgians and one Dutch person. Founders and members of the managing committee: Nata Kajaia (Chairman) Nino Gvedashvili Irina Kitiashvili Rusudan Chkheidze Janita Top The following activities are planned:-organizing projects and ac-tivities in Georgia for young people; -publishing information about activities, conferences, mee-tings in Europe and Caucasus on the Falkor website and in newsletters to encourage and guide young people from Ge-orgia to join in such events; -locating active members of NGOs and individuals, encou-rage, guide and train them in cooperation with Falkor Net-herlands and the internatio-nal network;-connecting NGOs with each other to forge partnerships; -sending volunteers/partici-pants to projects implemen-ted by foreign NGOs;-hosting volunteers/partici-pants from foreign NGOs to

take part in Falkor Georgia projects

Participation in ‘Projecten-markt’ Lokale Agenda 21, 15 September

On �5 September the ‘Lokale Agenda 2�’ bureau of the Groningen town authorities organized a meeting to pre-sent all succesfull projects they supported the last 2 years. They invited city offi-cials and all the people in-volved in the projects. Since we got support from LA2� for the BBB-seminar in Groningen in 2004, we were also invited. Our project was mentioned in a speech of one of the coordinators and in the project overview. There were speeches, work-shops, discussions and info-stands. Here we also got to know the Club van 2000-net-work, see next item.

Participation in ‘Develop Your World’ event in Groningen, 14 November (Janita, Marij and Lut)

On �4 November the event “Develop Your World” took place in Groningen. This is a

national information and trai-nings-event about internatio-nal cooperation organized by the ‘Club van 2000’, a Dutch network of young people inte-rested in international deve-lopment work.Falkor was also invited to give information about our projects and possibilities for young people to join. We had an “infostand” between main-ly much bigger organizations like Doctors without Borders, ICCO and Greenpeace. It was crowded with students asking information, looking though our publications and watching our videos. Apart from promoting Falkor, it was also a good opportuni-ty for us to speak with people from other organizations, like our donor ICCO.

Participation of Janita and Lut in training of COS, Groningen, November (fundraising, pro-ject planning)

On �9 November the “COS” Groningen department (Cen-trum voor Ontwikkelingssa-menwerking) organized a trai-ning and network meeting for people and organizations in

Falkor I.C.Y Annual Report 2005 �5

Groningen interested in deve-lopment projects. Janita and Lut were present. There were workshops about fundraising, project management and publicity/outreach. During lunch we spoke with some organizers and other partici-pants. Several people looked through the Falkor presenta-tion folder during the day and took home our leaflet. For us most interesting was to hear the experiences of other people and initiatives.

Participation in Contact Ma-king Seminar in Georgia (Janita)

Janita took part in the Contact Making Seminar “East Meet West, For Future To Europe”, held in Tbilisi, Georgia from December 14-18, 2005. There were participants from 20 different European countries representing 30 youth organi-zations. Apart from taking part in all meetings, presentations and games, Janita also showed the video about the “Aerials” exchange project that Falkor organized in 2004 in Nether-lands and in which also Ge-orgian and Armenian youth took part.

This meeting in Georgia also gave possibililty to visit our EVS-volunteer at the HRIDC.

Marij en Lut in the Falkor stand at Develop Your World event

Janita at the CMS in Georgia


People

Publicity

Staff: Marij Kloosterhof (projects, finances), Janita Top (projects, publicity, website)Board: Theo Kurstjens (president), Paul Giesen, Harm van der Veen

Besides the staff, volunteers from different countries are contributing to the activities of Fal-kor; they are responsible for e.g. translations, computer assistance, (technical) advice and financial administration tasks.Advisors: Willem Tjebbe Oostenbrink, Roel van den Bosch (Netherlands)

Volunteers:Netherlands: Willem Pinkaers, Eric Brinkman, Jasper, Nina Tchkheidze, Martin Lambeek, Lut van der Molen, Jitske Hoogenboom, Sanne de Kieviet, Marieke Kitzen, Tabitha van den Berg, Nikolai PushkarevGeorgia: Nino Gvedashvili, Rusudan Chkheidze, Bakur Burduli, Levan Asatiani, Madi Serebrya-kova, Nata Kajaia, Irina Kitiashvili, Giorgi KakuliaArmenia:Bella Avetisyan, Jemma Babayan, Armen Sargsyan, Henry Karagyozyan, Arthur Bar-seghyan, Vahagn Vardumyan, Aleksey Chalabyan, Angela Hakobyan US/Armenia: Mark Belinsky United Kingdom: Pippa Gallop, Benjamin DissHosting website: Menno van den Bergh (Stichting Ideeel Internet)

Since 2005 there is also a Georgian branch of Falkor, ‘Falkor Georgia International Youth Union’. The board consists of: Nata Kajaia (chairman), Nino Gvedashvili, Rusudan Chkheidze, Irina Kitiashvili and Janita Top

Articles:*‘Vrijwilligerswerk in Kaukasus’ in Dutch local newspaper ‘de Groninger Gezinsbode’, 18 Fe-bruary 2005*‘Eine Brucke zwischen Ost und West - Falkor International Cooperation Youth’, in German ma-gazine ‘FUI’, January 2005

Falkor projects and activities have been announced in newsletters and on websites of several organizations, e.g.: Club van 2000, LHUMP, Idealist.org, Nieuwe Garde, Driftig, Keigids Gronin-gen, Indymedia Nederland, ontwikkelingssamenwerking-doehetzelfhulp.startpagina.nl, ICCO.

Falkor I.C.Y Annual Report 2005 �7

Partner organizationsArmenia:BEM Youth Profressive Action Centre (initiative of Falkor I.C.Y.)BURG Youth Environmental CenterCaucasus Media InstitueEspaces youth centre YerevanHelsinki Citizens Assembly, VanadzorInternews ArmeniaREC infopoint ArmeniaStepanavan Youth CenterYnternet.org

Azerbaijan:Helsinki Citizens Assembly, Gandja

Czech Republic:Cycling and Energy FuturesWorld Carfree Network, Pra-gue

Denmark:Odense Youth House (‘Ung-domshuset’ )

Estonia:EHTE, TalinnEstonian Students Society for Environment Protection “Sorex”SAK

Georgia:Academy for Peace and Development (APD)

Caucasus Centre for Contem-porary ArtCENN Caucasus Environmen-tal NGO NetworkThe Union “Century 2�”Ertoba International UnionHelsinki Citizens Assembly, TbilisiHuman Rights Information and Documentation Centre (HRIDC)The Regional Environmental Centre Caucasus (REC C)

Greece:Erkyna Youth Group

Hungary:Young Greens (Zofi)

Moldova:Association European Youth Exchange

Netherlands:Action for Solidarity, Equality Environment Development (Aseed)European Youth Forest Action (EYFA)KeyoneMilieudefensie GroningenMilieukontakt Oost EuropaGroningen One WorldGroverpop

Vereniging Milieudefensie Amsterdam (Friends of the Earth Netherlands) World Information Service on Energy (WISE/Laka)

Poland:Green Federation Warsaw

Romania:TPN - Tinerii Prieteni ai Naturii

United Kingdom:Baku-Ceyhan Campaign, Ox-ford

Ukraine:SVIT, Ukraine

Links to their websites are on http://www.falkor.org/organi-sation/partners.html

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