Kreisau Times #1

- By Milena Kula

Sustainability is one well-sounding buzz-word that eve-ryone agrees to. Today, most political parties, enterprises, and NGOs point out their efforts towards sustainability in brochures and image films. If sustainability is not just a mere marketing concept, what does it actually mean?

From the 16th to 23rd of November, 2013, young journalists, students and hobby bloggers came to-gether in Krzyżowa, Poland, to discuss the themes of sustainable development in regard to alternative liv-ing concepts in Western Poland.

The project, named “Young Journalists on Tour”, provided a meeting place for young people from Ger-many, Poland, Moldova and Ukraine to discover the topic of sustainability, learn journalistic techniques, and apply them.

In a 2-day research trip to Wrocław and the sur-rounding area, the participants had the possibility to gain an impression of a Polish alternative way of life, as well as broaden their knowledge on topics like gentri-fication, urban development, ecological farming and ecotourism.

A Search for Sustainability

Kreisau Times #1 1.

2. #1 Kreisau Times

“Nadodrze”- roughly translates to “by the river”. This district of Wroclaw lies north of the city center and thus, near the Oder river. After the second world war, the former German city “Breslau” became the Polish city “Wroclaw”. Thousands of people left their homeland behind; Germans moved from the Silesian area whereas Poles from the area Lviv (now Ukraine) to the deserted streets of the former Ger-man city.The push for development from the state has given the population little chance in deciding their fate. The renovated buildings cause rents to rise through the district, which in turn causes traditional arts and crafts shops to disappear, unique professions and specialized shops to go bankrupt and replac-es traditional services with chain shops. Furthermore, the poorer social groups feel endangered and driven out of their respective homes, giving them no choice but to leave the district. This process, also known as gentrification, is a well-known phenomenon throughout Europe – but can it be stopped? Find out on page 14.

Source: www.artystycznenadodrze.pl

Kreisau Times #1 3.

Wrocław /Nadodrze

Nowina

Our project blog: y j o t . t u m b l r. c o m

“Krzywy Komin - Centre For Professional Development” harbors five professional workrooms for arts & crafts and photography, a design studio, two rooms for theoretical training, a theatre, concert hall, and two exhibition galleries. A motivated employee, Kuba Żary, meets us at the entrance to give us a guided tour of the extensive grounds. The aim of this Centre is the promotion of educational and cultural activities, especially in the fields of design, new media skills, photography and management. Read more on pages 15 and 16.

What does sustainability actually mean? And what does Journal-ism have to do with it? Read about this on pages 4 – 6

During the project social, economic and environmental devel-opment was the main focus. Thus, the participants delved into the advancement of the Nadordze district in Wroclaw and the ecotourist farms present around the Wroclaw area. These two aspects enveloped the topics of restoration and gentrification as well as simple living and ecological farming. Read about a farmer-traveller with a very unique approach to sustainability – page 7

Krzyżowa

Published byKreisau-Initiative e.V.Vinzenz Kratzerc/o Allianzan den Treptowers 312435 Berlinwww.kreisau.de

Project Partner Organizations:Kreisau-Initiative e.V. www.kreisau.deFoundation “Krzyżowa” for mutual under-standing in Europe www.krzyzowa.org.plYoung Journalist’s Center of Moldova www.ctj.mdEuropean Dialogue Society www.dialog.lviv.ua

Text editor: Milena KulaLayout: Liubov ZakharovaTeamers: Agnieszka Cwieląg, Anna Preis

Supported by:Friedrich Stiftung, Youth in Action Programme of the European Union

Our project blog: www.yjot.tumblr.com

4. #1 Kreisau Times

- By Violetta Iaroș

Situated in the southwestern region of Poland a charming village named „Krzyżowa” leaves no visitor indifferent. Although the village is tiny-it has an ap-proximate population of 220- it surprisingly shares a lot of beauty and harbors a positive attitude to sus-

tainable development. Here is a quick look at the facts.

Besides being surrounded by green parks that are always clean and groomed, the Foundation „Krzyżowa” for Mutual European Understand-ing seperates waste into three categories: plas-tic, glass and other waste. Employees in the PR Section and Education Centre of the Foundation are trying to implement sustainable practices as much as possible. Apart from recycling, the Foun-dation received money from different German and Polish institutions, as well as the European Union, to renovate the garden house, a build-ing on the estate that was left untouched so far, in a sustainable way. Thus, they put solar panels on its roof to collect solar energy, a wind mill in the garden to collect wind energy and a special reservoir for collecting the rainwater to flush toi-lets with instead of using tap water. Krzyżowa is also a pioneer of sustainable development in the educational sphere. The village is the site of an International Youth Meeting Centre, the largest section of the Foundation, which primarily brings young people together for dialogue and educa-tional programs.

The Foundation in this little village is an example for many other big cities and even countries. It makes many people think about the way they live, about the future and their attitude on life and earth’s gifts - as it made me.

The Foundation Krzyżowa - a promoter of sustainable development

Kreisau Times #1 5.

- By Daniela Pelin

“Inspiration comes from something that touch-es hearts. These people have touched my heart!”

Holding an interview or writing a portrait is a usual task for each journalist, not an easy one, but definitely a part of the daily job. That is why none of the participants involved in the “Young Jour-nalist on Tour” project in Krzyżowa were surprised or scared when our trainers gave us the first task: to find the most interesting person in the group and later to write a portrait about this person. The first reaction was like: “Ok! Another interview with a person whose activities don’t really interest me”. Now I laugh every time I remember those thoughts.

The trainers gave us some time to describe our-selves by making brief portraits in order to facili-tate the process of choosing a person for the inter-views. In just 30 minutes the wall in our work-room was full of attractive papers with paintings, sto-ries and collages. The next step of the activity was reading each other’s “masterpieces”. That moment I felt happy, because the first person I read about seemed to me so interesting, that I thought: “I’m so lucky, I found the person to interview on the first attempt!”. But then I read about another per-son’s profile, and another one, and I became con-fused, because all of those young and unknown people had so many talents and such an original perspective on life, that I wanted to know them all.

Finally the most interesting part of the activity started: everybody chose his “interview subject” and divided into groups of two. I was lucky to work in a group of 3 persons, because the two others, just like me, were eager to discover more not about just one person. That is how Krzyżowa became filled by a talka-tive, sociable, hard-working and creative atmosphere. Some chose to remain in our “class” – room, some sat on the sofa in the hall and exchanged questions, some worked on the interviews drinking a cup of tea.

My two colleagues (friends) and I decided to have a walk to the House on the Hill. We didn’t want to conduct this activity in such a serious question and answer form, so we just discussed. We talked a lot. Firstly about ourselves, about previous experiences in international projects, about our daily life, and gradually we passed to such subjects as stereo-types and if it is possible to break them or not, his-tory, generations and the meaning of life. I found out a lot of surprising things about people who were with me on the project for several days already. The main thing which I was sorry about is that I wasted so much time before that task. We all wasted that time we could have used to discover each other.

Despite of the fact that we made the portrait of only one person, I am glad that I had this oppor-tunity to get to know a little bit more about them both. My friend V., who is a creative PR manager, shared with me her open-mindedness and enthusi-asm for everything new, while from T., “the historian”, I’ve learned to look at everything from a different point of view, to avoid the abstract way of think-ing in my professional life and to always be myself.

During that walk, I felt free…free to ask, free to an-swer, to discuss, to debate and to find out. I felt happy, because I was inspired…inspired, by knowing them, by our debates, by new answers which I found to old questions, by nature which is so silent and mysterious there, by them – by the people who touched my heart!

Journalists – in action: about people who inspire

6. #1 Kreisau Times

- By Yana Horiunova

For one week in Krzyzowa we studied sustainable development and discussed possibilities of its imple-mentation in our countries as well as successful and unsuccessful examples of completed projects. Dur-ing this time “something” started in my country. This “something” has various names: protest, revolution, revolt, attempt of coup, etc. This “something” gained attention of millions of Ukrainian people with only a few indifferent ones. One can hardly find those who haven’t reacted to this topic – positively or negatively. “Euromania” has touched everyone.

So this exact “euromania” revealed one interesting thing to me – sustainable development doesn’t exist in our country. And it has never existed despite mul-tiple projects, implementation of micro-grants and joint initiatives with European countries. Develop-ment must have one important element – a starting point. This starting point can’t exist in the air and be set by one person or even by a number of people. It cannot lie on one plane – economic, social, cultural or any other. It must be universal.

The European Union way of development started from a purely economic union, where nobody talked about “European values” and political integration. At that point the discussions were about coal and steel; and about peace provided by joint control over this market. Years passed. The European Union turned into a whole mechanism which unites more than two doz-en countries, permeating their economies and erasing borders for people. All this has become possible at that moment, when the situation in Europe eventually sta-bilized and reached the point of control and thus pre-dictability. This allowed looking ahead; first in terms of economy, and later in terms of other issues as well.

Ukraine is the country which has not reached a point of stability since its 22 years of independence. Ukraine is the country where budget shortages are compen-sated by all means, and resources are pumped out with no reference not just to the future, but even to the next hour.

Now, thanks to European grant projects our old school buildings have plastic instead of steel windows, we have a bunch of campaigns such as “Let’s plant a tree!” (while parks are replaced by building grounds), or “Let’s clean the river side” (while the closest village suffocates from unsanctioned waste disposals be-cause of accumulating solid wastes from the entire city and no recycling plant for years). Then people experi-ence quite justified discord: what are we doing if this is a right thing, but it doesn’t work? What shall we fix? Shall we continue doing this while hoping to improve the situation by sustainability or, to say it simpler, with stubbornness? Or shall we leave it as it is? Or do we have a third option?

Sustainable development does not exist and has never existed in the Ukraine. From the very moment of independence our country experienc-es a pretty sustainable regression, decorated with gewgaw and pompous celebrations. The only ac-tivity which has always brought results is educa-tion. Thousands of people who TALKED to others around the country about challenges, taught to use information properly and filter it, taught to protect their rights and rights of others – have proved to be the most effective engines leading to positive changes - the process which so far leads us to the starting point.

In our country this starting point is – zero. An ab-solute black hole which has been sucking us in all these years to make us understand that life as well as a country can’t be successful with no efforts. Yet even after realizing that, we keep rolling down. Thus our “sustainable development” has proved to be the thing it always used to be – an ad hoc, ide-alistic, and a very naïve campaign. A campaign of the entire country. However, at this very moment, all of us realized our mistakes and recognized op-pressive hopelessness of one-day campaigns. At that very moment the internal social development started; development of a society which longs for changes. And this means that the country will soon arrive to its own starting point. Otherwise it simple ceases to exist.

Sustainable development in unsustainable country

Kreisau Times #1 7.

- By Timofej Feodorets

Leave the city where you were born and grew up is not easy. And leave the city for the sake of the village, where there is nothing except old barn houses, fields and animals seems almost utopian. But it is reality. These people live among us. They are all over the world, the richest and poorest coun-tries. Let me introduce you to one of these people.

Jurek Trawiński - modern Polish farmer with his own history. Now he is 51 years old, he was born on the outskirts of Wroclaw (city Sroda Slas-ka), when he grew up he lived in Wroclaw and Gdansk, but 25 years ago he decided to change his life and came to a small village Nowina and stay here. What was the reason for leaving a large and wealthy city for a small poor village? “The desire to live a simple life near nature” – answers Jurek.

During this time a lot has changed in the life of the farmer. He built a guest house, started farming, raised his daughter, his grandson was born. Agriculture was truly a way of life for this man. Currently, his farm con-sists of a goat and horse farm. He also grows pump-

kins and black currants, which feeds the farmer and his family. Jurek Trawiński is the perfect example of a man actively living the concept of sustainable de-velopment, as he tries to live as simply as possible, using environmental material and products. In addi-tion to his farm he finds trash such as old mirrors in landfills and reuses them. Jurek gives them a new life - part of an advertisement becomes the element of external decor, an old Russian street plate becomes the new name of the house - that old bus becomes a place of rest, and many others things which seemd to have reached the end of their life. And to the question on what is most difficult in your life the responsible farmer answers philosophically. “The hardest thing in life - to be a good person. Everything else is detail. “

A fascination of this man is traveling. As a Pol-ish farmer, he devotes two winter months to traveling. He has already been to places in Eu-rope, Africa, and Latin America. He doesn’t write a book, but send his friends letters from his experi-ences from different countries. I could talk end-lessly about this man. You can find some flaws in his personality, but nobody is perfect. Because in the end, Jurek Trawinski is a person that inspires.

Jurek Trawinski - a man who inspires

8. #1 Kreisau Times

SteveAnna, trainer Anastasia

Johanna

Daniela

Bohdan Halyna

Roman

Hrystyna

Corina

Kreisau Times #1 9.

Olena Violetta

Olga

Milena Luisa

Timofej

Yana

Agnieszka, trainer

10. #1 Kreisau Times

- By Corinna Morozan

“Do you know where the end of the world is? Did you find your paradise?” So I was asked by a farmer from Nowina, Poland. He has built a house from purely organic materials, he is a vegetarian for 30 years, has seen the whole world, his house is a museum with items collected from different countries and he is free because he feels free. Jurek Trawiński, this is the name of the farmer, who lives in a small village with only 60 inhabitants and has founded his ecotourism farm in his community 15 years ago.

Half an hour from the city Wroclaw, Nowina vil-lage, which in translation means “something new”, looks like a piece of land isolated from civiliza-tion. It’s hard to imagine that someone could live here, away from the noise and bustle of urban ar-eas. Reaching the destination, journalists from four countries, Poland, Moldova, Germany and Ukraine were greeted with green tea and a good words at a round table. At the entrance I came across an in-scription in Hebrew and English, “The guest is God”. Caught in a million questions, Jurek, the man who lives on Красный партизан street, tells us how he began to adopt an ecological lifestyle, to establish ecotourism in his village and work throughout the world.

Ecological house, torn from Andersen’s storiesAround 15 years ago, he lived in the city, worked in

a zoo, at the post office, all just for experience, shelter and food. Finally, he realized that the city steals his time. For 25 years, Jurek lives in Nowina. He built his house by himself, just from pure organic and recyclable materi-als such as chaff, clay, straw and wood. All around the house, you come across inscriptions that capture your attention. He doesn’t necessarily believe in all quotes himself, but leaves the guest to find one for himself.

Every corner of the house is crowded with objects collect-ed from around the world or found in the trash. “People throw away things they do not use anymore and I collect them and bring them home”. Curious objects from Africa, Asia, South America, all can be found in his house, which in the mean-time has turned into a small museum. In the backyard we can find an old bus that looks like a terrace. Jurek also owns 14 hectares of land for his animals and horse riding.

Eco art workshops and tranquilityFor tourists, Jurek proposes some rooms and time

...a lot of time. Jurek ‘s property are for those who want to flee, to escape from the crowded cities. In the menu, the guest house owner uses only organic natural prod-ucts. Soup from pumpkin, raspberry jam, black tea, green tea, all these you can find in “партизан’s” house.

The value of freedom is heaven on earth

Kreisau Times #1 11.

“There are many visitors from Wroclaw and be-yond. I have a good reputation. People know me. In Amsterdam, I was part of an international or-ganization of farmers. There, I made many con-tacts. I have profile on facebook . Especially in summer, we organize workshops related to art, performances, yoga classes and various artistic activities. Who wants to find me….finds me”, says the owner of Nowina ecotourism guest house.

An organic lifestyle requires money, even if Ju-rek’s principles are not related to money. He sells organic products to a few restaurants in Wro-claw, being the sole provider of pumpkins. “Mon-ey might bring happiness, but not always, you are more independent with it, but it depends on the thinking and values that we have,” says Jurek.

Poland is my paradise In the summer he works, but in the winter he

travels around the world. He doesn’t begin his road without some change in his pocket. Jurek is in love with the lifestyle of people from poor countries.

“I have two great passions: agriculture and travel. From December to February I dedicate my-self to traveling. I love poor countries like South Africa. It fascinates me how people lived before, to see that many have not changed or vice versa, it is a process of change. I love how simple their life is. They are poor, do not have money, but they don’t have a poor soul. They have no materi-al goods, but they have families, have time, smile every day, they are open, hospitable. It’s good to be with and work with such people”, says Jurek.

Asked if he travels alone, Jurek told us that in Africa you never feel alone. “When I’m gone, I miss home. Poland is my paradise. When you travel and see new people, new homes, you become richer” ,he adds.

Yes ... I am a FREE man!Jurek has seen a lot, many countries and civi-

lizations and could write a book. “Still not the time!”, Jurek told us. He knows four languages: Polish, Russian, English and Spanish. He says that life has taught him more than a college education. “I like to write letters to friends, take pictures, I have about 2000 by now. I do not write books, but I like to write about my trav-els. I can also write a letter to you”, smiles Jurek.

“The most important for me is freedom, and yes ... I am a free man. I’m not a religious man, but I do believe in Angels. Angels have no connection with religion. You also can be an angel! A few years ago I was in Russia on the border to Mongolia visiting a Tibetan monk together with a friend who is a jour-nalist. The journalist asked him if it’s hard to follow a monastic life, which the monk replied to that being a good person is more difficult. My philosophy is, “do not look back, look in the future,” Jurek says firmly.

I love a simple lifestyle, without stress ...He graduated from the school of agricul-

ture, his parents were teachers and let Ju-rek choose the way of life close to him.

“For the life I have, my conscience always tended. I lived few years in Wroclaw, Gdansk, but in the end I decided to come to live here. Here, I find harmony. I like this way of life, slowly and simply, without stress, I wake up on Sunday morning, no one controls me, I can milk the goats at 8, but I can do it at 10 as well .... not a problem for them, neither for me”, Jurek says, smiling.

In the hope that other residents from the vil-lage will share the same way of life, Jurek pre-sents environmental advantages of such a lifestyle. “Some people are difficult to convince. Youngsters dream to run from the village, but some, from big cities, come here to seek refuge”, he adds.

Asked if he visited Republic of Moldova, Jurek told us that he was once, 8 years ago. He partici-pated in the festival “Ecotopia “, which took place in 2005, in the village Saharna. The festival gathers activists each year supporting ecological lifestyle.

12. #1 Kreisau Times

- By Luisa Meyer The quarter Nadodrze was once one of the

poorest parts of Wrocław. Nowadays, Nadodrze is a good address for those who are looking for art galleries, individual shops, arts and crafts. One of the people who actively take part in the process of revitalisation is the artist Mariusz Mikołajek. He offers art workshops at the organization Kontury Kultury.

The door to the atelier is almost invisible behind colourful graffitis. Mariusz Mikołajek welcomes us warmly, the ladies even with a scratchy kiss on the hand. Then he shows us his abstract paintings, some of them bigger than 2x2 meters. Sometimes, he uses wood or denim jeans cloth instead of canvas. His own jeans and shirt remind of his paintings with all the flecks of colours.

Mikołajek uses different techniques. Bleached denim makes the material bright. Applied wax lets the painted bodies look dynamic. Some pic-tures show Catholic motives such as the figure Mary. The small crucifix over one door and the rosary on Mikołajek’s neck reveals us his strong belief. Other paintings depict fluid people, more similar to jointed dolls than to passer-bys on Wrocław’s streets. The paintings give the im-pression of colours leaking out of the bodies. The faces are without expression, but the col-ours and shapes can inform the observer a lot. Mikołajek does not want to give the observers a finished interpretation of his pictures. “It is up to the person to interpret them”, he says - “and it is all about the emotion”. The emotions might last even some years. Hanging on a wall in a living room, the painting can look very different after 15 years of observation.

Painted Portraits in the Backyards of Nadodrze

Kreisau Times #1 13.

The artist is very committed to the changes go-ing on in Wrocław’s district Nadodrze. This part of the city has become more and more revalued. Buildings are being renovated, galleries and craft shops open. The choice of the European Union to make Wrocław the cultural capital in 2016 acceler-ated these changes a great deal.

It is not to expect that in Wrocław a process of gentrification will take place in the same way as in Neukölln and Kreuzberg in Berlin or like in Mont-martre in Paris: Most of the flats and houses are owned either by the municipality or by private own-ers. That saves Nadodrze from increasing rents and inhibits driving out the poorer inhabitants. Further-more, the citizens don’t wish their quarter to be-come a touristic attraction. But gentrification is still a threat.

In the process of revitalisation, many NGO’s and foundations start to offer workshops for the inhab-itants. One of them is “Kontury Kultury”. This organ-isation has won a grant for the best NGO that gives them the possibility to offer a diverse program. Mikołajek teaches people from Nadodrze how to paint. These free workshops aim to help the inhab-itants to create and write down an own identity.

To attract people for the workshops and to make Kontury Kultury better known, Mikołajek started a happening with two of his artist friends. They went into the backyards and offered the people to paint, photograph or draw them - for free. Dur-ing this project, Mikołajek always tried to make the people look as good as possible. No wonder that a 60 year old women looked like a 20-year old on his painting. And by taking an hour time to por-trait a drunken, homeless man, he sets an example against discrimination.

The artist thus gained access to the lives of his mo-tives. Some even invited him into their flats.

When Mikołajek speaks about his art workshops, he appears enthusiastic. He describes some amaz-ing experiences with young people who discov-ered their creativity and got to know each other very well within the project time. And he tells us about drug addicts who succeeded in abstaining from drugs after the workshop or even started to study art.

Many pictures in the atelier are not finished yet. The artist often turns them around and continues later with them, to give them the last shine and de-tails. Knowing when a painting is finished is like knowing a child’s birthday or knowing when you are happy: a matter of intention. Mikołajek says that in his paintings, one can see also the atmos-phere present in Wrocław, especially the openness of the city.

“Art can unite”, Mikołajek asserts. He has an uto-pian imagination of how art can touch everybody and even have a good influence on politics and de-mocracy. The artist appeals not to chose the wrong priorities. Compared to a new TV or a new car, deep human relationships have a much bigger value. “Even if you owned all newspapers and magazines in a country, don’t make yourself into a person that you can’t look at in the mirror every morning”, he advises us. Brotherhood instead of competition is his motto.

Mikołajek turns around his pictures. He will continue painting later on. The paintings are still waiting for the last details and the moment in Mikołajek’s intuition that tells them that they are finished. Today, Mikołajek will probably not paint much anymore: some friends visit him in his atel-ier. It is obvious: this artist prefers deep relation-ships rather than rivalry.

14. #1 Kreisau Times

- By Steve Naumann Nadodrze´s backyards have been closed worlds for

a long time. Although some of them seem big enough to house a football field, nothing has really changed here since the first polish inhabitants settled down in this district of Wroclaw in 1945. It was one of few the quarters that did not get destroyed during the war.

Fifteen minutes by walk from Nadodrze, on the main square of the city are ten thousands of people on their way for a coffee, to work, for sightseeing the unique architecture or – now before christmas – walking threw the christ-mas market. In Nadodrze, a few kids kick a ball through one of the graffiti painted entrances to the giant backyards. An older woman is look-ing out of her window on a chaotic parking place and a dustbin since a long time already.

But recently small changes appeared – the first improvements after decades of stagnation. In the last years small green areas, new pave-ments and some children playgrounds have been built in the district. These changes are ac-companied by boards, pointing out the Eu-ropean Union and the City of Wroclaw as the source of finance. This revitalisation is planned and described in the “Masterplan of Nadodrze”.

Till now, those changes happen slowly and are still quite superficial, sometimes the new gar-

dens even have to deal with robbery. For ex-ample in the backyard of the Łokietka5, a cen-tre for integrative quarter development, young trees were planted. They were dug out by thieves after a couple of days and probably sold.

The conditions for development are difficult here, but rough and close to life – its a source of inspiration for various groups. NGO´s try to give the inhabitants a voice and a platform to make them understand their voice in decision-making concern their urban surroundings. They also pro-vide personal training courses for free and connect bad running businesses of traditional tradesmen with young creative university absolvers. The artist Mariusz Mikołajek collects the faces of Nadodrze on portraits and dreams of gracing one of the backyard with paintings of all inhabitants. On the other hand, the municipal government has a dif-fuse vision of some kind of Montmartre. First real estate businesses try to buy houses and drive out the inhabitants in order to renovate them and sell single apartments for a huge profit. The activists of Akcja Lokatorska fight for dignified living condi-tions in Nadodrze and fear “gentrification”, the just mentioned dailing of estate businesses. Its a devel-opment that has happened in many cities before.

All parties agree that something must develop in Nadodrze and all parties believe that something will develop. The struggle is about the character of that development ... will the wide basis of integra-tive projects aiming sustainable social development leave its mark in the quarter or will the developing Nadodrze attract incomers who realize there own profits without regard for the currant inhabitants.

The elaboration of a big “Masterplan” is sure-ly rash, motivating – but not more than a sym-bol for rich incomers, if not accompanied by a straight policy orientated to the needs of lo-cals. Renovating backyards and supporting a few initiatives with premises and small money will not be enough, if investors will be able to sell out the apartments of whole houses to a fi-nancially stronger clientèle as already observed.

Nadodrze has the masterplan?

Kreisau Times #1 15.

- By Halyna Chop

Seniors are the people who made our past and built the base of our actual life. Seniors are smart and nice. We love them and we want to support them. But usu-ally they find themselves on the roadside public life. Especially when we talk about post soviet countries. I want to describe this problem from the Ukraine’s side.

When you go on pension in Ukraine you disappear from public life. Everybody thinks that you are not useful anymore. The seniors in Ukraine become invisible persons after they retire from their hard work. They have no possi-bilities to be part of the social or cultural life in the Ukraine.

Meanwhile in other countries the seniors are very ac-tive. They have saturated entertainment and possibili-ties to learn something new. For example in Wrocław I visited a computer class which was created especially for seniors. In this class, many of them can learn the ba-sic rules of working with a computer, using social net-works or trying to write the first e-mail of their lives.

Elwira Mazyrkiewicz from NGO Kilo Kultury said that the seniors are very interested to join the virtual life. “They become closer to their children and grandchil-dren. They can write them e-mails, send some photos or speak with them on Skype. It is a big revolution in their consciousness because they join a great virtual world”, - said Elwira Mazyrkiewicz.

Now in the center “Strefa Edukacji Tworczej” there is one computer class for seniors. Three groups of six people learn in one class. And 10 people more are on the waiting list for this training.

“At first they didn’t want to join us. Maybe they were scared of something or thought they couldn’t do it. But after the pioneers had come, the others appeared in our center very fast. Once you have some interested seniors, they will bring their friends, and so you will always have new interested people”, - commented El-wira Mazyrkiewicz.

Danuta Pietras is 73 years old. She is one of the stu-dents in the computer class. She is here because she wants to know more about computers and the inter-net. Danuta wants to read news, to write e-mails or to create her own profile in a social network by herself. She is one of the pioneers who joined this class.

“I had some experience with computers. But it wasn’t enough. Especially when we talk about net-working. I want to learn more. Then I can be closer to my children, relatives and friends who don’t live in my native city. The internet can destroy this virtual border between us”, - said Danuta.

Studying in the computer class is absolutely free. The center “Strefa Edukacji Tworczej” is financed by the city government and the European Union. “At first the students of this class were residents of the district where the center is situated. But later the residents of the other districts joined this class too”, - Elwira Ma-zyrkiewicz said.

Visiting this computer class was a great experience for me. Now I know of two basic rules how to help sen-iors join in society’s active social life. First, you should show them they are needed and can be useful. Sec-ond, you have to make a special space for them: invite their friends too and seniors will feel more confident.

Of course, the main part of this work is searching for money and volunteers. But without basic principles of working with seniors your project can never become a success.

It is also a good way to create a community for the seniors. They can read interesting news on the internet and talk about it. They can share photos, articles, mu-sic. They have a chance to live a full life and be a part of social, political or cultural processes in our society.

Seniors in Action

16. #1 Kreisau Times

“Crooked” art. Centrum Rozwoju Zawodowego «Krzywy Komin»

- By Hrystyna Protsyk

One of the main topics of our project was determi-nation and detailed studying of main concepts and principles of sustainable development in general and particularly for participating countries of the project.

Do you personally know what sustainable devel-

opment is?

Here is a Free Encyclopedia definition: “Sustainable development is an organising princi-

ple for human life on a finite planet. It posits a desir-able future state for human societies in which living conditions and resource-use meet human needs with-out undermining the sustainability of natural systems and the environment, so that future generations may also meet their needs”.

During the project we have not just discussed sus-tainability but also had a chance to visit NGOs that support its development.

Visiting a non-commercial organization “Krzywy Komin” in Wroclaw was one of the most interesting events of the whole project.

The organization occupies a renovated industry build-ing, which was built in 1888 and used to be a laundry and a dry clean before. The founders said, they intention-ally founded the Organization in a disadvantaged area to help with its social improvement. In that area, there are a lot of historical buildings dating back to the 19th century.

The NGO was founded for cultural and educational ac-tivities of people of all ages. “Komin” members with big enthusiasm help people to develop their creative poten-tial or their professional competence. “Krzywy Komyn” is a very young organization, founded only in April 2013, but its development and evolve is extremely noticeable.

You can learn a lot of new things there using both new and old technologies as well as market-ing, entrepreneurship and positive development in right direction.

One very interesting fact is that the organization not just teaches certain skills but also gives you the opportunity to present your work - by organising ex-hibitions, theater performances, film screenings and discussions. This is the place where crazy ideas are born and where they come true .

There you could find all the materials you need and specially designed studios with a creative design. But the main thing is – there is creativity and people who want to develop and evolve it.

To visit a place like this and to see all this on my own eyes was not just interesting but also very inspiring. This meeting prompted us for creating something un-common and useful.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and teh Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

The project has been funded with support from institutions named below: