Nendre – Lessons learned

Since 2005 the Åland Islands Peace Institute and the Center for Women and Children “Nendre” in Lithuania are implementing the project “Nendre – Lessons Learned”. The main objective of the project is to promote capacity-building and the development of democratic societies through cross-border co-operation between NGOs in Finland, Lithuania, Belarus and the Kaliningrad region (Russia).

The project is also aimed at sharing the experiences of social work at “Nendre” and starting up new project initiatives for the empowerment of socially marginalized families and individuals in the neighbouring countries.

During the three years of the project implementation (2005-2007), the following results have been achieved:

• The co-operation network consisting of one Finnish, one Lithuanian, two Russian and three Belarussian NGOs has been established;
• Nine network meetings for the network partners have been arranged. Six of them took place in Lithuania, two were organized in the Kaliningrad region and one in Belarus. Over 100 representatives from NGOs and state institutions attended the meetings,  which included lectures, workshops and discussions on such issues as social and family policy, social inclusion, gender equality, organisation development, prevention of trafficking etc.
• Four pilot projects – two in the Kaliningrad region and two in Belarus – were initiated on the basis of the social work experiences developed at the Center for Mothers and Children “Nendre” in Vilnius, Lithuania. All the projects are aimed to support and empower socially vulnerable groups (single mothers, pregnant teenage girls, orphans, delinquent teenagers, girls at risk of being trafficked etc.). By the end of 2007 around 300 direct beneficiaries have benefited from the pilot project activities.
• The project has also resulted in a number publications: a manual on the methodology and experiences of the Center “Nendre”, an updated version of the handbook for girl group leaders (translated into Lithuanian and Russian and adapted to local realities) as well as two publications on the social work strategies developed during the implementation of the pilot project activities in the Kaliningrad region.
• A group of girl group leaders has been educated in Belarus and have started girl group activities towards prevention of trafficking and empowerment of girls at risk.
• The project has helped to further develop pedagogical methods and social training programmes at “Nendre” and resulted in increased competence of the personnel. Special attention has been directed to trafficking prevention activities and gender equality education. Five representatives from “Nendre” took part in a study visit to the Åland Islands Peace Institute in August 2006 in order to follow-up the project activities and participate in a training session on gender equality work in the Nordic countries.

In 2008 representatives from the partner-organisations in Lithuania, Belarus and Kaliningrad visited Åland once again. The 16 participants held network-meetings together with the Åland Islands Peace Institute and also did study visits to a center for women and a kindergarden. The main purpose of the visit was to get the opportunity to meet Mia Hanström, the author of the manual on the girl group method, in person, and to get the opportunity to ask her questions that had arisen during the implementation of the girl group method in their home countries.

Network meeting 2009
On October 20-22 the partners within the project “Nendre – Lessons Learned” came together for the final network meeting, which took place in the Kaliningrad region, Russia. The project was launched in 2005 by the Åland Islands Peace Institute with the aim of spreading the experiences of social work developed at the Center for Women and Children “Nendre” in Vilnius, Lithuania, to the NGOs in the Kaliningrad region and to provide support for the project partners in setting up similar initiatives for socially marginalised groups. During two and a half days the partners discussed the results of the project implementation and shared their ideas for the future. They also had a chance to acquaint themselves with the practical activities that are organized for the project beneficiaries in the Kaliningrad region. Kamala Ramazanova and Justina Donielaite from the Åland Islands Peace Institute took part in the meeting. You can read their report here.