Regional cooperation

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’s 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 aim 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 adopted 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 have been educated in Belarus and have started girl group activities towards the prevention of trafficking and the empowerment of girls at risk.
• The project has helped to further develop pedagogical methods and social training programmes at “Nendre” and has 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.