Gutta Club: Climate is changing. And you?

While the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) was held in Egypt and our friends from the Climate Action Network-International persistently sought effective solutions from government delegations in the field of climate change mitigation, global adaptation and climate finance, the CDN’s Member Organisation the Republican Center “Gutta-Club” also did not stand aside.
From November 5 to November 18, the organisation prepared and held a number of thematic events under the general title “Climate is changing. And you?”, with the support of the largest European network of youth environmental organizations YEE (Youth and Environment Europe), of which Gutta-Club has been a member for more than ten years.

On November 5, a training for young people took place, which was attended by students of the Chisinau lyceums named after I.S. Nechuya-Levitsky and A.P.Chekhov, as well as students of State, Technical, Pedagogical Universities and the Economic Academy. 

Gutta-Club’s expert Irina Belous, PhD student, molecular biologist, presented an up-to-date overview of the climate situation in the world and in Moldova, spoke about the assessment of climate impact, vulnerability factors and risks, as well as about adaptation measures developed specifically for our country. 

Anya Kimakovskaya and Nastya Gordeeva prepared a presentation on the problems of excessive consumption, and also offered the guys to take a test to determine their ecological footprint. The results were so unexpected that the discussion on “How many Planets like Earth will I need if I don’t shorten my eco-footprint” would have lasted until the end of the training, and maybe even longer. In order to have time for everything that we planned, we proposed to move the discussions to the family circle and develop steps to reduce the eco-footprint in each particular family. Think globally – act locally! 

Pavel Kurkin and Alina Sandyuk shared their impressions of a recent trip to Poland, where members of the Gutta-Club team as part of an international consortium developed a climate project, and also visited a waste recycling plant, personally familiarizing themselves with all stages of waste-free production.

Then the role-playing game began. The participants were divided into teams and engaged in the development of climate startups on unusual topics obtained in the process of drawing lots. No one even imagined how unusual)) For example, the use of kinetic energy of swinging trees for street lighting of city streets. Or the secondary use of banana peel as fuel for subcompact transport. The guys laughed at first. Then they were puzzled. And only then the work began to boil) The time had to be extended several times. But when the teams were ready – the originality and thoughtfulness of the approaches, and also the fervor with which all the members of the groups promoted their offspring – could not leave anyone indifferent from the audience. Startup programs were presented by the jury, chaired by businesswoman Olya Sovko. The proposed product had to be evaluated according to the following criteria: the attractiveness of the idea, the amount of funding, the timing of the refund and the beginning of income generation, the number of jobs created, a positive effect on the environment. The jury members conferred for a long time and (just by the time the pizza was delivered), made their reasoned conclusions. As a result, all the teams received various kinds of support, both from business representatives and from donor organizations, the state budget and even the mafia) And also concluded partnership agreements with each other, since it is always more effective to work together.

After handing over certificates of participation (by the way, the certificate is the work of Anya Kimakovskaya), caps and books, a shared photo, the guys did not disperse immediately, they asked how they could become a Gutta-Club volunteer, how to go to trainings and seminars and how to continue studying abroad under the Erasmus Oficiul Erasmus+ Moldova program when the next meeting will be. Some even stayed to watch the rehearsal, which, taking advantage of the opportunity, was held for our teams leaving for Georgia, by professional dancers and volunteers Gutta Constanta Crave and Alina Cebotari.

And the next day Gutta-Club already received letters from parents and teachers, how the guys liked everything and how great it would be if such events were held more often. This is a very important and inspiring result for the entire training preparation team.
“When we met, we asked the participants to answer a simple question: “If you had a goldfish, what would you ask her for?” It turned out that it was not a new iPhone and not good bachelor’s grades (do not underestimate our youth), but something much more valuable – health and longevity to your loved ones, peace and prosperity to our common home – Planet Earth. It is wonderful! But a lot depends on us. From what exactly (here and now) we will do everything to change the world around us for the better. We came to the conclusion that we don’t need a goldfish, because we are our own goldfish. And, without putting it off, we decided to take part in gardening campaigns held in November throughout the Republic. Said and done. On November 12, our guys were already enthusiastically planting trees in the Chisinau park “Alunel”, as well as on the banks of the Dniester River in the village of Malovatoe, Dubossary district. Gutta cavat lapidem! A drop and a stone sharpens!”

And on November 18, the Gutta-Club delegation, consisting of Yaroslav Rudenko, Olya Sovko Arina Manzul, left for Bakuriani (Georgia) to participate in the international seminar “Let’s connect” under the EU Erasmus program, where, together with 24 youth activists from Armenia, Georgia, Spain, Portugal, Ukraine, Turkey and Bulgaria will present the successful experience of the Gutta-Club’s long-term activities, including climate projects, learn interactive forms of work with young people, exchange ideas, and establish partnerships. 

A huge thank you to all the members of PrepTeam Centrul Republican

Gutta-Club says thanks to the prep-team members, the administrations and the teachers of the Chisinau lyceums Theoretical Lyceum Named after I.S. Nechuy-Levitsky, Lyceum named after. Anton Chekhov for the universal support of the initiative of our organization and for the active, caring youth, to our friends and partners from YEE – Youth and Environment Europe, Umbrella, Centrul NaĹŁional de Mediu for productive and sincere cooperation.

Call for Executive Committee Member

Dear Young Greens from Eastern Europe,

Following the news that Paula “Pablo” Luīze Pastore is joining Secretariat, we are happy to announce a call for a new Executive Committee Member that will fill in the vacant spot and work with the rest of the EC until the next General Assembly.

This is your chance to contribute to the growing Green movement in Eastern Europe.

The Executive Committee tasks:

  • Work on the implementation of CDN’s Activity Plan, approved by the General Assembly (including project writing, coordination, implementation and reporting);
  • The newly elected EC member will be responsible for the Study Session “Green Cities for the Sustainable Planet”; make sure to check out the responsibilities here;
  • Maintaining close and continuous communication with CDN Member and Partner
     Organisations and Network Partners;
  • Actively following and supporting the smooth work-flow of the Working Groups;
  • Representing and promoting CDN during its and partners’ activities as well as in the digital
     space;
  • Answering challenges and making decisions throughout the year, between GAs, based on the CDN Strategy and CDN’s best interest;
  • Actively participating in the regular (biweekly) EC meetings (that usually last around 2h).
  • Keeping track of the well-being of CDN’s Office.

The candidate for the Executive Committee should:

  • Be motivated to advance the Green movement in the Eastern Europe;
  • Be dedicated to the goals of CDN, subscribe to its political platform and the Green Idea;
  • Be comfortable working in an international environment and have good communication and organisational skills;
  • Be willing and available for active online engagement throughout the mandate;
  • Be prepared for frequent traveling, participating in the live EC meetings, CDN activities and likely several other occasions;
  • Be regularly available on the e-mail for the ongoing discussions, work and decision making, together with regular online meetings;
  • Have a good command of English (written and spoken);
  • Have the interest to follow political developments in Eastern Europe and react to them with available tools such as producing statements, organising and supporting campaigns, assisting member and partner organisations, communicating with other Green stakeholders, etc.

More details about the responsibilities of CDN EC members and the election procedure can be found in the CDN Statutes and Internal Rules of Procedures

The candidate should submit:

  • Filled Application form;
  • Candidate’s CV;
  • Photo (Optional);
  • Introduction to your candidacy;
  • Official letter of support from a Candidate’s organisation or any CDN Member or Partner organisation*

*Only CDN Member and Partner organisations can nominate a candidate for the Executive Committee.

Applications should be submitted HERE.

All technical instructions are given on our GA website but you can also access them HERE.

DEADLINE for submitting candidacies is July 13, 23:59 CET. However, the earlier you apply the more chance delegates will have to see your candidacy on cdn.discuss.green.

In case of any questions do not hesitate to write to office@cdnee.org.

Call for the PT of “Green Cities for Sustainable Planet”

Cooperation and Development Network (CDN) is announcing an open call for members of the preparatory team (prep-team) for the study session “Green Cities for Sustainable Planet”  which will take place from 7th to 12th  of November 2022 in the European Youth Centre in Budapest, Hungary. The arrival date for the participants is 6th and departure date is 13th. More information on the project you can find here.

With this activity we aim to empower 35 young Eastern Europeans in tackling climate change through exploring the intersectionality of globalisation, capitalism and environmental issues – this event will provide a holistic approach towards climate change by focusing on communities, economy, human rights and urbanism and support the participants in developing new attitudes towards climate change, through exploring how governments, businesses and citizens can enable the urban and economic shift to a greener transition. 

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Call for the Additional Prep Team members of the Work Plan “We are the future, but we are here NOW!”

Cooperation and Development Network (CDN) is announcing an open call for members of preparatory team (prep-team) for the second international activity of the Work Plan “We are the future, but we are here NOW!”  which will take place on 8-12th of June 2022 in Riga, Latvia. More information on the project you can find here. Please, read this information carefully before applying.

If you are young person from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria,  Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo*,  Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Serbia, Turkey or Ukraine and you are interested in the topic of the event, you are more than welcome to apply to volunteer as a member of this preparatory team. Prep-team members should speak English, be available during the preparation periods, be responsible about fulfilling their tasks, have good organisational skills, be good team players and committed to the aims of the project and CDN’s values and be familiar with non-formal education methods. See the preliminary agenda of event to get acquainted with the amount of sessions that will be developed.

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Open call for Participants: International Activity “Why to participate”

Cooperation and Development Network Eastern Europe is announcing a call for Participants for the international activity “Why to participate”.

The meeting will take place between 11-16th April in Skopje, North Macedonia (10th and 17th are travel dates to and from Skopje).

The project is the first phase of our annual work plan “We are the future, but we are here NOW!” and is going to focus on the providing participants with knowledge of the importance of youth participation.

This activity aims to:

  1. Discover the history and function of nation-states in order to understand the current state of affairs in the Eastern Europe;
  2. Provide a space for participants to understand how their countries function;
  3. Understanding the big diversity of roles of, and connections between each citizen in a democracy;
  4. Discussing diverse ways of affecting the policy-making in the Eastern Europe, by exploring worldwide practices.
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Open call for Participants: Study Session “Work that Works for all: Shaping Europe’s Future of Work”

Cooperation and Development Network Eastern Europe (CDN) and Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG) are announcing a call for participants for the Study Session “Work that Works for all: Shaping Europe’s Future of Work”.

The event will take place during 15-20 November in the European Youth Center Budapest (EYCB), Hungary. Travel dates to and from Budapest are 14 and 21 November.

With this activity, we aim to empower 35 young Europeans in accessing their social rights – the right to decent work – in order for them to become agents of change in their local communities through human rights education in the pandemic world. The aims of the study session are:

  • To explore the legal, structural and societal history, context, challenges and barriers young people face while accessing their right to decent work in different European countries;
  • To deepen participants’ understanding of youth unemployment and youth precarity, their social (political, economic) and individual (physical and mental health) consequences;
  • To explore the existing opportunities and initiatives for young people in accessing work related rights, as well as to develop participants’ understanding and solidarity about the social and economic conditions their peers are facing;
  • To equip the participants and their organisations with the tools for countering the challenges and consequences of  inaccessible Social rights.
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Work Plan “We are the future, but we are here NOW!”

Project background

At the Strategic Planning Meeting of CDN in March 2020 the topical areas of interest of the MOs and POs of CDN were identified as follows: climate, gender, cities, digitisation, migration, food, health and labour rights, but the work on these and other topics is pretty limited in the Eastern Europe due to the ever-shrinking space for the civil sector.

We saw that even before the COVID-19 pandemics, the civil and political rights of majority of the Eastern Europeans were not guaranteed. Protests against number of governments or against particular decisions are being confronted with unbalanced police force in Georgia, Serbia and Greece. In Belarus, Russia, Azerbaijan and Turkey the space for the civil society is non-existent and the oligarchic governments of other countries from the region are following the bad example of the governments of the above mentioned countries and misusing the pandemic related measures to restrict the rights to protest and at the same time ignoring the outcries for help from the civil sector, as well as the general public. Meanwhile, the levels of trust towards the states and understanding the procedures behind the speeches of the decision-makers is decreasing, as the Eastern Europeans have to think about the economic and health related issues. According to National Democracy Institute (NDI.org), less than one third of young people express satisfaction and trust some political option to represent their needs. We believe, that the pandemic brought out on a daylight the symptoms of deep political crisis that the Eastern Europe (EE) is suffering from for decades and one of the solutions to improve the situation is a massive education of the young people on the importance of their participation in the life of their country. Only by practicing true, informed democracy we will be able to build resilient and just Eastern Europe, where the human rights are respected and youth life flourishing.

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EkoFest 2018: Registration Open!

(For Serbian, Click HERE)

We are happy to open a registration for participants for this year’s annual EkoFest that will take place
between 13th – 16th December 2018 in Belgrade, Serbia. This is the biggest EkoFest so far including the
participants coming from Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Serbia.
EkoFest is the most visible annual event that usually Serbian Green Youth organizes, it is a few days long
festival of discussions, movies screenings, workshops and direct actions.

The EkoFest 2018 will be organized in cooperation with CDN and will focus on the topics of food production, and will approach the food production from different angles: from food processing and distribution to consumerist habits and veganism as a political statement in the frame of sustainable living.

This years’ program will include public events and closed activities for more than 40 registered young Green-minded activists. Public program will include panel discussion, movie screenings and lectures, while closed part will include study visits and workshops.

We are looking forward to welcome the participants who are:

  •  interested in the topic of food production, food distribution and food waste;
  •  can contribute to this topic in any way;
  •  interested in Green Politics and activism in general.

Logistics and Technicalities:

• Accommodation in a hostel/hotel will be provided for the nights of the 13-15 December;
• Lunch will be provided for the registered participants, reception will be available for the public
events;
• Travel costs will be reimbursed within reasonable limits, with the condition to combine the most
economic and environmentally friendly way (lowest price + travel time + CO2 emissions);
• Participation is free of charge.

Working language of the Festival will be Serbian with the possibility of English translations.

Here you can find the registration form. The deadline to fill in the form is: 9th of December.
Registrations are on a first-come, first-served basis… so register early 🙂

For any further questions, do not hesitate to contact us at office@cdnee.org

EkoFest 2018: Registracija Otvorena!

(For English, click HERE)

Zadovoljstvo nam je da Vas pozovemo na ovogodišnji EkoFest koji će se održati od 13. do 16.
decembra u Beogradu. Učešće na ovogodišnjem EkoFest-u biće omogućena učesnicama/učesnicima iz
BiH, Crne Gore, Makedonije i Srbije.

EkoFest je jedan od najvećih događaja koje Zelena omladina Srbije već godinama organizuje, a na ovogodišnjem očekuju Vas razne diskusije, prezentacije filmova, radionice i akcije.

EkoFest2018 će se fokusirati na temu proizvodnje hrane i ujedno će pristupiti ovom procesu iz više
uglova: od proizvodnje i obrade hrane, konzumeristiÄŤkih navika u ishrani i veganstva kao politiÄŤkog stava
u okvirima održivog načina življenja. Osim toga, biće reči i o food waste-u. Continue reading