Ambassador McFaul Supports GYSD in Russia

Hello everyone! We hope you have not forgotten that today is the first day of Global Youth Service Day! That means it is high time you got up and took action to change the World! :)

More than 20 various GYSD projects will take place in Russia! What especially inspires Russian GYSD participants is the letter from the Ambassador of the United States of America to the Russian Federation Michael A. McFaul, who supports GYSD and volunteering in general! Here are some words from the Ambassador:



Original picture source:
http://moscow.usembassy.gov/ambassador.html

Volunteering is such an important part of making our world a better place, and no one has more energy, enthusiasm, and spirit than youth. I applaud your efforts to improve the communities in which you live, by lending your time and energy to address such issues as health, education, ecology, and people in need. Every year, a greater number of Russians are volunteering their time in schools, parks, hospitals, and orphanages. [...] Your participation in these activities will inspire other people to do the same.

 

You can read the complete letter from the Ambassador to get inspired by the great words of reognition and appreciaton of community service and become a part of Global Youth Service Day!

 

2307 GYSD projects have been registered in 103 countries so far! We are going to have a weekend full of great events all around the World! So grab your friends and celebrate with us! See you at GYSD! :)

Human Library in Belgorod by Yeseniya Koshchavka

As we have already mentioned, this blog is not only about our 28 grant-winning projects, but also about other FLEX GYSD projects that are organized by our alumni!

One more story of such project is about a GYSD event that will be organized in Belgorod, Russia by 2010 alumna Yeseniya Koshchavka!

Here is what Yeseniya has shared with us!

"Human Lubrary" is a social project that is focused on sharing ideas of tolerance in the modern society. This project was firstly organized in Denmark by a group of students. Then it started to get more and more popular in countries all around the World including Russia. In the beginning it took place in big cities like Moscow and St.Petersburg, but then smaller towns took their tirn as well. Belgorod has become one of them. This is my hometown, and I can't say that it is intolerant. However, we are all humans, and we all are different. When I found out about such project, as "Human Library", I decided to organize it in Belgorod. We have already found some people who will become so-called "books" at our event. We are waiting for a positive feedback from the citizens of our town, especially from the youth. 

You can learn more about Yeseniya's project at her VKontakte community! 

Yeseniya has already organized the very first Human Library event in Belgorod 2 months ago! The guest speakers (books) varied from a young activist to a film director! Let's see what "books" will be read in Belgoros on April 26!

It is very little time left till Global Youth Service Day! Become one of us and don't forget to make the World better on April 26-28! :)

Sports Day for kids in Moscow on GYSD

Global Youth Service Day is all about uniting active boys and girls from different cities and countries all

around the World! It would be very sad if there was no GYSD project here in Moscow, where our central American Councils office is located. Luckily, now we have a Sports Day for kids planned for April 28!

Gorky Park is one of the friendliest parks in Moscow!

Anna Safronova, the leader of amazing My Dream City program and FLEX alumna '09, David Petrosyan, the Moscow Alumni Coordinator and FLEX alum '10 and me are organizing a Sports Day for about 40 kids aged between 8 and 14 in one of the most modern parks of Moscow - Gorky Park on April 28.

The kids will play football, table tennis and other sports, do different activities, have handcraft workshops in "Zelenaya Shkola", a wonderful kids' club right in the park, sing songs and just enjoy wonderful spring weather which we hope will not get any worse!

My Dream City Christmas event in the orphanage #8

My Dream City and FLEX alumni have already organized a number of events for kids from Moscow orphanage #8. However, this is going to be the first spring time "outside" event.

Right now we are looking for volunteers who are ready to spend several hours playing sports and just having fun with kids in the park! If you feel like hepling us with the organization of this GYSD event, please register and join our VKontakte community! We would appreciate your help a lot! Good mood and positive emotions are guaranteed! :)

You can also visit My Dream City Facebook page to learn more about its outreach all around the World!

Take care and don't forget about upcoming Global Youth Service Day! By the way, 1404 projects have been registered in 84 countries so far, so don't miss a chance to become a part something really global! ;)

"Workshop in English Language and Leadership" Project by Lyudmyla Krasnytska

The closer we are getting to Global Youth Service Day - the harder our alumni work on their projects!

It is only 2 weeks till GYSD, and we hope that you have already come up with plans for the biggest community service weekend in the World!

Meanwhile, here is a story from another Ukrainian alumna - Lyudmyla Krasnytska who is going to organize seminars for youth to help them develop their communication and leadership skills!

Community service in Ukraine is something that you have to explain for a long time if you want people to understand what exactly you are doing. Frankly speaking, I don’t want to think about the reasons for this, I’d like to concentrate on ways how to change it, how to make it an ordinary thing for Ukrainians to help their communities.

In 2009 I was lucky to go to the USA as a FLEX exchange student. And that’s where I learnt how community service really works during the GYSD in April, 2010 at a very big bay clean-up in Miami. So when I came back, I felt like my life was lacking something. Later in the summer of 2010 I participated in the program called CACTUS (Community Action Ukrainian Style) and there it was – this burning desire to make a change! It is the initiative of Illya Symonenko, a 19 year old Ukrainian activist, who wasn’t afraid of anything but wanted to show the others how to improve their community life. At CACTUS I learnt how to properly organize small community projects, and my debut was successful and inspiring. How could anyone stop loving projects after that?

I kept coming to CACTUS every year since then, and in 2012 I was already a staff member. In 2013 I was honored to be one of the 4 directors of the Program. I met so many young people who wanted to make Ukraine a better place! My team members Ulyana, Alison and Keith are exactly the people I’ve always dreamt to work with! They truly believe in everything they are doing, and they devote 100% of their knowledge, skills, time and effort to make CACTUS better! It’s unbelievable too how many FLEX alumni join us every year.

Organizing WELL seminars is a part of the CACTUS Program that helps teens to gain knowledge and skills in project management. By the end of the program teenagers are able to organize a small community service project on their own. Some of these initiatives are a clean-up, blood drive, working at orphanages, HIV/ AIDS awareness seminars, etc. Around 750 teenagers and their communities benefit from our program every year.  As they say, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. This single step is what most

people need to achieve something big. This is what we give them at CACTUS, a basis to build their big projects on. And WELL seminars give Ukrainian youth an opportunity to become a part of CACTUS, so they are a very sufficient stage of the whole project. Attending a seminar like this, pupils realize that their future depends on them, and if they want to make their communities better, they can!

I know that whatever we do for our communities – whether it is a lecture for 10 people, or a small clean-up, or a huge seminar series, like WELL – it will bring a lot of positive changes because we’re driven by the same goal. And every year we all prove it to ourselves by the successful projects of our alumni in different parts of Ukraine!

Lyudmyla Krasnytska

FLEX'10

Wow, we find Lyudmyla's words to be very inspiring! Here is an example of how a group of people driven by the same ideas and desires can come up with something truly outstanding! Good job!

By the way, here is a link to CACTUS' promo video where you can learn more about this program!

Any of you can do anything like this! You just need enthusiasm and a desire to change the World! Do you really feel this way? Then join us on Global Youth Service Day - 2013! And keep in touch with our blog! Take care! ;)

"Book Club" Project by Azhar Yerzhanova

Our FLEX GYSD projects are focusing on very different issues. Ecology, education, health - all those important topics are highlighted by the projects of our alumni who are going to take part in GYSD. We have already posted stories about an educational project in Georgia and an ecological one in Ukraine. Now it's time for Azhar Yerzhanova from Kazakhstan, who is organizing a project named "Book Club".

"Books are one of the most special gifts in this world, which gives an infinite opportunities like visiting Paris, Rome, London just in one evening, meeting captivating and compelling people, traveling from ancient to modern times and it’s all just through letters on the white paper. “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. A man who never read lives only one” said George Martin and I absolutely agree with this. When person reads a book, he is diving into the whole different reality, lives someone’s life, making new friends and learns how to deal with problems on characters’ life experiences - this is the most magnetic thing about reading.

“UNI Open Air Library” project funded by US Department motivated me to start a reading club. I worked in UNI for 2 month and it was an unforgettable life experience, meeting different people, talking with them about books, getting life advices and of course our UNI team of FLEX Alumni was a bittersweet add of the job. 

Nowadays youth started replacing books with the computers (social networks, games) without realizing how big can be the damage of it. The project is not about books vs. computers, but making young people start reading and expanding their horizons. In the book club, we will be reading books (at least 8 books to finish) , analyzing them and inviting thought-provoking speakers, which will help our readers developing their boldness of thinking, That will help them in their future academic career and also will help in creating bright and competitive youth of our country".

Let's wish Azhar all the best with her project! Books should undoubtedly be great friends to everyone of us!

Do not forget to follow up on GYSD projects at http://www.gysd.org/ map! You can always join any project or come up with your own!

Stay in touch with us to learn about more FLEX GYSD projects and get inspired! ;)

Beach Clean-up by Svitlana Buko

Our next GYSD story is from Svitlana Buko from Ukraine! This is going to be her first Global Youth Service Day, but we don't doubt that she is going to succeed!

 Preparing for coastal clean-up (assessment trip): 

I am FLEX 97 and it’s been 10 years since I’ve done any clean ups (was too busy with education, career and family I guess). I live in Sevastopol (Crimea, Ukraine) and Fiolent National Park beaches are my favorite places to go, however, no one is cleaning them. I spent my FLEX year in California and I know how community can help with beach clean ups. During FLEX year I got aquatinted with California “Save our Shores” Program organized by local community. The main goal of the program was to educate community about man-made debris and motivate local volunteers to clean the beaches  systematically and develop “adopt a beach program.” I see that Coastal Clean-up within GYSD provides a direct and tangible way to make a difference at the local level and still be a part of the World’s biggest service day.  I got a GYSD grant and I realize again that preparation, team training, planning is an integral part of successful eco project and takes a lot of time and commitment.  Coastal clean up kit recommends to scout out your site and evaluate, plan the event and analyze how much trash is out there. We got a small team together in the first week of April to check out the place and map out clean up implementation steps.  Wishing all the Flexes a productive preparation for their GYSD project this April and sunny greeting from the Black Sea!

Svitlana Buko FLEX 97 

Thank you Svitlana for your enthusiasm and staying in touch with FLEX and GYSD! Good luck with your project! :)

Have you already decided how you are going to celebrate Global Youth Service Day? Get in spired by our active alumni and join their projects or register your own at http://www.gysd.org/ !

"I Got The Spirit" Project by Natia Sharikadze

We hope that you are getting redy for Global Youth Service Day just like our FLEX alumni!

Here is a story from one of our FLEX GYSD grant winners - Natia Sharikadze! This is going to be her third Global Youth Service Day! Very impressive!

"I am a FLEX alumni of 2008, I have done 2 GYSD projects in previous years, but all of them were

connected with my hometown. This year I started working at The International Spark Program as a Chief Executive Officer. The International Spark Program  is the non-governmental organization that was based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Annually, it organizes International Summer School on Leadership and The International Spark Full-Year Program. The aim of the program is to help its students to develop their leadership and team work skills, with our projects we try to create a real civil society which will help to develop functioning democracy.

I with other students from the International Spark Program and FLEX alumni community decided to do an event about volunteering and historic heritage. We believe, that volunteerism among young generation and knowledge about their country’s history is very important, as the students represent the future. That is why, we have decided to organize an event that will give them a chance to get more information about the historical monuments and will contribute to the society by cleaning-up a historical place in Mtskheta. 

The event will last for 2 days (27-28^th of April). There will be training on the first day of the event in the University of Georgia. Students from different universities will get information about the cultural monuments of the country. On April 28^th, the group of students will visit Mtskheta and clean-up Aragvis Kari (Aragvi’s Gate). 

We are willing, to lead the young generation towards volunteerism with our event. We hope, that after GYSD event, students will be more involved in community service and realize how important it is to contribute to the society. 

Currently we are trying to start organizing for the event and get additional sponsors and partners. 

Warm Regards,

Natia"

If you want to learn more about previous Natia's projects, you can read about them in her GYSD blog!

We wish all the best to Natia with her project! 

Want to learn about other GYSD projects? Just keep up with our blog! ;)

More GYSD activity in Russia!

The air is getting warmer, the Sun is shining brighter, and the Global Youth Service Day is getting closer!

Our FLEX GYSD grant winners are working hard on their projects to make the 25th GYSD celebration the best one! 

However, it is possible to organize something even without a grant! Russian alumni from Bashkortostan are a great example of that! Other than Lyudmila Savelyeva's project that you could learn about in the previous entry, there are at least 3 alumni GYSD events that will celebrate Global Youth Service Day in this region!

Elina Khusnullina, a 2011 alumna from Sterlitamak,  and Kseniya Terentyeva are organizing a big clean up in the city! Teams of volunteers will compete in this promoting the importance of caring about the nature! A similar event was already orgaized last year and had a huge success! 700 kg of rubbish were collected and the whole city enjoyed a big concert afterwards!

Alumna Inna Kuzmina is organizing a GYSD project on April 20 in Belebey town. She is going to have a dancing workshop for kids from a local orphanage and have some pizza afterwards!

Another town in Bashkortostan, Oktyabrskiy, is going to celebrate GYSD with a great ecological project. Elina Minnigalieva, an alumna of 2012 is organizing a project called "Plant Your Own Tree". Elina and other volunteers are going to plant trees in different parts of the town. It is also nice to know that the project was also organized last year. The more trees are planted - the greener the town is going to be!

These are just a few examples of great ways to celebrate Global Youth Service Day with us! Want more inspiration? Enjoy beautiful FLEX GYSD events' pictures from 2011!

You can also join to any GYSD project that has already been registred at http://www.gysd.org/! The interactive map on the very first page will help you with hat!

Keep up with our FLEX GYSD blog! More ideas and inspiration are to come! ;)