Polish-Russian Youth Exchange 2020 remotely
In view of the situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of borders between Poland and Russia, the Centre decided to offer interested parties participating in a remote form of youth exchange via modern means of audio-video communication.
Each project should involve organising, using electronic means of communication, at least four meetings of pupils or students in a number of ten to twenty from each partner country (not including tutors). During these meetings, there had to be real-time two-way communication where pupils or students could interact freely. During the project, young people carried out a specific programme defined by one of the selected themes.
The competition "Polish-Russian Youth Exchange 2020 remotely" received 15 applications. The applicants requested funding for their projects for a total of 293,476 PLN, which gave an average of 19,565 PLN. The highest amount requested was PLN 47,000, and the lowest – PLN 1,600.
The applicants chose the following topics:
1. "Where there are no words, music will speak. The place of music in our lives" – 6 applications.
2. Own topic proposed by the applicants – 5 applications.
3. "Our planet, our place, our responsibility. How youth in Poland and Russia can care for the future of the Earth" – 2 applications.
4. "To stop reading books is to stop thinking". What do Polish and Russian Nobel Prize winners in literature teach us – 1 application.
5) "Is sole entrepreneurship an attractive career choice for young people in Poland and Russia" – 1 application.
The largest number of applications came from Pomorskie Voivodeship – 3, 2 applications were submitted by applicants representing Warmińsko-Mazurskie, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Śląskie and Wielkopolskie Voivodeships. We received 1 application each from the following voivodships: Opolskie, Małopolskie, Lubelskie and Zachodniopomorskie. As far as Russian partners are concerned, this time our closest Kaliningrad Oblast was represented by only 2 partners, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod by 3 partners each, and one partner came from the following cities each: Arkhangelsk, Chita, Yaroslavl, Yekaterinburg, Moscow, Tomsk, Tyumen and Bryansk.
All applications met the formal requirements and were submitted for consideration to the Competition Commission, which at its meeting on August, 19, recommended 14 projects for co-financing. In the end, on the basis of the decisions made by the Centre's director, it was decided to co-finance 14 projects for the total amount of PLN 195,526 (from PLN 1,600 to PLN 31,000). Not all projects could be implemented due to further restrictions imposed by the state authorities in Poland and Russia. As a result, 10 projects were carried out.
List of entities awarded co-financing, with their Russian partners:
1. the Association for Children and Youth with Disabilities "Vmeste k odnoy tseli" – K. Grot Boarding School for Blind and Visually Impaired Children No. 1 in St. Petersburg
2. WSB Academy – Ural Federal University in Yekaterinburg.
3. PYASTUN – Foundation for Children and Youth – Middle School No. 3 in Yaroslavl
4. Higher School of Economics in Bydgoszcz – Zabaikalsky University in Chita, Buryatskiy University in Ulan-Ude
5. The City of Gdańsk – 2nd High School in Gdańsk – Boarding High School in Kaliningrad
6. IRSE Foundation – Nizhniy-Novgorod Regional Foundation for Cultural Activists "Дать Понять"
7. Słupsk Cultural Centre – Northern (Arctic) Lomonosov University in Arkhangelsk
8. BLIŻEJ DZIECKA Parents and Teachers Association for Support of Children from School Complex No. 5 in Gorlice – School No. 525 with extended English teaching in St. Petersburg
9. Ari Ari – School and Educational Centre for Disabled Children and Youth in Nizhny Novgorod
10. Lublin Association for Disabled Children "Zdobywcy Marzeń" – Boarding school No. 1 for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind in Moscow.