Environmental problems have become increasingly hazardous to the health of the populations of Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. Forced to confront the effects of these problems, women have played key roles in organizing their communities to monitor radiation levels, seek safer food sources, and educate citizens in an effort to create change. Over the past half decade, women leaders have acquired the experience and skills needed to effectively address local problems and have proved themselves to be efficient leaders on the local level. However, this focus on local problems too often results in a tendency not to see the bigger picture. Working on immediate tasks to solve impending problems in relative isolation, women have few opportunities to come together to share information and advice.

The goals of the program are to:

1. acquaint West NIS women environmental leaders with US women environmental leaders who are active in their communities;
2. assist women activists from the West NIS and US to more fully understand the organizational and topical challenges they face in their NGO work and help them identify ways to meet those challenges successfully through the exchange of skills and information and the development of coalitions;
3. demonstrate how local tasks can be accomplished more effectively if they are identified as shared goals with other organizations;
4. demonstrate how to encourage and draw upon coalitions effectively so as to bring communities into the political decision-making process; and
5. facilitate the possibility for future cooperation and coalition-building on specific projects, both within the West NIS region and with the US.

1. be members of West NIS registered local environmental grassroots NGOs;
2. have no less than 2 years of experience in the NGO movement in their countries;
3. have served as a program manager of at least one successful NGO program in the field of environment and health and proven strong leadership ability;
4. have experience in involving local population in environmental decision making;
5. be interested in the development of partnerships and coalitions with NGOs in their countries and beyond in order to address common problems;
6. be able and willing to share the experience of their work, as well as that gained through a US training/internship program upon returning to their countries;
7. be able to make a presentation on their NGOs involvement in solving regional environmental problems to the US community;
8. have never traveled to US.

Preference will be given to candidates who are leaders of NGOs. Knowledge of English is desirable but will not be a factor in the selection of participants.

Interested parties should send a short application with the following information:

1. Full name
2. Home address and telephone
3. Name of organization
4. Organization address and telephone
5. Name of director of organization
6. Concrete information about each of the above criteria, with special attention to number 3. Applicants should include detailed information about the projects they have implemented in the field of environment and health.

Application Deadline: July 31, 1998

Please send applications to:

Ukraine, 252006
Kyiv, a/ya 47
ISAR
or fax to 44-269-8542
or e-mail to [email protected].

Last updated: June 22, 1998

Center for Civil Society International [email protected]