AVA network stands for Awareness, Values and Actions. Founded by two Danish Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), the network consist of environmental NGOs from nine countries in Central & Eastern Europe: Belarus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland and Russia's St Petersburg and Kaliningrad Region. The project is founded partially by the Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy DANCEE Programme.
The AVA's goal is to promote environmental sustainability through changing awareness
and values and to support environmental actions. The vision is being implemented
through running national seminars and campaigns on selected environmental topics
to influence decision makers and public opinion to be more environmentally aware.
The second edition of the project, The AVA(2), started in April 2000 and will
run until April 2002 with the intention to continue until 2005.
AVA's four campaigns focus on waste management, Local Agenda 21, Aarhus convention,
and EU environmental policies.
What has been done? One example is a waste campaign spreading through 8 countries:
* In Belarus, St. Petersbourg, Kaliningrad and Moldova a joint campaign is conducted:
the campaign promotes the development of good selective collection systems of
packaging waste recycling. As a result the project will create an international
database of people/organisations interested in working on these systems. The
database will be also the final product of a Polish waste campaign conducted
by FOE Poland.
Uncoordinated, the communities' efforts toward waste segregation are ineffective.
The database will be a good public information tool on waste-sorting units in
five Polish cities.
* The Czech Republic NGO "Children of the Earth" focuses on increasing composting
facilities. The project's main objective is to build a composting system in the
Dobra community.
The youth are the target group for participating NGOs from Estonia and Lithuania:
* In Estonia, the environmental club "Scarabaeus" held several school lessons,
drawing competitions, exhibitions and a teacher training seminar.
* In Lithuania the Vilnius Nature Protection Society Youth Club aim to reshape
young people's attitude on waste. The campaign will include practical work with
pupils from several schools and environmental NGOs.
On the other hand for the Meridian NGO Support Centre (Latvia) and the NGO "ProNatura"
(Moldovia) the local authorities will be the main target group.
* In Latvia the NGO will hold several workshops for local authorities and for
the media that illustrate current waste management practices and demonstrate
better alternatives.
* In Moldovia Pro Natura is working on communal recycling schemes in Chsinau
community. Articles in the mass-media will reflect the project's achievements.
Fancy seeing the results? Visit the AVA web site: www.ava.suite.dk
Joanna Fiedler
Poland FOE and Birmingham FOE