Slyudyanka, Russia - The third annual Baikal Volunteer Forum, organized by Evgeny Skvortsov, representing the UPF-Ural chapter, was held on July 9 – 22 on the southwestern coast of Lake Baikal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The main goals of the forum were: development of volunteer and local initiatives, promoting ideas and practices of the ecological tourism and ecological culture, and preserving the unique nature of the Lake Baikal coast.
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The geographic range of participation was considerably broader than in previous years. Among the 32 participants were delegates from Amursk, Irkutsk, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Perm, Karelia, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Chita, and Nizhnevartovsk.
Numerous activities took place during the two weeks together:
- Improvements to Shamansky Cape and the local beach, including making stone steps, a bench, and a beach volleyball ground; writing ecology messages on trash bins; trimming bushes; and collecting trash
- Educational programs including a seminar on volunteerism called Values Work, round tables, a training sessions, and discussions about personal growth and peacebuilding in society
- Mass sports and cultural events including a photo-biathlon, Run Hour, and tournaments in mini-football and beach-volleyball
- Support for a local initiative in creating an ecological movement; participants from other parts of Russia helped motivate the local people to clean the the Slyudyanka River.
We established a fruitful interaction with administration of Slyudyanka town, the newspaper “Slyudyanka”, a grassroots women’s organization, representatives of the tourism business, and school activists. During the round table discussions, the participants worked out an agreement for cooperation among the partner organizations in the Forum with officials of Slyudyanka aimed at developing volunteerism and increasing the attractiveness of this locality to tourists.
A number of grassroots organizations were partners in the event, among them: the interregional movement “Youth Association for Morality” from Yekaterinburg; the Coordination Center for Youth Volunteer Movement Development from Tyumen; the City Municipal Volunteer Youth Center of Nizhnevartovsk; the Open Association of Volunteer Teams “Gorodok” from the Chernyshevsky Professional College (Chita).
Plans were made for further cooperation among volunteer centers and grassroots organizations of Chita, Tyumen, Nizhnevartovsk, and Amursk for the further development of the Baikal Forum and volunteer activities.
For more information about UPF-Russia's Lake Baikal initiatives, click here.