Category: BEARR News
The BEARR Trust: Small Grants Scheme 2021
Projects to reduce the social isolation of people living with disadvantage People who live with disadvantages often face the additional difficulty of social isolation, and this problem has been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, the BEARR Trust invites applications for projects that propose ways of reducing social isolation. The deadline for applications is midnight on 15th February (i.e. 23:59 GMT, 15 …
Updates from Luke Grenfell-Shaw’s “Bristol2Beijing” expedition
Here are two articles from Luke Grenfell-Shaw’s time in Moldova as part of an intrepid journey cycling over 23,000km from Bristol to Beijing, via many of the countries which BEARR supports. He has been raising money for different charities and visiting some of BEARR’s grant recipients – past and present – along the way. Whilst …
Webinar: civil society and innovative practice in a time of pandemic, 19 November
Report by Megan Bick, BEARR Trustee Kristina Spirina, Winds of Changes, Odessa, Ukraine Kristina began by acknowledging the BEARR Trust as the first donor to believe in them, a women’s initiative started 2018, and to fund their first project working with Roma women and girls. Since then they have run 5 projects in 18 months with the current one finishing at the end of December 2020. We have created a map of …
Webinar: civil society support for persons with disabilities, 5 November
Report by Biljana Radonjic Ker-Lindsay, BEARR Trustee The BEARR Trust webinar on 5 November explored how service providing and advocacy disability CSOs are supporting persons with disabilities and their families in the EECCA region during the COVID-19 crisis. Particular attention was paid to their activities to address COVID-19’s impact on community inclusion and to promote equal rights …
The womanly face of change in Belarus
Alison Cameron got in touch with BEARR recently to offer her services as a volunteer, renewing contacts going back decades. She has been involved with Belarus for most of that time. We asked her to tell us about her latest project. This year is the 30th anniversary of my involvement with Belarus, a link that has weathered storms both political and personal including my life-changing experience …
‘Memories of Moscow: Memoirs of a Medical Diplomat’ by Dr Harald Lipman
Dr Lipman’s memoirs of his time living in and working at the British Embassy in Moscow will be of interest to anyone who also experienced those fascinating years of the 1980s and 1990s in Russia. Dr Lipman was the Embassy’s Medical Attaché at the time that Jill Braithwaite, wife of the British Ambassador, proposed setting …
Tushinskaya Trust assets are transferred to The BEARR Trust
The BEARR Trust is very grateful to Dr Harald Lipman and his fellow trustees for choosing BEARR to receive Tushinskaya Trust’s residual assets following the Charity Commission’s recent approval of Tushinskaya Trust’s dissolution. Tushinskaya Trust was established in 1988 by Dr Harald and Nahid Lipman, whilst Dr Lipman was Medical Attaché at the British Embassy in Moscow. Its aim throughout its years …
New volunteers
BEARR is always delighted to welcome new volunteers, who play such a great role in our activities. Here are two of our newest recruits. Holly Battye Holly graduated from Cambridge with a degree in Russian and French and has spent a number of years studying, working and volunteering in Russia, primarily with a focus on translation work. Most …
BEARR Trust webinars, November 2020
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the BEARR Trust could not hold its usual annual conference in London this November. Instead, we held three BEARR webinars exploring the impact of Covid-19 on civil society organisations (CSOs) in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (the EECCA region) from different angles. Civil Society Support for Persons with …
Project Report: The Graphic Novel Tackling Violence
Grantee: Tolerspace, Kyiv, Ukraine Project: to create a graphic novel for 10-13-year-old girls, and training of peer-guides in interactive use of this to raise awareness of violence. One of Tolerspace’s peer-guides, 17-year-old Olga Sidelnikova, describes her involvement in the project: On a sunny September Saturday ten teenage girls and two psychologists gathered to discuss personal safety, protection from bullying and harassment. …