Civil Initiative prizewinners anounced in Moscow

Winners of the Civil Initiative prize announced in Moscow

Moscow, 14.12.2015

An award ceremony for the 12 winners of the “Golden Sprout” Statuette and cash prize has been held in the “Russian song” theatre.

The principal aim of the Civil Initiative is to find and support people who willingly take it upon themselves to try and resolve regional and national issues. In this year’s competition, more than 1,500 social projects and initiatives were submitted from people in 75 Russian regions, according to the Civil Initiatives Committee. As a result, many local initiatives received support from both active citizens and regional authorities, said Alexey Kudrin, Chair of the Civil Initiatives Committee and head of the adjudication panel. He lauded the fact that the number of projects being submitted to the competition is increasing year on year.

The Civil Initiatives winner in the “Green shoots of a new authority” category was a project on the “Academy of Home Management” which is targeted at providing legal and technical training for citizens in matters relating to housing and communal services. In the “Outreach” category, the winner was the “You’re not alone” project organised by volunteers from Krasnoyarsk and dedicated to finding missing children.

The Centre for Family Dialogue and Adaptation “Pelican” won a prize in the “Families of the future” category. The Centre was set up to provide social adaptation for children and 243 families living in the village of Novoberezovka, the majority of whom receive no form of social protection.

The winner of the “Nobody suffers but me” category was a project “Help to survive” aimed at providing assistance to residents of Nizhnevartovsk who have fallen on hard times. The winning project in the “Spiritual heritage” category was from Krasnoyarsk for the “Villa”-“Kuritsa” project that provided a creative environment for parents and their children, including running literary and educational birthday events, as well as education courses and family activities.

The winner of the “Save life” category was the Vasily and Zoe Starodubtsev Hospice for visitors in Zheleznogorsk. The hospice provides free visitors help for cancer and somatic patients living in the Zheleznogorsk area. “We are just at the beginning of the journey. Being able to visit the hospice provides great support for desperate people who are suffering from terrible illnesses. We will keep all interested parties informed of the work of the hospice and on the development of palliative care provided in Zheleznogorsk. As of today, this national “Civil Initiatives” award provides us with a valuable and serious resource”, according to a statement published on the organisation’s website.

The project “Action in defence of Russian citizenship” (protection of the rights of fellow countrymen to citizenship and pensions) was successful in the “Russia – our common home” category. A project developed by Novosibirsk activists called “Let’s get together to protect the Akademgorodok city forest” (aimed at maintaining the landscape architecture of Akademgorodok which has been designated as a place of federal place interest) was the winner of the “Green planet” category, while the “Innocents” project (in memory of the oppressed people of the village of Zasose in the Leningrad oblast) was the winner of the “Memory” category.

The “Air of freedom” category was won by the “Municipal saw” project, developed by a group of St Petersburg activists. In the “Push the boundaries” category, the winner was a project put together by activists from Perm called “on the edge of equal opportunities” aimed at encouraging young disabled people to socialise through participation in all-inclusive volunteer activities.

“Every project submitted in this competition has a story to tell and each has its own unique plot. It was extremely difficult to choose the winners, with the final list generating much heated debate! We’re very pleased that the prizes are now being distributed more widely and that ever more compelling and important initiatives are coming to the fore”, said Julie Gusman, the award’s artistic director and member of the Civil Initiatives Committee,

Author’s note

The national “Civil Initiatives” award was established by the Civil Initiatives Committee in 2013. Its task is to seek out unsung heroes living in modern day Russia who, on their own initiative, are trying to change life for the better, and who are already achieving success or have a plan in mind.

Author: Georgy Ivanushkin

http://www.asi.org.ru/news/110032/

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