Beneficiaries of EU Local Grants Program, Media and Communication. Received Grant Certificates
The 14 non-governmental organizations beneficiaries of the European Union Local Grants Program, Media and Communication, received their grant certificates in an online event, held on 11 September 2020. The event was attended by representatives of local civil society organizations and their local and regional media partners.
The beneficiary organizations from all country’s regions mentioned that empowering citizens also meant their informing and mobilizing, engagement and participation in change processes and projects i.e. responsibility and partnerships that contribute to improving the living conditions of people in the country’s regions.
Present at the event, the Ambassador of the European Union to the Republic of Moldova, Peter Michalko, encouraged the teams to continue with enthusiasm the activities started: “We pay great attention and importance to your activities and look for all possibilities to support independent media, including at local and regional levels. Media have a very important role to play in providing information to citizens, including information on European Union’s support."
The event addressed the topic of mobilizing and engaging citizens in community development and improving local public services.
Valentina Plesca, Head of the Citizen Empowerment Unit, GIZ Moldova: “Only through cooperation among the citizens, authorities and international development partners can results be achieved. International partners only offer us support but the decisions are ours. We stake on the fact that this grant program will have a great impact on citizen empowerment and accountability."
Petru Macovei, API executive director: “In this program we have projects that will work with young people, it is very important for them to be involved as well, because they will be the ones to make decisions for their communities and for the country in the future. Through these projects, we can influence their way of thinking, so that we have future leaders aware of the importance of communicating with citizens, but also citizens who not only ask for something, but also engage in decision-making in their communities.”
The EU Local Grants Program, Media and Communication, offered grants of 5 thousand to 15 thousand euros for 14 local non-governmental organizations: Northern region - Info Dava, Anima, Nord Media; Central region - Express, Universal Media, Eurodemos Plus, ASCED, Association of Environmental and Ecologic Tourism Journalists, Media Grup Meridian; Southern region - Cahul 2030, Prospect, Feedback; TAU Gagauzia - Piligrim Demo and Media Birlii Uniunia Media. In the following period, the beneficiary organizations will carry out information and promotion activities in the field of public services (water supply and sewerage, solid waste management, energy efficiency) and environmental protection, together with their regional media partners: newspapers Observatorul de Nord in Soroca, Expresul in Ungheni, Gazeta de Sud in Cimi?lia, Natura magazine, portals Nordnews.md in Bal?i, Ziuadeazi.md in Cahul, Nokta.md and Laf.md in Comrat, Ecopresa.md; TV stations Albasat TV in Nisporeni, Media TV in Cimi?lia, Bas TV in Basarabeasca, ATV in Comrat; and the radio stations Eco FM and Radio Orhei.
The event organized by API could be watched live on Privesc.eu and on API’s official Facebook page.
Access Api.md and Eu4civilsociety.md to follow how the beneficiary organizations will carry out the projects.
The Local Grants Program is launched under the Single Support Framework of the European Union (EU), granted to the Republic of Moldova (2017-2020) under the European Neighborhood Instrument, through "Empowering Citizens in the Republic of Moldova" Project (2019-2021), funded by the European Union and implemented by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). The project partner for enhancing visibility potential and citizen engagement is the Association of Independent Press (API).
