Tuesday 30 May
Training in Yekaterinburg 29th-31st May 2006 for municipal employees of Sverdlovsk region |
![]() Subject of the training was “Tolerance – constituent part for a civil society”. This was the third training which was carried out within the framework of the project “Education for tolerant attitudes towards ethnic minorities, migrants and foreign citizens” which is financed by the embassy of the United States in Moscow and in parts by the American independent Mott Foundation.
It should be immediately emphasized that this time the participants of the training themselves took parts of the financing. The employees of municipal institutions paid for their tickets from their city to Yekaterinburg and back, as well as parts for their accommodation and meals in the guest house “Selena”. The leaders of national organisations assumed the costs for the cultural program. Actually, we created a precedent in The support of the Department of Internal Policy has played a crucial role in the successful organisation and implementation of the training. The training began in the evening of 29th May. At first, the participants gathered in the foyer of the building nr. 4 of the guest house “Selena”. Ashot Ayrapetyan, Director of the Center for Interethnic Cooperation, told about the aims and tasks of the training. The participants received handouts. Ashot said that he and a volunteer of the Center, Joanne Edwards from After the official part, the participants moved to the veranda next to the building. The keeper of the guest house equipped the veranda in Old Russian style, next to the noisy woods. The nature is very beautiful at this place and at the end of May everything was blooming and smelling. The in advance prepared coal helped to fry sausages quickly, and, since in the organisation of the table everyone was involved, the first team-building game was rather successful.
On the next day, the participants of the seminar met at 10 o’clock with the consul-generals of the
After dinner, when the consuls had returned to Yekaterinburg, Ashot Ayrapetyan asked the participants of the training to explain what “tolerance” means to them. The participants were divided into three groups to do that. The leaders of the national organisations made up the first group, the other two contained the state officials. When the representatives of the groups reported about the results of the work, it turned out that there were no principal differences in the results and that they are fully consistent with the results of previous trainings. And, therefore, the manifestations of intolerant attitudes among people do not take place because few people of the society know and understand the concept of tolerance. The reason for this phenomenon is another.
Here are the results: Portrait of “the representative of national minorities”
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In turn, Marina Plyasnova, employee of the Department of internal policy, told about the activities of the administration of Later on, the administration of the region plans to create a network of monitoring the interethnic situation in the areas of the regions. The network will be based on the staff of the municipal agencies. So the establishment of direct contacts to them and, in particular, the clarification of the administration’s policy in the sphere of interethnic relations was the main task for Marina Yurevna. Not less interesting were the speeches of the representatives of municipal agencies of Next was the speech of Elena Sayenko. She is Head of the administration of the city of Finally it was time for the main task of the training. Ashot divided the participants of the training into three mixed groups. The first had to work out recommendations for small cities, where everything is quiet and there is no intolerance towards ethnic minorities; the second group had to work out recommendations for areas where the population lives separated but there exist compact ethnic settlements; the third group had to work out recommendations for cities with a population of several thousand people. The leaders of national organisations were represented in all three groups. The results of the group work are the following: First group Federal legislation Federal educational system Subordinate regulatory acts taking into account the local circumstances Involvement of the media Regional component in the education Activities with national organisations Collective deliberative bodies. Allocation of financial means for the support of national organisations Interaction of the administration of the city with the police, court, prosecutor’s office Creation of a commission to determine the need of foreign labour force Using the media Second group Work with teachers Competition of development program Training of municipals Active use of media Media competition Work with the population on the benefits of immigration (demography, jobs) Activation of ethnic communities and of the administration of the city Promotion of the culture and the tradition of the nations of Northern Ural Training of officials Series of training for officials Educational programs for State employees Programs on integration Creation of an integration network An overall program of activities of all departments, coordinating body Work with the youth Third group Use of the possibilities of the media Broad acquaintance with the culture of nations (mentality) Support and promotion of national cultures and traditions Financial support of programs (municipal) Development and adoption of municipal programs and projects Merging of economical, political and social resources Special courses in educational institutions and use of national-regional components Holding of trainings for leaders of civil society organisations and different structures As can be seen, the results of the groups do not differ significantly from each other. And therefore, a special “local” recipe for tolerance does not exist. It is necessary to work with the media, to prepare State officials, to develop an interaction with national organisations and to finance all this work. The training was completed by that. It was very good, that the municipal official took actively part in this Thus, the main result of the training is that State employees can and want to cope with problems of tolerance in their region. And therefore, a permanent program at the federal or regional level is necessary to allocate means so that this work can be done. However, as shown by this and previous trainings, it does not matter where the means for the mentioned program come from – from the budget of the country or foreign funds. The main thing is that the local administration understands and supports this work. And national organisations are always ready to take the most active part in this work. |