Eurobus has become an annual project accompaigning the celebration of Europe days in Ukraine. In May 2011 it will be the 4th time, when the Eurobus tour will travel across Ukraine. A team of 12 young EU representatives and 3 Ukrainians will travel across Ukraine for over two weeks. Each of 8 towns or villages, lying on the Eurobus itinerary, will celebrate the Europe days. Young participants will conduct training sessions on Eurointegration topics for high school pupils, spread informational materials about the EU and opportunities for youth in it, and, finally, realize with the local community an initiative suggested by the youngsters at the preparatory trainings.

There are two unique features of the project: first, it’s target audience are people from rural locations mostly in Eastern and Southern Ukraine; second, we especially stress informal communication (living in local families, common communication and trainings).

Thus, the project is aimed at solving two basic problems:

1. low level of awareness and, as a result, stereotypic thinking about Ukrainians and EU citizen towards each other;
2. passiveness of Ukrainian rural youth and their low motivation for civil activity aimed at solving the problems of a local community.

At the preparation stage a series of trainings for local coordinators and youth will be conducted. The Eurobus tour itself will start on May, 5 in Warsaw with a 2-day introduction training and participating in Schuman parade. The most active representatives of local communities and the EU participants will be invited to start the project in Warsaw.

The “Eurobus 4: European youth to Ukrainian communities” project is organized by young people from the Kharkiv branch of Ukrainian National Youth NGO “Foundation of Regional Initiatives”.

The project is financed by the European Program of International Renaissance Foundation and co-financed by the European Union delegation to Ukraine.

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