Dear friends, colleagues, fans and mates!

The team of Eurobus project coordinators with a slightly sad note informs you that this year, despite intense requests from small Ukrainian towns and villages, the international Eurobus project will not go though its traditional spring route in Ukraine and Poland.

We are currently in search of new exciting ideas and approaches to implementing the prokect. But the main point is that we’re in search of interesting and energetic organizers you can become.

In case you have ideas, offers and wishes about the implementation of the “Eurobus” project in further — we welcome you to contact us. Our post boxes, phone numbers, other details and “web-mebs” can be found in the “Contacts” section.

Positive moments:

Already on April 27-28 in Lviv the heads of International services in local branches will go through a serious training section on organizing international projects. And we should note, that we think of this training with our “Europe Inside” (May, 2012) sessions in mind.

We are open to your offers regarding mentor visits and expert consulting related to Europe integration processes, international youth projects, activating local communities, human rights, organization and project management, etc. That’s why all we can do by now is just wait for your invitations to visit you again. And of course we invite you to visit various educational events organized by FRI: FRI schools, media schools, barcamps, etc.

Right now young activists can join FRI and build their own local branch of the coolest youth NGO in the whole Ukraine. That will help your develop your own Eurobus-level projects, and travel through Ukraine and the whole world.

The final bonus: now we have a discount card for Eurobus on Ukrainian roads. It was given to us by the local road management department of Chernomorsk (the Crimea). Of course, it’s not a trip to Rio-de-Janeiro, but it’s quite ok for the first time!

Stay tuned!

With a wish of warm and intense spring,
your Sazhyns, Bevzas, Vlasenkos, Ohovichs, Yurkovskis and Shyhimahas

The amazing “Eurobus-5” project has ended, and now we have a lot of nice memories, photos and contacts. International projects usually have sad “Good-Byes” – you hug a new friend, and understand that you won’t see him or her never again. But not every person can agree for this. So, we couldn’t either — me and Aurelija, a participant from Lithuania. Our friendship didn’t want to break forever after passing two weeks in one bus, making several common trainings and chatting for dozens of hours. Aura invited me to visit her to show the incredible beauty of her motherland — the amazing and unknown for me country in Baltics.

They say, life is an interesting book, and those who don’t travel know only one page of it.

At Vilnius Railway station I was met by Aura and her friends. After seeing each other, we had a long hug, laughed a lot, and couldn’t say a word because of happiness All-in-all, we haven’t put ourselves in danger of postponing everything for later and not having another chance to meet.

I can swear, I’ve discowered Lithuania and its culture better than thousands of other tourists clicking their cameras in every picturesque corner, on every square and in every little park..

My visit has coinsided with a big holiday — the Crowning Day of Mindaugas, the first king of Lithuania. Nobody works on this day — everyone’s getting ready for a concert staring several thousands of school kids and youngsters from Lithuania who perform in choir, dance and play music instruments. This is an amazing event!

Have felt thirst for adventures, we have also planned a trip to Estonia, a country that was a bit enigmatic for us. If in France you can see Eiffel Tower, in Rome — Colosseum, what can you expect from Estania. So, we’ve started passing the days in preparations for the travel.

There were three of us, and we’ve decided to discover this country riding bicycles. So, the route has started in Tallinn, the capital. Then we were moving along the Baltic coast towards Hiumaa and Saaremaa islands. I thinks here I don’t need to name all advantages of transport we’ve chosen (this is at least more interesting and useful that a comfortable bus where you just sit and turn the head left and right following the guide’s words). On a bike you can go wherever you want, and see whatever you like (not only what you’re shown).

During the trip we were visiting outstanding locations marked by a red star on our map. They included waterfalls, national parks, architecture monuments, lighthouses and the most interesting — meteorite craters.

In past Estonia was a part of the USSR, but now this is an amazing European country that seems to have not a single trace of Soviet past!

Tallinn is a beautiful city! We’ve entered it on a bicycle road, and I was amazed at the number of sportsmen on it — they were riding, running, and it was so unusual…

We have come to Estonian islands on ferries. Hiumaa is supposed to be one of the oldest islands in the world, having an area of almost one thosuand square kilometers. Before I’ve never thought of how people live on islands, and how much their life can differ from regular continent life. The first discovery was extremely wild nature and lots of forests. Once, riding on a road (as usually, smooth and covered with good asphalt), we’ve seen an incredibly big black boar before us! We were panicking a lot, but decided to take all our efforts to wait calmly till he leaves. After that we’ve rushed away from that place Apart from boars, we’ve also seen vixen, deer, beavers and a wild cat. The impressions were just amazing! To cut it short — they were enough for the whole life! If you’d ask me if I want to repeat the trip, I’d doubtlessly answer “Yes!”.

However, long distance is quite mean! First of all, my heart was calling me home. Moreover, all my friends and relatives were coming to my mind all the time. And that was rather sorrowful — I’ve been far away, on the edge of the world, but usually I have not enough time to come and visit my relatives in the neighbouring region of Ukraine. So, the decision was quite quick — as soon as I come back home, I’ll start travelling across my dear Motherland!

So, I came back. And one of the points of my Ukrainian travel was the melodic village of Muzykivka that has participated in the project this year. I have to thanks my new friends from that village — they were keeping in touch after the project ended, and invited me. That was incredibly satisfying to come to aplace of good memories. Actually, Muzykivka is a place to return.

Having glanced at the plan of Muzykivka development shown by Liudmyla Bondarenko, I’ve understood that this village has a lot of prospects! So, there’s no wonder that due to its persistance and great desire they’ve won the mentoring initiatives contest!”

French writer Anatole France said that one day passed in other places gives more than ten years of living at home. So, be light on your feet! Never postpone your life for later, and important things for tomorrow! Stay young in your soul, take part in different projects, and travel more!

A participant of “Eurobus-5” project,
Nastia Pidtoptana

Young and initiative students and a schoolchildren joined the young and energetic leader, Liudmyla Bondarenko, and plan to start the implementation of the project this wwekend!

“Though Eurobus has left Muzykivka already in May, its echoes are still here. One of them was the victory in the mentoring initiatives contest. We’ve got 1000 hryvnias for implementing our “Bright Life” project. We’ve already painted 2 bus stops for the same purpose. Now we want to unite our efforts and make a playground for kids near a local school. This sum is not too big, but we also hope to get help from local parents and other people involved in the life of the community”, say young activists on their Vkontake page “Muzykivka — FOREVER”.

“It’s great that there are items we can renovate and install anew. Also it’s worth saying that what we can do best are our paintings. The art aspect is traditionally coordinated by a local artist — Ivan Vrublevskyi. We have to dig out old slides and rockets, move them to the new place, clean from old colours, and paint them brightly.” – Liudmyla Bondarenko shares the plans of local activists. For her reconstructing and developing Muzykivka has become a regular yet incredibly pleasant work.

We wish you sunny weather and realization of all plans, our dear and funny guys from Muzykivka!

With good nostalgia,
Coordinators from Kharkiv

The first time we met all local coordinators, their teams and active youth was during our entry training trips. So, Kolia Bevza grabbed his backpacks, took a break in the university, and started his way to Dnipropetrovs’k region. To be more precise – to Pereshchepyne.

During the training Kolia shared with local children lots of important info. He told them about the Eurobus project, events format and the participants. Also they spoke about project management elements, and made a brief brainstorming session. In Pereshchepyne local youth said that one of the most important local problems is the absence of leisure places.

During the visit of Eurobus school kids decided to make a multicultural disco, where they could rock with young participants from Ukraine an the EU. Find details about this disco here.

Active sports issues was also actively discussed by the youth from Pereshchepyne. Local coordinator — Ihor Barabosha — is a civil activist, so, knowing what locals like more, he suggested to make a football game with mixed teams. The initiative was accepted by local kids really well. To improve the looks of a local park they decided to plant flowers.
While conducting the training in Pereshchepyne, Mykola understood that active and involved people can be found anywhere in Ukraine. And, of course, he discovered a nice town called Pereshchepyne.

P.S. The boys who go hitchhiking there’s a belief: you have to prepare for the trip as many days as you are planning to spend on the way. For instance, if you’ll travel for 2 weeks, make a 2-week preparation before. So, for Eurobus project to pass well, we had to make a lot of preparations. During the introductory trainings in every town local youth has discussed many interesting projects of resolving local problems. Now we can only say thanks a lot to the youth from Pereshchepyne for great initiatives and hard work they have demonstrated during the project.

And the winner is…

The project of renovating a Kids Playground with Graffiti Elements in Muzykivka!

That’s why this very project gets 1,000 hryvnias from the Eurobus-5 project.

The victory of Muzykiva guys was supported by 677 votes.

Р.S. Guys, because of inadequacy and suspicion of extra mean use, we, unfortunately, cannot give the victory to the project of renovating sport grounds in Pereshchepyne, though they have more votes. The project is organized by FRI and Plast. The common principle of both organizations for educating young people is fair and honest attitude to other people. The idea of 1,000 hryvnias for the winning project was to reunite local communities, make them think about common local and nation-wide problems. But now we also have to think about the human factor. We couldn’t even think that fair conditions have to be discussed. All-in-all, this is only 1,000 hryvnias. But anyone can make a mistake.

We are happy to announce the results of the photo contest conducted by this year’s fifth Eurobus project.

So, the winner of the category “Life as it is or the Greek Salad” is Bondarenko Liudmyla from Muzykivka, Kherson region. Her photo is called “The young communist supports joining the EU, too ”

1st prize of the “Eurobus-5” photo contest

The winner of the category “Lyric Life” is Yevhen Rieznik from Sievierodonets’k with his photo “Smile while letting go”.

2nd prize of the “Eurobus-5” photo contest

We remind you that the winners of the contest will receive valuable prizes — T-Shirts with “Eurobus-5” logo and other nice things.

We congratulate the winners and wish them a lot of photo-hunting success. Take pictures of everything you can see — both stable and moving! Everyone, who hasn’t won — eat your dagger-hilts and wait for the next contests.

Bye… We are waiting for more photo moments to publish them at our Eurobus website.

Eurobus-makers

We are here to represent you the second important part of Eurobus-5 project — the Mentoring Initiatives contest!

Every team in all selected towns and villages has prepared a cool idea for a project that will get assistance of Eurobus participants from Ukraine and the EU. Eurobusers with their experience and fresh view will give you tips on every stage of project realization. May the Internet be with us!

The conditions of the contest: until July 3 anyone can vote for one of six mentoring initiatives. The idea that will get the biggest number of votes will get 1,00 UAH from the International Renaissance Foundation that sponsors «Eurobus-5» project.
So..

Mentoring initiative from Kaniv is installing a European sports ground on a local beach. Young Kaniv inhabitants miss sports grounds a lot. Like in Kyiv (Hydropark beach) and Cherkasy («Bochka» beach), the activists are all ready to start the construction and installation of simple yet sound sports equipment.

The project of Pereshchepyne is «Sports ground in every yard!». As the Internet and computer games develop ever faster, the youth spends really few time in the street. Local activists say: «Sports, communication and open-air games — this is what the youth of Pereshchepyne is really missing. The main task of the mentoring initiative is to renovate two sports grounds on the stadiums of Pereshchepyne: to meld something, to colour something, to cut the grass.

The idea from Muzykivka is «Bright World!». Gray concrete fences and half-destroyed dance ground, dark and repulsive building of kindergarten, which has been in the «capital reparation» mode for three years already. The solution for this situation, or to be more exact, one of the solutions will be a kids ground with graffiti elements created by local youth.

The project from Sievierodonets’k is «Bike for a friend!». Only by good deeds you can change the life. But if you popularize the cycling you can not only improve your own health, but also stimulate the development of cycling movement and communication among people of different ages. That is why, active youth from Sievierodonets’k wants to create a free bike rent point through buying and collecting unnecessary bikes from locals.

In Avdiyivka the project is called «From Eco-awareness to civic Eco-movement» and will be organized for our dear Nature. The project includes sweding (its point is to re-shoot popular films in home conditions) and creating an e-book.

In Kirovs’ke the mentoring initiative is Creating a system of drop watering at the local Ecology and Nature Activities Youth Centre. The pupils of 5th-11th form visit this Centre. But now the existing watering system is incredibly outdated. The solution suggested by local activists includes installing a modern system. The system can give a possibility to save water and improve the conditions for experiments and research in vegetable, silvics, gardening and flower sections.

The contest is organized at the group of Eurobus project in Vkontakte, which is here

Vote and share it with your friends!

You can also see the full description of mentoring initiatives here

Eurobus is already in the hangar, but the results start to rejoice local communities and us, the participants and the coordinators of the project. In Sievierodonets’k there can appear bicycle parking lots and bicycle tracks initiated by local coordinators of the project — Olena Dubrovina, Pavlo Pryhorodov, Kyryl Dubrovin — and many local activists.

During the cycling flash-mob performed as a part of Eurobus-5 programme in Sievierodonets’k on May 24, 2012, local coordinators and community have passed a petition to the city hall. The petition was driving the attention of necessity to develop cycling infrastructure in the town, and to install bicycle parking lots near major trade centres, supermarkets, etc.

The result is worth publishing. Lower you can see the official answer of local administration received by activists and coordinators.

We congratulate the activists with their first steps to success. Also, Eurobus-5 hopes that this initiative will grow into even bigger and better results for the town of Sievierodonets’k.
Hopefully, next time we’ll have a chance to ride the bikes. This time, unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time for it.

Your Eurobusers Звідусіль

From Everywhere

The more people, the more speaking. The more speaking, the more quotes. And when people speak foreign languages.. Funny ROFL quotes of eurobusers, driver, coordinators, locals:

“Put Lenina street into GRS – it is in every city in Ukraine” © Sashko Naumchak, Kaniv
“Dear families, you’ve received great European youth. Please, return them in the same condition!” © Yakiv Prohnimak, Kaniv
“In the school my nickname was banana-boy!” © Anton Shyhimaha, after eating the first banana in Kremenchuk
“You know, my first tree families were so hospital..” © Valeria Borovik (Latvia) after an allergies attack and ambulance call
“Actually, Ukraine will not join the EU – it will annex the EU” © Anton Shyhimaha at one of Europe Days
“Let`s go & do what we do best — EAT!” © Maya Ivanova (Bulgaria), on the 5th day of 3-time over-eating
“We’re all like cows — they feed us and transport us, feed us and transport us..” – «The All-Eurobus Cow Theory» © Maya Ivanova (Bulgaria)
“Can you give me a tea?” – “No problem..” Answered Nastia (Kyiv) to Aurelija (Lithuania), and the boxes from an upper shelf started falling on the girls.
“I feel as if I were pregnant. And my two kids are potato and cabbage!” © Zuzanna (Slovakia) and Karolina (Kharkiv) about food «variety» in several cafeterias, where eurobusers ate.
“Anton, lichi everyone! © driver Sashko unites two words that sound similarly in Ukrainian: «Count» and «Cure».
Valerija: Christina, what is the German for “butterfly” Christina: Schmetterling. Georgi: Wow, sounds like Messershmidt. Christina: Well, it`s also flies.
“Let’s put the T-shirts on for the training — usual, white, dirty T-shirts” © Aurelija (Lithuania)
“Oh, village schools… I wanna cry…” © Aurelija during a training
“Well, we’re in Ukraine, so we have to start speaking our «native mova»” © Olena Falaleyeva (Luhans’k)
“I have rejected sweet. Since two hours”. © Nastia Pidtoptana (Kyiv)
“Hey, People! This is Sievierodonetsk! They don’t do it like that in here!” © Max, the son of local coordinator Lena about a farewell run of Nastia after the car with Aurelija.