Barents Youth Newsletter September 2006

The Norwegian Barents Secretariat [email protected] www.barents.no

International Business Development Barents Youth Conference 2006 in Tromsø By Daniel Muotka and Laila Dalhaug By Laila Dalhaug Young Entrepreneurs in Barents (YE!) is a business The 8th-12th of November there will be arranged a development project targeted at young business people, conference for Barents Youths in Tromsø. The event will entrepreneurs and innovators in the Barents region. The gather 100 youths aged 18-26 years. Youths from NGOs or project will provide the participants a unique opportunity young enthusiasts or driving forces for the Barents for international business development and an opportunity cooperation are invited to apply for participation. to build up a wide business network. The conference is a part of the Barents days of Tromsø Fifteen active business people and ten potential business Municipality. The conference is arranged by Troms County starters from each Barents country (, , Finnland Administration, The Barents secretariat, BYCO, The Barents and ) from the sectors tourism/culture, retail trade, or Regional Youth Council, Tromsø Municipality and TVIBIT. IT/media will be recruited to the project. Youths that are members in NGOs, or are enthusiasts or driving The purpose of the project is to create international business forces for the Barents cooperation aged 18-26 years can apply development for the participants. This will be achieved through for participation. They must be English speaking or bring their custom made education focusing on the needs of the own interpreters. participants. In addition, the participants will be offered a chance to build up an international business network with the fellow There will be 25 from Russia and 20 from each of the Nordic participants and with established businesses and organisations countries and 15 indigenous youth. The Participants should be in the Barents Region. . spread on all counties in the respective countries.

The participants will be offered to take part in events and There is no pre-defined theme of the conference. The overall seminars in each participating country during the project. frame is Youth in the High North and identity to the area. The Contacts will be maintained through video-conferences and participants will define the content and the work will be arranged web-based tools. Besides the strong connection to trade and according to a process-model used with great success in Youth industry the project will offer advisors and coaches to ensure Work in Troms County. This to ensure that maximum outcome for each participant of the project. 1. All participants actively participate in the work during The YE project will go on for about two years with seminars the conference and/or meetings arranged on a monthly basis. The Municipality 2. The issues on the agenda are actually representative of Pajala, Sweden, is the principal applicant for the project. The for the Youths interest when it comes to High North collaborating parties are Norrbotten’s Chamber of Commerce, Policy Norwegian Barents Secretariat, Kemi-Tornio University of 3. The most important item are taken into account; Youth Applied Sciences, and State Technical University. participation and democracy in practice The project will fully cover the costs of the participants. For application please contact Laila Dalhaug [email protected] A Forum for Young Entrepreneurs in Barents will be held in Tornedalen, Sweden, on 22-23 September 2006. The arrangement will be a kick-off for the YE! Project. During the Forum the participants will be provided great opportunities for networking and exploring of new business possibilities. For more information visit www.yebarents.eu

Photo: Petter Mahrs

THE NORWEGIAN BARENTS SECRETARIAT www.barents.no BARENTS YOUTH NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2006

Joint Training Course for Cooperation and Partnership All different- All equal By Laila Dalhaug By Laila Dalhaug The Council of Europe and The Barents Secretariat will 21st-25th of September a European Youth Event for together with many other partners arrange a training course Diversity, Human Rights and Participation gathers 400 to strengthen cooperation and partnership in the youth field representatives of youth organisations in St Petersburg. in the Barents region. The Course will be arranged the 13 – 17 October 2006 in Murmansk. Representatives of youth organisations from all over Europe will be gathered together in St Petersburg from 21 to 25 September This joint training course is supported by Directorate of Youth to assess the role played by young people in building a Europe and Sport of the Council of Europe; Russian Ministry of without dividing lines, to foster dialogue of cultures and religions Education and Science; The Norwegian Barents Secretariat; through non-formal youth education, to discuss their Barents Regional Working Group on Youth Issues: Barents participation in decision-making process and to pool experience Euro-Arctic Council, Working Group on Youth Policy; including regarding the protection of human rights and young people's Barents Youth Cooperation Office. rights and overcoming discrimination.

The aims and objectives of this joint training course is to The aim of the European Campaign for Diversity and strengthen the co-operation and partnership between non- Participation is to governmental and governmental key actors in the development encourage and of youth policy in the Barents region and to contribute to the enable young people development of youth policy and youth work in the Barents to participate in region according to the principles of pluralist democracy and building peaceful human rights. societies based on diversity and Thirty participants from both governmental and non- inclusion, in a spirit of governmental sectors (ie 15 from each sector) will be invited. respect, tolerance, Participants from the non-governmental sector should be young and mutual understanding. In its undertaking, it will highlight the people actively involved in youth work within a youth NGO, links with the 1995 Campaign against Racism, Anti-Semitism, including non registered NGOs, preferably aged between 18 Xenophobia and Intolerance; to this end, the slogan selected for and 30, and nominated by their NGO. Interpretation will be the Campaign is that of the previous initiative, namely: “All provided in English and Russian; other languages are welcome Different, All equal”. for informal contacts. The partners in organising this Campaign are the Council of Europe, mainly the Directorate of Youth and Sport (DYS), the The training course will be run by an international team of European Youth Forum. Its activities will be undertaken experienced trainers and will use a non-formal educational essentially by young people in partnership with public approach with theoretical inputs. Active participation, group and authorities; the target group of the Campaign is the civil society, team work, discussions, good practices and learning-by-doing both at European and national levels. However, the Campaign are the methodological foundations of this training course. should of course reach out to as many young people in Europe as possible, with a particular focus on those who are victims of The programme will be defined so as to meet the overall aim discrimination, and in particular through activities involving and objectives of the course as well as to suit the needs of the schools. participants and of the situation. Special attention will be given to an exchange of information in the field of non-formal The Campaign will take place in 2006, with continuation of education and networking between participants. Participation is activities and follow-up in 2007. Additional information on the on a voluntary basis, presenting an application for the course European Youth Forum and the "All different - all equal" will be taken as proof of the motivation and contribution each campaign can be found on the campaign web- applicant will make during the week. Participants are expected site http://alldifferent-allequal.info to take full responsibility for their attendance and active participation.

For more information contact [email protected] or Maria Petrova [email protected] THE NORWEGIAN BARENTS SECRETARIAT www.barents.no BARENTS YOUTH NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2006

through four sub-themes, which are examined at a general level and through the exchange of best practices.

The sub-themes were Young people's living conditions, active young citizenship in the Barents Region, social www.Barentsphoto.org empowerment of young Youth and business development in the people and promotion of mobility in the Barents High North Region. By Jan Eirik Johnsen and Laila Dalhaug The 14th of November during The Barents Days in Tromsø, a conference on youth and possibilities for business THE SKIIPPAGURRA FESTIVAL 2006 development in the High North will be arranged. About 50 By Laila Dalhaug young business managers and entrepreneurs will be invited The forth Skiippagurra Festival were arranged in the from all Countries in the Barents region. beginning of July in Tana municipality in Norway. The festival started as a project, The conference will provide the participants with exciting visions which aims among other of the future, practical knowledge and networks, together with things, was to diminish the enthusiasm to realise the visions for the Barents region. amount of youths moving out, and to create positive The running theme for the conference will be young peoples experiences and attitudes opportunities for business establishment and development towards ones own local trough cross border cooperation in the north. society.

The target group is young innovators aged 18-25 years. There Among many activities The Skiippagurra festival arranged a will be an open invitation to schools and the university and the music workshop for youths from the Barents region the 28th of conference is expected to gather about 200 participants in total. June-2nd of July 2006. 18 youth from Russia, The programme has three parts with presentations, presentation Sweden and of best practices and speed dating/work shops. meets local youth from If you want more information please contact Jan Eirik Johnsen, Tana and work together [email protected], mob: +47 975 113 84 with intructors from the multicultural musicgroup Daap from Vadsø and the Youth in the Barents Region Russian group Lumen - a lottery win or bad luck?" from Moscow. 5 days of hard work ended in a fantastic concert on the Skiippagurrafestival. To help out with the preparations By Laila Dalhaug and implementation of the festival they arranged a Youth This was the title of a Seminar organised in Rovaniemi, 27- Exchange over the European commission’s YOUTH 29 August 2006 by the Barents Euro Arctic Working Group programme. on Youth Policy.

In order to promote the objectives of the Plan of Action and the mandate of the Working Group on Youth Policy (WGYP), the WGYP organizes during the Finnish chairmanship two Barents Euro-Arctic Seminars in which the aim will be to examine the situation of young people in the Barents Region from different perspectives, such as active citizenship, social empowerment, living conditions, and mobility. The first seminar was in Rovaniemi in August 2006 and the At the opening ceremony, a theatre group from Murmansk gave second one will be in June 2007. a great show and took part in another event in Tana, creating a indigenous peoples related theatre performance about The aim of the seminar was to look at youth in the Barents environmental issue http://www.skiippagurrafestivalen.no Region from different angles. The subject matter is approached

THE NORWEGIAN BARENTS SECRETARIAT www.barents.no BARENTS YOUTH NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2006

Seminar about The European commission’s Kalottspel with high quality performance YOUTH programme By Laila Dalhaug By Laila Dalhaug After 5 days of hard work This weekend the Norwegian National Agency of the in august the Barents YOUTH programme and the Norwegian Barents secretariat Youth project under arranges a seminar to highlight the possibilities for youth Kalottspel 2006 spell exchanges, voluntary service and funding of local youth bounded their audience initiatives within the European commission’s YOUTH with a high quality programme. performance with a of mix of Russian, Norwegian and Finnish The seminar has gathered 30 Youth workers and voluntaries engaged in youth work from all the Barents countries. dance and music.

The participants learn that the YOUTH programme offers The performance head various opportunities for cooperation with Partner Countries (a lighted the fabulous number of defined countries outside of the EU/EFTA/pre- nature in the Northern accession countries). In supporting youth activities with these areas and the common countries, the European Commission’s main aims are to build history of forestry was a long-lasting and solid partnerships, as well as promoting the recurring theme. A well exchange of youth work expertise and know-how between non- directed combination governmental and governmental structures in the European and mixture of traditional Union and Partner Countries. song, music and dance gave a spectacular performance with new cultural and borderless expressions.

We have had a lot of fun and have the same kind of humour says the youngsters that took part in the project and they are pleased with the result and pay homage to their workshop leaders. The workshop had three professional trainers Andreas Ljones, Rune Tylden and Magne Kleiveland.

The results and experiences from this event were so positive that the organisers want Ylva Pavva, Sindre Wolf, Ludmila Isaeva and Andrey to do this again and Vokuyev are discussing future projects maybe arrange a visit to Arkhangelsk and put up The main aim for the seminar is to stimulate to and enable the performance there. participants to implement future YOUTH exchanges within the The Norwegian Barents Barents region. As our closest neighbours outside of the EU, the Secretariat supported the project. Read more at Russian regions of the Barents area are prioritised within the www.kalottspel.no Partner Countries Cooperation of the YOUTH programme. To increase the activity and the quality of projects within the area, the Norwegian National Agency of the YOUTH programme Other news for Indigenous Youths organises this seminar for potential beneficiaries in the region. By Siri Wernberg

This is good news for a region with a lot of interest for exchange Young Arctic culture and cross border activities. The participants will see new The youth festival “Young Arctic Culture” was arranged at opportunities and get a lot Finnsnes in Troms County the 3rd-6th of August. This was an of ideas and even arena for young people who are in the business of performing partners for future arts and culture production. The arrangement included dance, projects. For more theater, concerts amongst other things. information see www.ungieuropa.no Summer@nordtroms 2006 Summer@Nord-Troms is a one-day festival in Kåfjord in Troms The organizers Irene County where rock music and football is united. Handeland and Sigrid Smith-Tønnessen from Sápmi – becoming a nation The Norwegian National The Tromsø Museum has opened a virtual exhibition called Agency of the YOUTH programme and Laila Dalhaug from the “Sápmi – becoming a nation” that describes modern saami Norwegian Barents Secretariat development. Find out more at the website http://sapmi.uit.no/ THE NORWEGIAN BARENTS SECRETARIAT www.barents.no BARENTS YOUTH NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2006

The Saami Parliament’s Youth Conference The Pilgrims Bicyclists got Barents prize – “Funky business?” By Thomas Nilsen and Laila Dalhaug By Siri Wernberg The Bicycle Club Pilgrims from got the The Saami Parliament's Youth Policy Committee and the Barents prize in Kirkenes in August after riding 3400 Saami Parliament in Norway are arranging The Saami kilometres trough the Barents region. Parliament’s Youth Conference 2006 the 27th – 29th of October at Svanhovd outside Kirkenes. The Pilgrims get this prize for their many Subject for the conference is saami industry and years of contact entrepreneurship. There will be lectures, working groups and making activities for discussions in plenary session and different activities in the youths in the Barents evenings. Region.Its the 7th time that youths form For more information contact [email protected] Severomorsk rides their bicycles from the , via Gassko – Saami happening Finland and Sweden to Norway. 13 Youth took part this year By Siri Wernberg and the youngest were 9 years old. It is a combination of The saami youth website Infonuorra Sápmi arranged a saami outdoor life and study trip. They meet other people and gathering for youths from Norway, Sweden and Russia in Bodø experiences in Nordland County the 08th – 10th of September. The the variety of arrangement included concerts, paintball, a course in saami the nature in cooking and a cultural scholarship was presented. the Barents region in a unique way from their Saami Youth camp in Lovozero bicycles. By Siri Wernberg The Russian saami youth organization Al´p arranged a saami youth camp this summer in The Barents Meeting 2006 Lovozero in Russia. By Julia Leontieva Also saami youth from Norway participated. The end of August: We were waiting forward for it. On those days we were going to have an exciting trip to Norway to It is important to Sommeroy, Summer Island. Our team consisted of 12 increase the students from 3 schools and me, a teacher of gymnasia 1, cooperation between indigenous youth organizations in the Murmansk. Barents region and the event have contributed to increase networks cross borders and have It took us about 18 created a fundament for extended future cooperation hours to get there by microbuses. We were tired but extremely excited. We were in the The Saami Football cup camp for 3 whole days. By Siri wernberg There were about 60 children from The Saami Football Murmansk, Russia, cup, with Norway and Sweden. participating teams mainly from Sweden Every day had its own features. On the first, the students were and Norway, was split into different teams and every team had got a map of the arranged in island. They were to find 10 spots with tasks that were pointed Gällivare in Sweden, on the map. That activity helped the children to know the island th th July 14 – 16 . This better, not to mention a great interest that had captured all the year also young boys and girls. I must say that it wasn't easy. The trip around the boys, age 12-14 island took about 5 hours, everybody was exhausted but happy. years, had their own saami cup. The winner of the cup for this On the second day, we reached the top of about 550 meters age group was DSJ, a team from Tysfjord in Nordland County. height. The view was fantastic! It was worth climbing there!!! For More Information; http://www.idrett.no/finnmark/t2.asp The third day was rather extreme. We had some rock-climbing exercises. THE NORWEGIAN BARENTS SECRETARIAT www.barents.no BARENTS YOUTH NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2006

Everything was great, but activities were not the aim of the meeting of students from Norway, Russia, and Sweden. The most important point of our trip was to share some information about Russian culture, traditions etc. with students from other countries so that they can understand us better. Every evening the children gave their presentations about their countries, cities, schools.

In the end we had barbecue in the open year. All the students were presented with special T-shirts. Everybody has found a friend there! www.naturogutfordring.no

BRYC s welfare initiative The Saami Pathfinders By Maria Petrova By Anna Silja Turi The Finnmark County Administration allocated 30 000 Three Sami youth are going to travel around in Norway to Norwegian Kroner to The Barents Regional Youth Councils tell about the Saamis and their way of life. social project in 2006.The aim was to give a helping hand to disadvantaged children and youths in Murmansk. These are Elle Sofe Henriksen (22) from Guovdageaidnu/ Kautokeino, Mats Pavall (20) from Fauske and Anne Silja Turi Tommy Berg and Petter (20) from Tysfjord. Mahrs from Barents Regional Youth Council (BRYC) visited The ”Sami Pathfinders” project was started by the Ministry of Murmansk the 1st of Local Government and Regional Development, today’s Ministry September to do something of Labour and Social Inclusion in 2004. good for socially The Ministry together with the Sami University College in disadvantaged children and Kautokeino wants to contribute with information about the Sami youths of Murmansk. culture and make it more visible through this project. The ”Sami Pathfinders”, who have backgrounds in different Sami areas are As an anti HIV initiative, they going to show and tell about a large aspect of the Sami culture. bought condoms which were distributed by the Board for youth affairs of Murmansk region to youth health centers. They will show that the Sami culture is rich and diversified. This is a free offer for all the high schools and other youth The children of the orphanage in Kildinstroy got special toys to arenas in Norway. Please contact the Sami Pathfinders, maybe stimulate to more physical activities and creativity. They also got you will meet them some day? www.samiskeveivisere.no equipment for school.

The Barents Regional Youth council also gave a huge Saami Reading Camp contribution to children who start school this year. About 400 By Siri Wernberg children going to school for the first time got very nice “school start kits” with colors, pens, pencils and albums. A saami reading camp for youth from Norway, The event was supported by Barents Youth Cooperation Office Sweden and Finland will in Murmansk, and Murmansk Regional Board for Youth Affairs. be arranged for the third rd th time 23 – 27 of October Everybody agreed that there is a great demand for such 2006 in Øvre Soppero in concrete projects and that we should continue doing something Sweden. nice for socially disadvantaged children in the future! The camp is for pupils in junior high school/secondary modern school who read the saami language. The camp is meant to be a motivation for saami youth who like to read and want to get to know saami literature. For more information contact Siri Wernberg [email protected]

Photo: Maria Petrova

THE NORWEGIAN BARENTS SECRETARIAT www.barents.no BARENTS YOUTH NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2006

More street children get support The programme is divided up into four main sectors; Public By Thomas Nilsen administration, education and research, Business and Civic Some 1500 children in Murmansk have got help from Save society the Children Norway in Russia. Arkhangelsk is next. The Nordic Council of Ministers and its partners in the Nordic Since 2002 Save the Children Norway in Russia has been Region and North-West Russia will identify and re-evaluate involved in supporting Russian organisations in bettering the priorities within these sectors on a regular basis. During autumn lives of street 2006 the programme will run a wide-ranging consultation children in exercise with potential partners in order to identify possible joint Murmansk city. activities within the four main programme sectors. Since the start of the project Parts of the new Knowledge Transfer and Networking more than 1500 Programme will also be opened up to include Belarus. During children have 2007, the Nordic Council of Ministers will look at the been reached. preconditions for exchanges between various groups in the Nordic Region and Belarus. www.norden.org www.norden.ru

Based on the good experiences from the work together with the

Municipality of Murmansk, the programme recently expanded to the cities of Apatity and Archangelsk – and proper agreements with municipal authorities and partner organizations have now been signed.

In addition to the municipalities themselves, the work on street children in North West Russia is funded by the Norwegian Barents Secretariat, the Nordic Council of Ministers as well as Save the Children Norway. www.barents.no Save the Children Norway is in the process of considering expansion of the programme to even more locations on the Kola ’ Peninsula.

New Knowledge Programme By Jurij Smirnov The Nordic Council of Ministers will launch a new Knowledge Transfer and Networking Programme within the framework of its Russia Programme on 1 January 2007.

The programme will replace the 11 different exchange programmes previously run by the Nordic Council of Ministers www.byco.ru with a single, co-ordinated and simplified programme. Funding for the mobility programme will also be increased by soon available approximately 25%, from DKK 24 million p.a. to almost DKK 32 million. ’ The programme will provide civil servants, teachers, researchers, politicians, artists, journalists and NGOs in the Nordic Region and North-West Russia with access to training, work experience and participation www.norden.org in joint Nordic-Russian programmes. The programme will be run in close collaboration with official bodies, institutions, www.norden.ru universities and other organisations in the Nordic Region and in North-West Russia.

THE NORWEGIAN BARENTS SECRETARIAT www.barents.no

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