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| Belarusian Youth Movement of America Annual Report (2008-2009) |
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| Saturday, 09 May 2009 | |
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On March 25, 2009 Belarusian Youth Movement of America celebrated its third anniversary. During the past year BYMA continued to develop and follow its priorities established two years ago. This year BYMA members concentrated on educational, social and cultural projects. We continued to participate actively in political life of American Belarusians by organizing actions that contributed to successful development of Belarus as a democratic country where human rights of its citizens are highly respected.
Unity of Belarusian Youth abroad and in the United States of America in the first place is one of the priorities of the organization. We moved forward in our informational activities, including development of Belarusian Internet and technical support of Belarusian web sites. Members of the Belarusian Youth Movement of America carried on the tradition of close and friendly relationship with partner organizations of Belarus, the USA and other countries of the world During the third year of BYMA existence its members contributed greatly to the development of the cultural centre, Belarusian Cathedral in Brooklyn, NY. The youth helped in church restoration by donating money and doing construction works. Belarusian Museum of New York founded two years ago in NY (St.Cyril of Turau Cathedral, Brooklyn, NY) reached a new level. Last year thanks to BYMA well-known Belarusian artists Yaugen Shatohin, Ales Marachkin, Ales Shaternik had an opportunity to visit the United States. The artists were able to organize their own personal exhibitions as well as a group exhibition that included 32 works. Thanks to active help of our friends from partner organizations first of all in the US a travelling exhibition “Art against Dictatorship” started its journey across the USA. It was first opened in Belarusian Museum in New York and then travelled to the US capital Washington D.C. twice (“German Marshall Fund of the United States” and Fund for American Studies). The first similar exhibition was successfully organized in the Estonian parliament in Tallinn in 2008. A consultative board of Belarusian Museum Rada of Artists was formed. It is supposed to help in the development of the museum, in cooperation of artists and it will also function as a consultative body. The purpose of such a formation is to improve the effectiveness of the museum work. At present construction works are almost finished and Belarusian Museum will proudly open its doors to its first guests. Immediate task now is to build private entrance for the museum. Members of BYMA continued to organize social events such as holiday parties, movie premieres. We participated in traditional Convention of Belarusians of North America that took place in Ohio at the end of the summer 2008. At the convention BYMA organized an exhibition of the Belarusian artists, demonstration of several movies telling about latest developments in Belarus as well as historical events. Thanks to BYMA two young Belarusians were decorated with Kalinouski Freedom Medal. These young activists Andrew Kim and Ivan Shyla were awarded following Zmicer Dashkevich who was the first recipient of the award. The third year of BYMA continued to unite young Belarusians around the world through a variety of projects and brought new members and friends. More young people joined our organization, they live abroad and believe in changing Belarus, their greatest desire is to do their utmost to bring these changes as soon as possible. The youth ever addressed BYMA received comprehensive help and support including immigration help. Last year members of BYMA in coordination with the democratic community in Belarus (primary partner “Young Front”) organized and held political actions in the USA, in Washington D.C. where BYMA has its branch and in New York. During parliamentarian election campaign-2008 BYMA sent letters to the presidential candidates Barak Obama, John McCain and the head of the country at that time George Bush. In the letters the attention of the politicians was drawn to political situation in Belarus. One of the BYMA priorities is development of Belarusian Internet. For about four years (long before the official foundation) on simple conditions free hosting and technical support in design and management were offered for any Belarusian web site. We started with one server, now the quantity increased by four times. We improved the quality of service, our equipment, security and technical maintenance; we help in web design and in obtaining domain names. The help of our partners “Third Way” and “German Marshall Fund of the United States” is tremendous. As a result of this undertaking more than a hundred of web sites of nongovernmental organizations, politicians, political movements and organizations have an awesome opportunity to bring their information into the World Web. The number of the web sites that use our service quadrupled. Everyone willing to support the revival of Belarus, democracy and freedom is invited to join our projects. Together we can do much more. BYMA express its thanks to our partners in Belarus and abroad, to activists of social initiative “Third Way” and “Young Front”, Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, “German Marshall Fund of the United States” and “Fund for American Studies”. Belarusian Youth Movement of America www.belmov.org www.belmovdc.org |
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