Excellency, Ambassador of the EC to Belarus

Dear representatives of the local authorities,

Dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

Today I am pleased to participate in the opening of the children’s playground within a new international technical assistance project “Area Based Development Approach for the Regions suffered from the Chernobyl Disaster”.

The project that has gathered us here today is a logical continuation of the joint work of the European Commission, the Belarusian Government, the United Nations Development Programme and the entire donor community in the sphere of mitigation of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster.

The idea of this project appeared quite a long time ago and several years have passed before it has transformed into concrete actions, and it’s a great pleasure to be witnessing its first results today. It would be beneficial to all concerned if in future the time between proposing a technical assistance project and its actual start, could be considerably reduced.

A long way was made from the desire of the house dwellers to fit out the courtyard to the opening of the playground. Yet it demonstrates the possibility to do something by yourself with the help of the Government, the UN and donor resources, in this case from the EC. What is needed is just hard work, desire and energy.

I do hope that the cooperation between the residents of Vetka, the district executive committee, the Gomelregional executive committee and other local organizations will serve as a good example for the other pilot districts of the project – Khoiniki, Buda–Koshelevo, and Zhitkovichi.

It’s worth mentioning that a lot of resources, 1.5 million Euro has been allocated for the project by the EC and UNDP to help promote the enhancement of the livelihoods of rural Chernobyl–affected communities as well as to develop and implement sustainable social and economic initiatives through community mobilization. Let me take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to the Ambassador of the EC and the entire EC for having made this generous contribution to the development of the Chernobyl affected area of Belarus.

What is very important is the fact that the project will teach residents of the pilot districts to manage these resources efficiently and take greater responsibility of initiatives that are aimed to benefit their communities. The funds allocated for training people in their communities and developing a regional instrument for attracting and using international assistance create a “rod” that will be used for “fishing out” additional resources to solve district problems.

In conclusion let me congratulate you once again on the launch of this new project and once more thank the EC for their kind support.

Thank you!   

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