Part III
Poland
Fundacja Osrodek Edukacji Ekologicznej Eko-Oko - Center for Ecological Education Eko-Oko
Gdansk, 22 November 1995
- Ul. Grojecka 75
- 02-094 Warsaw
- Poland
- Phone: 48 22 226487
- Fax: 48 22 226487
The person and his function in the NGO
- Mr. Przemyslaw Radwanski - Member of the board of
directors of the Foundation, Program manager of the center.
The NGO itself
The Eko-Oko center was founded in 1991 by the club
of healthy nutrition, the center for contemporary art and a psychologist.
These people together wanted to establish this center to continue
and to enlarge their activities in order to promote a healthy
lifestyle.
Structure
Eko-Oko consists of a foundation for the financial
aspects and a foundation for fundraising and of a workcenter.
The board of directors has four persons and they are the decision
makers of Eko-Oko. In the workcenter an executive body takes care
of all the daily work. Eko-Oko attends and organizes national
and international conferences, meetings, workshops, lectures
and practical courses in the workcenter in Warszaw. They are
open for everybody.
Objective(s) / Goal(s)
Creating new styles and ways for life, that are creative,
healthy and environmentally friendly. Important aspects are human
consciousness and changing the social reality.
Main areas of activity of Eko-Oko
The Eko-Oko center focuses on collection and dissemination
of information and education and training. They occasionally participate
in nature protection activities and demonstration projects; social
and political activities and protest actions. In addition, they
provide a supporting role for other, organizing, NGOs. A center
for ecological information was established in 1995, but it collapsed
because of a lack of volunteers.
Resources
- Human
- Eight full-time employees are working for Eko-Oko,
together with ten volunteers. From 1993 until the summer of 1995
a Peace Corps volunteer from the USA was working for Eko-Oko.
In the teacher project many Western teachers are represented.
The Peace Corps volunteer was the coordinator of this project
and he supported the transformation of the office by giving organizational
training to the staff.
- Money
- The 1996 budget of Eko-Oko is 320,000 PLN, this converts
to about 133,333 USD (exchange rate of November 1995). 30% of
the money comes from the local authorities, about 22% of the
budget is earned through its own activities and Eko-Oko gets
the rest of the money through grants and from other NGOs and
funding organizations.
- Expertise
- Spoken languages are Polish, English, Spanish and
German, this is dependent on the nationality of the volunteers
working at the work center. The expertise on environmental issues
is considered rather high for the organizational level and medium
at the strategical level.
- Access to information
- Phone, fax and computer(s) are available, the modem
for e-mail will be installed very soon. Contacts with the local
government are moderate, cooperating with a university is starting.
External Relations and intensity of the contact
The external relations of Eko-Oko are mainly based
on moderate to low intensive cooperation. Only with the local
government is the intensity of the contact much higher. This
means besides cooperation there is also some conflict. Eko-Oko
receives grants from the local authorities, but at the same time
they have conflicts with the authorities on political and religious
issues. Cooperation with environmental businesses consists only
of organizing meetings and/or markets for ecological farmers.
With them, cooperation is good and of medium intensity. With national
and Western NGOs exchange of information and the supporting of
each others activities is common, while East-East cooperation
only happens on the first stage of contact.
East-East Cooperation
Since 1993 Eko-Oko has been trying to establish East-East
cooperation, specifically, with Russia, and the several NGOs there.
For Lithuania, Estonia and the Czech Republic there are good contacts
with one or two sister organizations. The main reason for contacting
these particular organizations is their similar profile and the
intention of Eko-Oko to start a network on holistic education
throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
Advantages / Motivation
The philosophy of Eko-Oko makes cooperation almost
necessary. Because of the holistic point of view of the organization,
the 'feeling of unity' is very important. Accordingly, the sharing
of experiences, the exchange of information and the similar background
throughout Central and Eastern Europe are motivations for searching
for Eastern partners. With East-East cooperation a NGO will have
a stronger position in East-West cooperation, so that the false
cooperation of the past becomes one of mutual cooperation. It
is the view of Eko-Oko that the West will not solve 'our' problems.
'That support from the West makes you dependent on the West,
therefore, we must develop coalitions on our own ground.'
Practical advantages of cooperation is the potential
to get bigger and maybe more grants especially for the tourist
programs. Consequently, it is possible to offer the visitors
more. We feel a chain of holistic centers in different countries
is more attractive for a visitor who wants to travel in CEE and
to do some 'lifestyle courses'.
For NGOs that deal with environmental protection,
there are more advantages in cooperating, because of the growing
lobbying-capacity of the NGOs, until now, was a very weak link
of CEE social reality.
Cooperation with Russia has a more spiritual background,
because of the old religious and spiritual tradition there, Eko-Oko
expects to learn from their approach of life. The Russian groups
are very willing to cooperate with Eko-Oko and most of them are
open minded in regards to East-East contacts. And of course one
of Eko-Oko's goals is to help to develop Russian sister groups.
Problems / Obstacles
Cooperating with Russia has a lot of practical problems:
difficulties in contacting each other, lack of good phone lines,
faxes and computers there. Another big problem is that it is
impossible to transfer money to Russia. Russian groups are struggling
to survive at this moment and Eko-Oko cannot expect equal cooperation
with them. Organizing meetings and conferences in the former Soviet
empire is very difficult, mostly because of practical reasons.
Starting real cooperation, that is more than only regular contact,
is a long process and only after meeting each other at conferences
and having these contacts can real cooperation start. It needs
time.
Surplus Value / Results of East-East cooperation
Until now there have been no real effects. Of course
we trust each other more since we've meet at conferences and
have been getting to know each other better. Possibilities and
outlines for the future have been discovered. Within five years
a holistic educational network will be established and more results
can be expected.
Necessary features of a NGO for East-East cooperation
Highly important are communication means and computers.
Old equipment from the USA has to be shifted to Poland and Russia.
Communicating with each other, writing outlines and setting up
rules for future cooperation is the first step.
Possible reasons for others not to start East-East cooperation
Other NGOs are not in favor of East-East cooperation
because they have no faith in the environmental movement in other
CEE countries or they are too busy with developing their own organization
and profile. Establishing equal cooperation is a process that
takes time. In general, NGOs are only now becoming aware of the
organizational need for cooperation. National cooperation takes
a lot of time, and can be seen as a trial for East-East cooperation
and to learn how to cooperate on international level.
Future of East-East cooperative behavior of the NGO
Eko-Oko is open for all kinds of cooperation, initially
they will focus on the established national ecological network
in Poland. From there, they will go on to develop their contacts
in Russia and other CEE countries and try to evolve from the current
situation into real East-East cooperation.
REC and East-East cooperation
Eko-Oko once applied for an Earmarked Grant, but
their proposal was not awarded. It is Eko-Oko's opinion that
the REC should promote East-East cooperation, even though it is
a very difficult task. For the NGOs themselves it is too difficult
to establish East-East cooperation on their own. East-East cooperation
gives new perspectives and you can learn a lot from each other.
The REC can help, with showing examples of good projects, supporting
the exchange of information among environmental NGOs and identifying
similar NGOs with similar projects. The REC should set criteria
for developing East-East cooperation and have workshops on 'how
to cooperate'. At first, this will not attract a lot of NGOs,
but it is the way of the future and more and more NGOs will become
interested in it and will be strong enough to deal with East-East
cooperation. To get a sound NGO community the internal organizational
strength of the NGOs should be developed, the REC should help
with this as well.
REC * PUBLICATIONS * BEYOND BORDERS - SIDE REPORT * POLAND
