“Civil Society Champions” Award Ceremony: Highlights
“Civil Society Champions”-2014 Award winners
On 13th January, the Sixth “Civil Society Champions” Award Ceremony took place in Minsk. The Assembly of NGOs marked the most notable and important events and activities that have happened in the Belarusan civil sector in 2014.
In the Campaign of the Year nomination, “Show You Area Belarusan” campaign launched by Art Siadziba was awarded. In 2014, Art Siadziba members held a number of actions aimed at promotion of Belarusan symbols, including the Embroidered T-shirt Day and distribution of embroidered ribbons of the total length of 5 kilometers in the center of the city.
The award in the “New Initiative” nomination was given to the group of experts working in the frames of the initiative in protection of Kurapaty (an open air memorial of the Stalin repressions victims). In 2014, archeologists, architects, engineers, lawyers, historians and journalists united to protect Kurapaty from illegal redevelopment.
1863 Rebels Remembrance Day in Svislac was named the Regional Event of the Year. In 2014, it was the 20th anniversary of the Remembrance Day celebration.
In the Creative Input of the Year nomination, football fans who held a spontaneous solidarity action at the Belarus-Ukraine football game in October 2014 won. The guests of the Award ceremony listened to the audio of one of the fans’ speech, as he wished to stay anonymous.
The Srew Up of the Year “anti-award” went to the Citizenship and Migration Department of the Directorate of Internal Affairs of Miensk City Executive Committee and Citizenship and Migration Department of the Piersamajski Regional Directorate of Internal Affairs of Miensk for deprivation of citizenship and deportation of the human rights defender Alena Tankacova. Alena’s colleagues who received the award for her, suggested to cut the pumpkin (the actual prize in the nomination) in small pieces and send them to all officials who were involved in the absurd case.
Marat Haravy from the Novy Cas newspaper won in the Media/Journalist of the Year nomination and the Award juri chose www.nastaunik.info, an informational website for teachers and trainers, as the Best NGO website of the Year.
Language teachers from the popular Belarusan language courses “Mova Nanova”, “Mova ci Kava”, Movavieda” and “Mova TUT” were announced Civil Leaders of the Year. The prizes were received by the courses curators Alena Andrejeva, Alaksiej Sein, Valiaryna Kustava, Hlieb Labadzienka and Alesia Litvinouskaja.
