Newsletter 10

Issue no. 10 (January-March 2011)

ISSUE : C I P O T

PARTNERSHIP IS A HEART OF THE DANCE4LIFE RUSSIA

The first three months of 2011 were full of our partners’ lively dance4life events.

In January, a coordination meeting was held, with the representatives from almost all dance4life regions. And in February, an international coordination meeting was organized in Amsterdam.

Many activities and youth parties are usually held on February 14, Valentine’s Day. This year we launched the “Love4Life” campaign with

the support of AIDS HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION it drew more than 11,000 people from 17 regions of the Russian Federation!

March 24 is World TB Day - this year we continued our successful cooperation with LILLY in implementing the “Tuberculosis is curable, if diagnosed in time. Get enlightened!” campaign.

More than 50,000 people from 22 regions of Russia were involved in the campaigns organized by the regional dance4life partners. We also launched the website www.prosvetis.ru.

Below you can read about these events in greater detail, as well as about some other important project activities in Russia!

JANUARY In late January (January 28-30, 2011), a three-day meeting of the dance4life coordinators from different regions of Russia took place. It was organized through funding from our partners - representatives of the Sensation International Electronic Music Festival - for dance4life Russia.

Though the regional coordinators have regular online communications throughout the year, it is essential to hold face to face meetings at least once a year. At the conference, we discussed both the annual plan, important project procedures and effectiveness indicators, and the heart of the project - its key values.

The number of regions involved in dance4life Russia is growing every year, and the coordinators of the new regions will have a unique opportunity to learn about the successful realworld experience of the project “veterans”.

This year the group was very diverse, which while on one hand was a challenge for the participants, on the other it enriched group discussions and brought about better results.

For example, when discussing the project guidelines, some suggested that rules or limits were not necessary, and, therefore there should not be strict procedures, but only basic guidelines. Though this approach may appear to be bold and somewhat unpredictable, it is corresponding with the guiding principle of dance4life - openness. Rather than designing strict regulations for joining the project, it was decided to allow for several different options and forms of participation for the regions.

The participants also worked with professional business-trainer Irina Baranova. This was not her first time working with the dance4life

Russia staff – she has previously conducted the project’s strategic planning training session, and she has a personal attachment to the project’s successful development.

One of the most important outcomes of the meeting was to determine one of the unique and strongest components of dance4life in Russia – bright countrywide events. On the last day of the coordination meeting, participants brainstormed a list of exciting activities for the coming year linked to specific dates – Valentine’s Day, World TB Day, Health Day, AIDS Victims Remembrance Day, Contraception Day, World AIDS Day, etc. The project’s key indicators were identified for the upcoming year, primarily in regional development: at least 30 regional partners, 6,300 agents4change, 300 active and trained volunteers, and 18,000 young people are to be involved in the project tours.

The highlight of the meeting was a concert at Moscow’s club “16 tons” featuring the remarkable band Jukebox Trio (friends of dance4Life Russia). Many concertgoers were surprised by and got involved into the dance flash mob we had spontaneously organized there!

FEBRUARY In 2011, the seventh international meeting of dance4life coordinators was held in Amsterdam. In attendance were 33 delegates from 27 countries! This year, the representatives of the dance4life Youth Council, including Ksenia Razuvaeva, dance4life Russia, took part in the meeting for the first time. Just like all the young people involved in the project throughout the world, the participants of the meeting had the opportunity to be inspired and educated, to act and celebrate. The meeting began on February 14, Valentine’s Day, and lasted 5 days. The participants were divided into groups according to geographical proximity - for example, Russia was in the same group with Moldova, Serbia, Kyrgyzstan, etc.

We shared our experience of working with ambassadors at country and regional levels, as well as our experience of fundraising at events, which generated considerable interest among many countries representatives. Special attention was paid to what the

project’s future post-2014. For example, the participants discussed whether it was possible to extend the project activities to all facets of reproductive health and the rights of young people to freely access information. We are pleased to note that dance4life Russia is already working in these! Following the discussion, it was decided to further discuss this issue at a special international meeting to be held in September 2011. Leaders of organizations participating in the project, ambassadors and statesmen are all expected to be in attendance

The Love4life action supported by AIDS Healthcare Foundation was held on February 14 - Valentine’s Day in 17 regions of Russia: Barnaul, Veliky Novgorod, Volgograd, Izhevsk, Kazan, Kaluga, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Orel, Orenburg, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Tver, Togliatti, Tomsk, Ulan-Ude, and in the Republic of Karelia. It was attended by 11,356 people. The campaign participants were invited to vote for the method they personally used to protect their love from infectious diseases.

The greatest coverage was achieved in Nizhny Novgorod. Through the regional network of voluntary organizations, the campaign was held in 8 districts of Nizhny Novgorod and Nizhny Novgorod region. The organizers developed 2 ways of voting: mark the method of protection against STIs on a balloon, or choose a gift (chocolate heart, chocolate coin or a condom). The most active participants received prizes and souvenirs: cakes and balloons with the dance4life logo, Love condoms, chocolate hearts, and valentines.

In Orel, the attendees were invited to write a wish to the project volunteers on little hearts; opening the box with the wishes was

a very touching and exciting moment for the organizers.

In Orenburg, the event took place at over 11 sites in two schools. At the breaks, the volunteers dressed as angels invited students to answer the question “What way of protection

HIV, presented the dance4 life, and distributed colorful hearts with kind wishes to all participants.

In Togliatti, the campaign took place in Kinoplex and Arena Club, where participants were able to both receive useful information and prizes, as well as watch our fantastic angels wearing d4l t-shirts and handmade wings.

In addition to the balloons, there were decorations of 3 white curled trees made of Whatman paper, symbolizing Fidelity, Absti-

against sexually transmitted infections is best for you personally?” (with the suggested options of abstinence, fidelity or condom).

In Tver, the Love4life action was held at the Sunrise club. Volunteers from the Perspective Youth Center made Valentine cards with the Love4life logo and simple tips encouraging safety and healthy behaviors among young people.

In the village of Loukhi, Republic of Karelia, the “Love knows no age...” event was held.

The volunteers organized an information booth on various forms of protection against nence and Condom-use, which the voters quickly decorated with many red hearts, and with pleasure and cheerfully took photos with them.

In Tomsk, the event took place in the Tomsk State University. It was held with the help of Cupid, who conducted the student marriage record ceremony and, after granting them a certificate, invited the couple to choose a method of protection for their new family.

The campaign in Ulan-Ude consisted of 3 events: the project presentation and an information booth at the disco for highschool students; “Dances on Ice” on the skating rink along with a mobile information booth for the participants to vote, quizzes, and sports competitions; and a function at the Oriental Dragon night club consisting of an information booth, mobile-information volunteers in the club room, and 2 contests conducted by the nightclub MC, with dance4life T-shirts being raffled off.

MARCH In 2011, the “GET ENLIGHTENED! Your Health is in Your Hands” mass media campaign took place in 22 regions of Russia and involved 52,394 people. The campaign is implemented as part of the dance4life project (FOCUS-MEDIA Foundation), with the support and active participation of the Lilly Partnership to fight multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), the Russian Red Cross, and the Laboratory of Social Advertising. This is the second wave of the campaign which was originally launched by dance4life and Lilly in March 2010.

The goal of the “Get enlightened!” media campaign is to attract the attention of the people in the country to the simple fact that the problem of tuberculosis can affect anyone, regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, social status or residence, and therefore it is important for everybody to be tested for TB annually.

This year, besides the various exciting activities held as part of the White Daisy campaign

and Serge Golovach’s “Your Health is in Your Hands” photo exhibition, the “Get enlightened!” campaign website, prosvetis.ru, was created. It gives visitors the opportunity to test their knowledge about TB and receive a certificate, view the campaign materials, create an avatar with the campaign logo, and learn where to get more information on the issue.

In 2011, by joining the photo project, the State Duma deputies were involved in the campaign aimed at preventing tuberculosis.

Two social advertising videos, “Briefly about the most important things” (featuring well-known TV and radio presenter Anton Komolov) and “Nothing could be easier”, produced the prior year, are now available at the campaign’s website and they are still being broadcast on the federal and regional channels, as well as on the internet.

As always, the dance4life participants used a creative approach in organizing the events for the World TB Day. Here are just a few illustrations.

Karelia

Izhevsk

Naberezhnye Chelny

Chelyabinsk In this issue we are pleased to share with you the ‘first hand’ news from regional teams: some of the news have been written by the project volunteers in the regions.

Maybe soon we will have a whole regional network of volunteer correspondents! Covering the project activities is a real pleasure, because each region organizes the same event its own particular way, adding their own twist to it!

BARNAU

L

The dance4life volunteers supported a number of parties organized by the “A Different Format” Center for Youth Projects and the Youth Committee of the Barnaul Administration. The parties were held in one of the most popular clubs of the city – the Colosseum Show Center. At these events, ‘Dancing with no rules’ and ‘Spring Beauty 2011’ contests were held. The project coordinator got a special judge-position, and the volunteers used many methods to inform the young people of the city about dance4life! One of the “Dancing with no rules” winners, the impressive dancer Roman Pozdnyakov, was inspired to join the project, and now he is an active participant in dance4life’s Barnaul team.

Roman Pozdnyakov: “Many people search for life’s value in fashionable clothes, expensive cars, and rich buffet lunches. For me, the truly valuable and important things are kind, selfless acts. We are not trying to show off when we help others. Instead, we prove to ourselves that we can change the world for the better, which we accomplish. Let the builders build, fishermen catch fish, and people with a pure minds and good hearts be involved in the global DANCE4LIFE project!!! »

The dance4life presented its award, beauty4life, at the beauty contest among schoolgirls - “Spring Beauty 2011”. The winner of this award was chosen by the audience, and she received special prizes!

IZHEVSK Maria Blinova, a project volunteer in Udmurtia dance4life united the Volga Federal District!

An unforgettable event at the ‘WE ARE TOGETHER’ interregional training seminar for volunteers and experts of the Volga Federal District, was held in the Udmurt Republic from March 28 to April 3. We worked with children and youth in the field of primary prevention. The seminar brought together young people from Tatarstan, Mari El, the Nizhny Novgorod region, the Republic of Mordovia and Ulyanovsk and Kirov regions, and, of course, the Udmurt Republic.

The seminar program included a dance4life tour, which was really special due to the presence of the project coordinators from other regions of Russia: Irina Yezhova from Nizhny Novgorod and Naila Valliulina from Kazan! Our guests participated in the tour, where we all shared our personal experiences of the implementing the project in our home regions. It was really nice to have the support of like-minded people!

One of the most fun events of the interregional seminar was the “Get enlightened4life!” action. The seminar participants had the opportunity to join the photo flash mob and be photographed with healthy lungs X-ray pic-

tures in their hands, visit Serge Golovach’s photo exhibition, make daisies, the campaign’s logo, with their own hands, enjoy chamomile tea and, most importantly, were given essential information about TB!

NIZHNY NOVGOROD New experience: working in juvenile prisons In the first months of 2011, the inmates of the Ardatov and Arzamas youth prizons, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, were trained in the Life Skills program. The young educators made over ten visits to each of the prisons.

The dance4life project was successfully presented, specialized act4life actions were held, and the young prisoners were gladly willing to be trained in the Life Skills program. The most interesting work began in March with a pro-

gram to train the prisoners to conduct classes as peer educators. The task was successfully accomplished. The prison inmates who took part in the basic training group, felt very proud, enthusiastic and accomplished when they brilliantly conducted program lessons for other young prisoners.

Many Nizhny Novgorod college students from the trainers’ team working in prisons have

noted that the program has helped them to overcome many prejudices and stereotypes about prisoners. The general enthusiasm for the work was felt by the trainers, peer educators and the prison administration staff, when they saw how effective the ‘peer-to-peer’ approach is for such institutions. Other inmates gave a warm reception to their fellow and actively listened to their lessons and information sessions.

ROSTOV-ON-DON Anastasia Tolstolutskaya, a volunteer from the dance4life Rostov team, issued a report entitled “Studying the effectiveness of the dance4life project in providing information on HIV” at the conference of the Don Academy of Sciences for young researchers this past March. Anastasia has been working as a project volunteer for over six month, holding events, training sessions and other activities on preventing HIV for her peers. Nastya has analyzed the questionnaires used at “heart connection tours”, for a three-year period and got some interesting results: the number of students who correctly answering most questions about HIV and AIDS jumped from 50-60% before the tour, and 95-100% after it.

In addition, prior to the tour, 50% of students agreed with the statement that ‘the government should isolate those who are HIV-positive from the rest of society.’ However, afterward, 100% had changed their position and disagreed.

Nastya says: “The questionnaires help us understand the students’ beliefs and they allow us volunteers and agents of change, see the positive results of our efforts. When I conduct a dance4life tour in school, I am happy that I am able to educate my peers about HIV and AIDS and how they can protect themselves. And when I see the results of the questionnaires, I understand that my hard work has not been in vain”.Nastya was awarded for her research with a First Class Diploma and medal for participation in the conference.

SAMARA The dance4life team started off spring with events at 6 concerts in Samara nightclubs. The “Light Youth Theatre” NGO, the regional implementers, helped organizee the concerts featuring popular artists.

The concert series opened with the Krovostok group concert, on March 19. A real musical

TOMSK Tomsk is a unique city. Always lively and energetic, the volunteers are constantly coming up with lots of great ideas, and they are ready to put them into action with a smile.. Every week multiple exciting events are held, and, of course, the dance4life Tomsk team participates in the most lively and unique of them!

On March 26, for the first time in Tomsk, the “SMILEcity” shopping center hosted the LIVE SHOP WINDOWS contest. LIVE SHOP WINDOWS is a project that allows people to express themselves, realize their creative capacities, and appear before the Tomsk public in bold and unique advertisements, becoming the faces of some of the most fashionable brands.

Participation in the LIVE SHOP WINDOW contest was the finale of the Get Enlightened! mass media campaign: on the previous day a photo exhibition of the “Your Health is in Your Hands” project was held in the “SMILEcity”

‘battle’ was held between the spectators who competed to see who could shout in unison words such as “loyalty” and “love” the loudest.

Friendship won! The prevention contests were also successful.

Role models can aid others in making the right choices. Our activities continue!

shopping center, and on 26 March, volunteers appeared in the shop windows in the place of the usual mannequins. The event was filled with the colorful decorations, balloons, origami daisies and tulips, and “free hugs” that people all over the world have come to love.

A project volunteer in Tomsk observed, “The customers who acted as judges even, rec-

ULYANOVSK

On 13th of March, the Lenin Memorial Center hosted the Volga Region Cup Interregional game between KVN teams of the Volga Federal District. The game’s leading message was the promotion of healthy lifestyle, and the motto was “VUZ for ZOZh!” (VUZ and ZOZh are abbreviation for higher institution and healthy lifestyle respectively). The letters in “VUZ” were said to stand for the Russian words for “funny,” “lucky,” and “healthy.” Youth volunteer associations, including the dance4life team, who worked in the lobby before the beginning of the game show organized multiple interactive platforms, such as “Young people choose a healthy lifestyle!” where participants could test their knowledge of tuberculosis, HIV / AIDS, and drugs, take part in a quiz on healthy lifestyles, make a daisy to give to a friend and, of course, visit the “Get Enlightened!” exhibition.

350 people who correctly answered the difficult questions were awarded small prizes

The dance4life newsletter is issued by the FOCUS-MEDIA Foundation with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands - Matra Programme The FOCUS-MEDIA Foundation is a national concept owner of the dance4life project in the Russian Federation

ognized us from the pervious night or at other campaigns. About 1,000 people came by during the four hours of the competition.. They say that to be happy, a person needs to have seven hugs per day. We hugged 400 people that day! Absolute happiness)))”.

and 95 participated in the daisy-making workshops. In total, 500 people visited the exhibition. It all made for a very exciting and memorable event! The hardworking volunteers got to enjoy the fruits of their labor and watch the lively game show, which they found just as enjoyable as all their work that went into it.

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