Lene Petersen: “Only a few foreigners know ..."

 -  What was your impression from the first visit to Belarus?

-  I visited Belarus the first time to take part in a TACIS supported conference, dedicated to social issues. At that time I knew about Belarus only some things that I’ve read in the books and heard from those who had already been there. My main impression was that there was enormous Chernobyl disaster that has made strong influence on the country and its citizens.

-  What has changed for this long period of time? Has it become easier or harder to work here? Or it is just “different” in some way?

-  Earlier it was rather easy to work as an NGO – no particular problems in work with the local authorities. The situation became worse after 1997 when relations between Belarus and the EU were “frozen”. This isolation, a quite long one, worsened work of both NGOs and local authorities and negatively influenced their cooperation.

NGOs of Belarus should promote themselves more in the society…

-  What should be done to optimize the work of Belarusian NGOs?

-  The thing is that both NGO representatives and local officials are people of the same country. It means on a local level they meet the same problems and often have the same goals. NGOs should have that in mind and instead of antagonizing the authorities CO-operate with them. It is necessary to understand that if things go worse for somebody, nobody will benefit from it.

-  In your opinion, the “weak point” in NGO work is …

-  Few people know about them. NGOs should become visible for the European community, for the European NGOs. They should promote themselves in some way – so people would know not only that “there are some NGOs in Belarus” but know well enough who deals with what. That regards self-promotion of NGO inside Belarus too.

-  Which of the projects in Belarus was the most impressive to you?

-  The work on organizing the first Women’s Crisis Centre here, as a part of TACIS program. The process was really tough – especially the aspect of access to premises… We worked hard together with local personnel. Once we were suddenly denied a place. We had to take all our equipment out of there. It happened two hours before my flight home. Imagine that: in the middle of the street there is a car, full of equipment and other things, my interpreter and me stand nearby without any idea of our next step. I have already made a lot of contacts among NGOs here and five minutes later one of my friends arranged for us a meeting with the head of a social department of one of the districts of Minsk… 

She just cared about the result of her work

  … We met each other and talked about everything: that we needed the cooperation, that Belarus needs this Crisis Centre, that we have the equipment but no place to set everything up. She said: “I’m ready to cooperate. Let’s begin, get your stuff from the car and put it here on the sofa”. So we did it. And the result of cooperation was the first Crisis Centre for women in Minsk. We couldn’t support the local authorities with the funds from the EU. So we decided to exchange services: they gave us place to set up this Centre, and we provided additional training to all her staff employees. This project, this experience has become very pleasant and warm for me.

-  In your opinion, what was the secret of success of this project? Was it a “human factor” or something else?

-  This responsible woman really cared about the result of her activities and was interested in professionalism and competence of her staff. At the same time she wanted to do something good for people. She understood that cooperation was vital, especially because several people in her department were going to lose their jobs due to some governmental directive. They were responsible for the retired and the disabled people. So a problem appeared – people desperately needed visiting them at their homes, but there weren’t enough people to do this. Together we have organized an effective work – NGOs organized visits to these people.

Collision of mentalities: the Post-soviet and the European

-  What are the main problems in work with Belarusian NGOs?

-  There were some problems with NGOs, which simply had no idea about the algorithm of realization of cooperative European projects. Some of them complained to the project group manager that I was too concerned with following rules and regulations to. But these rules are clearly set in each contract with European Commission! The manager answered that if the conditions are too complicated for you then you shouldn’t choose Scandinavian partner. That was hard. But this is one of the problems that European NGOs face in Belarus. The cause lies in the collision of Post-soviet and European mentalities. This was a good lesson for me.

 - What are the peculiarities of Belarus compared to the other regions you have coordinated the civil projects in?

-  There are pluses and minuses, certain special features everywhere. In Russia it is harder to work. Local authorities and social workers are less open then their Belarusian colleagues. Afghanistan where I also worked can’t be compared to Belarus at all, because you can’t compare developing country and country in transition. They are really poor people. But nevertheless the objectives of the civil sector are the same. For instance, to show examples of how to take the responsibility for your life on yourself, how to interest the population, how to start cooperation with the authorities… And we meet mostly the same troubles here and there. The government in Afghanistan is very open to joint activities but it is very dangerous to work there. They use weapons instead of words in a dialogue. Several of our colleagues died there – they were very active. Perhaps, too active. Naturally, to start cooperation it is necessary at least to be able to read and write.

Few people abroad know that the Belarusians have a brilliant sense of humour

 - Which stereotypes about Belarusians should be overcome in Europe?

-  The Europeans have incomplete information – about the regime, the official things. Information about usual Belarusian people is very limited. Only a few know that it is a country with a very high level of education, that it was isolated for ten years, that there was no progress from this isolation… There is also a lack of information on how easy it is to work on a person-to-person level here. And about the brilliant Belarusian sense of humour. It is “black”, but I like it. The Belarusians know how to enjoy their lives even in rather hard conditions of their country.

People must be ready to accept responsibility…

 - In your opinion, has anything changed in Belarusians’ understanding of responsibility for their life?

-  Yes, it has changed. 11 years ago people, I’ve began to work with, were very much interested, they wanted to take part in public activities. But year by year I see how the state takes this responsibility on itself. And slowly people just lose their desire and need to be responsible for themselves. We had such experience in the 60’s, when the social democrats came to power. They took all the responsibility for people’s lives from their birth to death. And we have understood that we can’t accept that. The price is too high. And for twenty years people had to learn again to take self-responsibility. More and more people save money for their pensions themselves without expecting the state’s support. They understand that the demographic situation in the country is complicated. There are less young people that cover pension costs for elder generation. So people understand that they have to take responsibility themselves.

- What are the perspectives of the civil sector of Belarus?

 - The state, business and the NGOs are three parts of Belarus. People must be ready to accept responsibility for one or another part of social life. But state is slowly depriving citizens of their rights. There must be some kind of balance between parts. And there is none because the state doesn’t hear the voices of business and NGO sector. This creates difficulties because how could anybody create normal effective laws without minding the wishes “from below”? Surely I think that as a citizen of a country that is, probably, the best developed one in this direction. No law in Denmark is passed without scrupulous hearings.