Iryna Sukhij: Ecologic awareness of Belarusans is changing, but not as quickly as we’ve expected

Ecohome civic union was registered in June 1996 by the activists Iryna Sukhij, Irina Belaja and Andrei Zbarouski. "Now it seems that in the 90s Belarusians were only worried about economic problems, surviving, and work – while we started talking about environment after 1986, after the Chernobyl accident", - recalls in an interview with the "EuroBelarus" Information Service Irina Sukhij, head of the NGO " Eco-house", an expert on the Aarhus Convention, a member of the Belarusian delegation to the Eastern partnership Civil Society Forum.

“Ecohome grew from a youth organization «Next Stop – New Life», which has been helping “kids” of Chernobyl, - says Irina Sukhij. - But at some point we realized that it is necessary to help not only with the elimination of consequences of the Chernobyl accident, but to help with a wide range of other problems, too. We were interested in environmental education, also because we wanted to make sure no other Chernobyl happens. I think everyone should understand that the path that the mankind was taking the entire 20th century (now, fortunately, the trend has changed a bit) is leading the world to nowhere, to a dead end. Back then in 1996 we registered Ecohome, declared our objectives and, in fact, haven’t changed them since then. What used to be actual then is still actual."

Now Ecohome is not much involved in educational projects: "We used to have a variety of programs, we were adapting European, mainly Swedish, methods of environmental education, what is called education for sustainable development – how people should think and act so that to inflict minimal harm to the environment. We tried to be efficient in that, so we taught teachers to use all these approaches in their programs instead of teaching children. These are the things that you can use anywhere in the learning process; it’s even suitable for the lessons of math, because this is something that should permeate the whole education. But the situation has changed when the first statements that Belarus intends to build a nuclear power plant were made and we, in our turn, started to work actively in this direction –speak, protest, and try to organize a public debate. As a result, we have become an organization, cooperation with which the Ministry of Education doesn’t approve of."

Since 2006, Ecohome focused on the implementation of the Aarhus Convention by Belarus, "all the more that it says that the decision to build a nuclear power plant should be made with the maximum involvement of the public."

Ecohome has been promoting permaculture and organic agriculture in Belarus since the times it was founded.

"Besides, at the beginning of the 2000s Ecohome was one of the organizers of the first general meetings of the Belarusian Party of the Greens; in 2001 the first “Rally of the Greens” took place. It was from this rally that the Green Network Partnership of Environmental Organizations originated, and Ecohome is one of its first members," - Irina Sukhij recalled.

Antinuclear activism could have become the reason for the closure of the organization: "Well, the Ecohome wasn’t closed; perhaps the authorities didn’t perceive us as a threat, like other NGOs. Although at some point I had the feeling that the organization will be closed, as checks of different departments followed one another; there were some minor fines for minor offenses, there were arrests on the eve and during the demonstrations. Maybe the authorities didn’t close us because we had international presence.” 

"During the anniversary celebrations we will reflect on the 20 years of work. The results are ambiguous to me. There is a feeling that the amount of effort is disproportionate to the amount of results. We will be considering what we should continue doing and what we should give up, - Irina Sukhij told. - But I still believe that environmental education is the most effective way to introduce changes. If 20 years ago all these methods had taken root in our schools, today we would already have people who would make decisions in our country and have influence; thus, we could count on serious changes. And now we don’t have it. Though we cannot say that everything is bad and nothing changes. Still, a more responsible attitude to the world appears, just not as quickly as we would like it to."

Ecohome mission

Ecohome can be understood as a home, an education center, a permaculture design school. It has his own story, or rather its beginning, because Ecohome is a series of actions, recruiting and educating people - builders, teachers, gardeners, environmentalists, children and adults.