The 14th season of the Social Weekend social projects competition has finished
Social Weekend is the largest contest of social projects in the Republic of Belarus. The organizer of this contest is the Local Fund “Dobra”. The project includes hackaton, national voting, expert selection, training and strengthening of projects, pitching for media and PR experts and the final, which this year took place on December 12, 2019.
The jury of the final in 2019 decided to give support to socially important projects that contribute to solving existing problems in society and contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals: ensuring healthy lifestyles and well-being, quality lifelong learning, gender equality, as well as openness, safety, resilience and sustainability of cities and towns.
The projects that have been supported this season are:
SpasiKIDS: establishment of the School for Parents to teach theoretical knowledge and practical skills of first prehospital care for children. The project provides free training for staff of 110 kindergartens in Grodno, teachers from district centers of the region, who come for advanced training courses, and for national and city charities.
“Towards great victories with small legs”: in 2006, a specialized gym for disabled children with musculoskeletal disorders was opened at the “Chance” Sports Centre. During these years, it helped many disabled children to believe in themselves. Many world victories of Brest invasporters started within the walls of this gym. Now the hall requires repair and renovation of sports equipment.
“Open Lecture Hall”: an educational project designed to become a guide for a huge number of citizens and guests of the capital in the world of art, science, to give answers to topical questions and form a platform for the exchange of new knowledge, impressions and opinions.
Hospice for homeless animals “Dobrenica”: the last shelter for abandoned, crippled, surviving cats, dogs, wild animals. This is not only an opportunity for us to become kinder and more merciful, it is also an opportunity to learn the strength of spirit from those who have gone through hell, but have not lost their all-forgiving love for people.
Beethoven anniversary tour: a unique in its concept social and educational project aimed at popularization of the academic music art in the regions, which includes charity concerts, master-classes, as well as motivation trainings from classical music stars from the USA, Germany, Switzerland, France, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The festival is fully dedicated to the art of the jubilee 2020, the great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven.
“Calibri” is an application that helps doctors to quickly, efficiently and competently distribute victims at the scene of an emergency.
“Jezhy Vezha” is a network of outdoor/indoor vermicomposters for rental/sale to organizations, associations, spaces producing food waste.
Women’s Safety School: an educational platform for strengthening personal safety for women who do not know how to act in situations of psychological pressure from loved ones, colleagues and/or strangers or who do not know how to behave in situations of physical danger. The team will develop five-minute video lessons on typical situations faced by women with instructions on how to strengthen their psychological and physical safety.
“Let’s go, let’s ride”: joint hiking, excursions, trips and travels for people with and without disabilities
ReBottle: a 3D printer that prints street furniture from PET bottles.
“Remember”: a free public burial search engine.
“Tradytsyny stroy”: the project aims at fixing authentic regional costumes of Belarus in video clips and integrating them into the modern society. It is an image project that will become not only a practical guide to folk costume, but also a quality product for mass use in Belarus and abroad.
Dog-friendly taxi: every time when calling a taxi, dog owners face a lot of internal and external barriers: is the driver ready to take the passenger with the animal, will the dog’s upholstery not get dirty, how will other passengers feel about the specific smell of the pet? The initiators of the project decided to change the situation and make friends with taxi drivers. For this purpose they want to transform the ecosystem of city taxi services and offer them to become dog-friendly. To make this transition easier, taxi services will be given special kits to transport dogs in a car.
“Metamarphoses of the City”: Dull homes, yards, neighborhoods will be transformed into paintings that will be bright during the day and at night will glow with special paints that accumulate light. A unique environment will emerge with images on historical events, myths and legends of a particular city, Belarusian culture. There will be a magical atmosphere in kindergartens, schools, hospitals and hospices, orphanages. The project will attract tourists, revive the economy.
You can apply for the new season of Social Weekend on the website.