CCIVS has always devoted much attention to Eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet region, promoting youth development since the 70s. Indeed, for a long time CCIVS was the only platform where voluntary service organisations from East and West could meet. Unfortunately, after the fall of the Berlin wall in the 90s, voluntary service was no longer a priority in the region.

As a result organisations from the region were often hampered by local governments (especially in Belarus, where the government retains up to 50% of foreign financing) with tight laws and excessive control. This made it very hard to develop voluntarism in general and find people open to the idea ready to accept the idea. Also the impulse for regional cooperation was lacking, as organisations were too busy trying to survive to be able to think in international terms.

A seminar was organised in Kyiv in September 2005.
The aim was to fill in the organisational void lacking but extremely needed in the region, and to help more young people from the region participate in our activities. The ultimate goal was a stronger collaboration with partners from the region in the next decades.

The three day training on approaches to intercultural learning in a globalised world was then organised in Lviv in November 2007. The event was embedded in a context of various trainings and seminars on cultural diversity since 2005 and a number of seminars on regional cooperation between the EU and Eastern Europe and within Eastern Europe since 2003. The training developed a number of proposals for follow up projects to be implemented in 2008 and beyond.

The seminar in Kyiv 2005 (report)

The seminar in Lviv 2007 (report)