Local Initiative – Way for Solving the Problem

This was the topic of the workshop-meeting of the representatives of rural youth, which took place on the 17 – 19th of December in the village Spasporub within the framework of Forest village project.

Участники семинара

“Forest villages” youth was represented by young girls and boys from four municipal regions of the republic – Udora, Pechora, Priluzje, and Knyazhpogost. The topic of the workshop was interesting and relevant for the rural young people.

On the day of arrival to Spasporub the guests went on an excursion – a local school teacher, regional ethnographer Nina Scherban made them acquainted with the history and the present day of the ancient village. Silver Taiga Foundation Coordinator Valentina Semyashkina told the participants of the workshops how the local initiatives are supported within the framework of the Forest village project.

In the evening all the participants of the meeting introduced their villages in the House of Culture: preliminary prepared computer presentations were accompanied by the interesting comments and exchange of impressions. This first evening befriended participants of the workshop at once: due to the efforts of the leaders M. Startseva and L. Kolegova the evening proved to be not only informative and interesting, but also very warm and really friendly.

The second day of the workshop was even more intense and filled with meetings and events. Everybody was touched to the quick by the discussion of the problems of today’s village, suggested by the leaders of the discussion club N. Miheeva and M. Nizovtseva. But the main discussion was focused on the local initiatives. The guests got acquainted with the initiator of the church construction in the village Spasporub, resident of the village A. Startsev, head of the rural settlement O. Pomysova, chairman of the local store N. Nizovtseva, and teacher from Chernysh T. Kosolapova on whose initiative in many village schools of the Komi Republic educational program Village ecology has been introduced.

Творческая мастерская «Золотая береста»

On the same day young guests happily became the pupils of the craftsman Oleg Nikulin: his creative workshop “Golden elm” turned to be an interesting and useful part of the seminar.

Acquaintance with Priluzje and successfully implemented local initiatives continued during the evening in the club “Shuvgy, Parma!” Its leader Nadezhda Rapirovich introduced the events, people, and teams which have become “hallmarks” of Priluzje.

Ю.М.Трифачёв в его домашнем музее «Дом ремёсел».

And still the most impressive part of the second day of the workshop was a visit to the village Loyma and meeting with Yuri Trifachev in his home museum “House of Crafts”. Village boys were interested in the numerous technical innovations and inventions of Yuri Trifachev, which proved to be useful in the household and in the village life, whereas the girls admired his manner of decorating the house with hand-made glass-ware and ornaments made of natural stone. Communication with such an interesting person was not only fascinating and positive, it also caused them to reflect on the meaning of life, self-realization and their role in this world, as the participants confessed later…

On the last day of the workshop debates in the discussion club were continued. Presentation about possibilities of territorial public self-government (TPS) on the example of TPSs activities in the neighboring Arkhangelsk region arouse a great interest among the participants. Unfortunately, this form of self-government is not yet developed in our republic, though it’s foreseen in the legislation on local self-government. And this should be admitted that local initiative implemented through the local self-government could significantly change the situation in the “forest villages” for the better; particularly, attract additional funds to a village. Participants of the workshop made a decision to address the relevant authorities with a request to support development of the rural TPSs in Komi, and asked the workshop organizers to conduct one more seminar during the first months of the new year. The next workshop will be completely devoted to the territorial public self-government issues – possibilities and options of rural TPSs creation for implementation of local initiatives of the villagers.

At the end of the three day meeting participants of the workshop visited Zanulye – motherland of the first Komi novelist Vasily Yuhnin.

Organizers of the workshop hope that acquaintances with the new people, discussions, and joint creative work of the young representatives of the “forest villages” will give an impetus to the development of the new social youth initiatives and to active searching of ways to solve the problems which are common for most of the rural settlements.