Polish-Ukrainian Project "Freedom Path"

"Freedom Path"  Polish-Ukrainian Project

Ten days, nine people, three Ukrainian cities. Seminars leaded by lectures from main universities of Ukraine. That is how a very intensive visit of Polish group in Ukraine could be described.

Place:   

Poland: Kraków, Gdańsk, Wrocław

Ukraine: Lviv, Kyiv, Odessa

Project duration: July- November 2009

Coordinators: Ewelina Atłasik, Katarzyna Izak, Arkadiusz Kudelski

Academic coordinator: dr. Krzysztof Gurba

Since 1st July 2009 students from Tischner Europen University in Krakow, the members of Institute for Research on Civilizations are realizing international, Polish-Ukrainian project "Freedom Path". The idea of the project is connected with 20 anniversary democratic changes in Poland and building the civil society. This project is funded by Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Promotion of Poland 2009 programme. In September the group of social and political leaders from Ukraine will come to Poland where they will take part in the meetings and the workshops in Krakow, Wroclaw and Gdansk. The Leaders will know a contemporary history of Poland and freedom path, they will have also an occasion to look closely on the democratic changes - meeting with people connected with "Solidarity" social movement  and systemic transformation. The summary of this part of the project will be the conference 25 September 2009 in Krakow in which participate experts and project participants from Ukraine. At the beginning of October polish project group will go to Ukraine where will organize the workshops and the case studies for a students from partner universities from Lviv, Kiev and Odessa.

The inspiration for the project's authors was „The Orange Revolution", which was a very important occurrence for Ukrainian society, which strongly emphasized the need of democratic reforms and building the civil society. "The Orange Revolution" had also an important dimension for the foreign politics - showed the necessity of cooperation with western neighbors countries. Thanks to the initiative of students from Tischner European University, the project reached three aims: promotion of a positive Polish effigy and Polish history in the East, especially in Ukraine, improvement of the  awareness of young social leaders from Ukraine in terms of civil society and democratic changes, and also take a sustainable cooperation between Polish and Ukrainian elites from academic environments.

Project was cosponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.

For more information on the project, please visit: http://www.freedompath.pl/