Dear friends, dear partners,
On behalf of the Institute for Rural Initiatives (iRi), but also personally, thank you very much for being with us at this special and quite emotional event for us – the 20th anniversary of our organization.
Thank you so much for taking the time and making the effort to get here – some of you from hundreds of miles away. I appreciate it so much, we feel honored and appreciated. Thank you!
What can I say, the years have flown by – 20 years and so much more to do…
There is no doubt that iRi has had many successes and victories, but there have also been mistakes, failures and disappointments. Now 20 years later we see that much more clearly. But what makes me happy, what makes us all happy as an organization, is that together with you, year after year, we have achieved MUCH more than we planned.
I remember the early beginnings, we did what we knew and how we could without realizing that what we were doing was actually community development, rural development, local community development in general…
Who knew back then – 20 years ago – what kind of food community development is, of rural development, we won’t even say about it. We discovered this topic a few years ago and we’re still learning ☺
We have learned and continue to learn by doing because what we do is not taught in schools and universities – although I think it should be. We have learned with you, our partner communities, and we hope you have not been upset when we have made a mistake or given you advice that turned out to be wrong.
With your help and that of our development partners we have reached 132 localities from 29 districts of the country. I don’t know if it’s a little or a lot – but we have done what we could to change our country for the better. I am sure that 20 years later our communities, our country is at a different level of development. And it is owing to you. Thank you!
Over 20 years we implemented more than 60 local and national projects worth millions of lei – funds we attracted from abroad and spent here in Moldova. Over 90% of our projects can also be found on our website www.iri.md. We want to share our experiences with other colleagues and activists.
We are proud that we could contribute to the development of local and central public policies, to the professional training of hundreds of leaders who continued their work in their spheres of influence.
We developed models of intervention, and more recently, we have started a program of research and analysis in areas related to the rural development process – something we are passionate about and compelled to continue.
Although we are not from the business sector, we contributed significantly – as entrepreneurs do – with fees in the hundreds of thousands annually. Normally this should not be the case, but we hope things will change.
I hope that the Government appreciates not only what we did together with you in terms of community development – but also our contribution and that of our colleagues in civil society to the formation of the country’s budget, to the resilience of the social security system, to the formation of responsible citizens – this is perhaps our greatest achievement.
I will not give figures on the number of beneficiaries and projects. I do it intentionally, out of modesty. You know the figures, you can find them in our annual reports. What is certain is that together with you and many other good people we showed in deeds our love and devotion to our country as we could and knew, as our convictions whispered.
Nor could we remain indifferent to the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. That’s how the MEET program arose. We work with love with children and parents from Ukraine. And here we do what we can because what can you do, what can you say to parents and children who have a war at home. We have partners in several districts trying to make the lives of displaced people from Ukraine better. I hope we succeed.
Finally, I would like to thank all the partners who believed in us and gave us a credit of trust over 2 decades:
First and most importantly, the partners from those 132 communities: opinion leaders, NGOs, teachers, mayors, councilors, and other representatives of local public authorities, ordinary citizens, but also entrepreneurs who had the courage to respond to our invitation to get involved in the process of community transformation.
A special thank you goes to our donors, those who believed in us and funded our initiatives.
I want to thank the US Embassy and the US Government – our most loyal supporters. By the way – our first project was funded by the American Embassy. It was with them that we started our work. Thank you very much!
We also thank the Global Fund for Children, Great Lakes Community Action Partnership, Liechtenstein LED Foundation, Embassy of Norway, Embassy of Canada, European Union Delegation, People in NEED, Black See Trust, Council of Europe and other valuable partners – all are mentioned in our annual reports.
We also thank the Ministry of Education and Research for a long-lasting partnership, now in its 6th year. That’s how the IntegrACT program came about.
I also want to thank our media partners who have taken an interest in covering rural development issues and provided media coverage of our events and projects: TVR Moldova, Jurnal TV, Vocea Basarabiei, Europa Liberă, Moldova 1 and Realitatea TV, which is also the media partner of today’s event.
Thanks also to tonight’s host, the Radisson Blu Hotel, over the years we have organized a number of events here and had a nice collaboration.
You may be asking – what comes next? ☺
Going forward, we aim to do exactly the same thing, maybe a little differently – in the light of the lessons learned over 2 decades, but also in the light of our new passion: holistic rural development in Moldova.
Although we are the 2nd most rural country in Europe, we do not yet have a concept of a country anchored in this reality. We hope to be able to complete this process – to put at the heart of the equation the village man, quality village services, opportunities and everything that makes for a decent life in rural areas.
We aim to strengthen the ReThink Rural Moldova program, which is a complex program. On the one hand, we aim to raise awareness about holistic rural development, and on the other hand, to promote rural development projects. That is, to implement our own recommendations. Otherwise we fear that we will just talk and things will not go well ☺
We are in the process of re-launching the “Student with the highest academic growth” program which involves encouraging efforts to improve academic performance. So, we will reward student effort, not just grades or the annual average.
Obviously, we will continue with projects promoting local governance and other programs related to improving the quality of life in the village. It will be interesting and we invite you to join us again.
At the end of the finale:
If you would like to support us, we have a DONATE button on our website. We will heartily appreciate any support. Thank you to everyone who redirected 2% to iRi’s work, thanks to these resources it is now possible to relaunch the Education Plus program.
Thank you! And I wish you a wonderful evening!