In this Issue:

Libraries for Civil Society

Empowering Through Information

Libraries for Civil Society

New Program Builds Special Collections in NGO Libraries

Building library collections for NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States (CEE/NIS) has become easier and less expensive, thanks to a new and growing program of VOICE International.

Under the new program, Libraries for Civil Society, VOICE helps nongovernmental organization (NGO) partners build collections of books and materials on topics such as human rights, social services, and education. VOICE researches materials, provides technical assistance, and makes arrangements for purchase and shipping. In cases where funding in-country is not available, VOICE tries to match the library with a U.S. funding source.

New Partners

VOICE currently is working on the library-building projects of two NGOs. The English-Teachers Association of Georgia (ETAG), which is building a library of English-teaching and American cultural materials, needed VOICE to provide a variety of publications catalogues and to procure the materials ETAG selected. The United States Information Service (USIS) in Tblisi will pay for the book purchases. In Ukraine, the Center for Philanthropy is building a library of NGO management resources with funding from The Eurasia Foundation in Ukraine. In response to Director Svitlana Kuts’ request for a “partner who is able to collect the orders and purchase publications” in order to overcome the “obstacles of Ukrainian bank system,” VOICE is both ordering and advising the Center on useful titles.

A Model Approach


Libraries for Civil Society developed from a 1997 pilot project with the Lithuanian Disabilities Information and Consultation Bureau (DICB). Over the previous three years, VOICE responded to regular information requests from the DICB. But last fall, Australian-Lithuanian founder and director Gaila Muceniekas needed a different and more challening type of support. She wanted to establish a resource library for parents, teachers, and professionals working with people - particularly children - with disabilities. Muceniekas did not have sufficient funding and asked VOICE to help.

In a stroke of luck and good timing, organizers from the Lutheran Student Movement called to ask VOICE to organize an international gift opportunity for their national college and university student conference in January. VOICE created the linkage, and the Lutheran students raised the $2000 necessary to establish the library.

Opening the Door

By May 1998, VOICE had purchased and shipped books and videotapes from the list developed by DICB. About half of the resources target parents, including a guidebook for parents of babies with Downs Syndrome, siblings in “exceptional” families, a manual for parents of visually-impaired preschoolers, a book on using toys to teach communication, and sourcebooks on epilepsy, mental retardation, and Tourettes Syndrome. The other half includes pedagogical and scientific resources for teachers, practitioners, and social workers. The new resource library will help the DICB realize its mission, to “open the door for many people with disabilities, giving them a sense of belonging in the community.” The DICB is preparing a synopsis of each book in Lithuanian and has discussed the possibility of reproducing each synopsis in newsletters of several local disability NGOs. Parents, teachers, and social workers now have more information, tools, and options for serving special people and fighting discrimination.

Based on the DICB model, VOICE seeks organizational partners and individual donors for additional NGO library support projects. Organizations interested in linking with regional NGOs to help build their resource centers, may contact Nancy Pettis.

Partner NGOs to Translate and Publish Funding Guide

Nongovernmental organization (NGO) resource centers in 16 countries plan to publish country-specific versions of the 1998 VOICE International funding guide (see box at left). By adapting Funding for Civil Society: A Guide to U.S. Grantmakers Giving in Central/Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States for use by local organizations in their networks, VOICE’s partner NGO centers can provide an extraordinarily useful resource in the local language to hundrends of NGOs. VOICE grants republication rights at no cost to partner NGO information and resource centers in Central & Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States. Partners may translate the book, add information resources in their country, and sell it in order to earn revenue to support their Centers. Initially, the collaborative approach was met with surprise and some skepticism on the part of local leaders. Many first responses to this recent project innovation were, essentially, “What’s the catch_” After learning that VOICE’s interest is in getting information to groups in the region, the resource centers were overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

Published earlier this year, Funding for Civil Society responds to requests from civic organizations in the region for information on grant sources to which they could apply directly. Dozens of NGOs in the region, as well as U.S. groups, visit the VOICE website to view the database of funders. U.S.-based international NGOs and agencies, including the Open Society Institute and the U.S. Peace Corps, have purchased printed copies of the guide for their regional field offices.

Print copies may be ordered for U.S. $30.00 through VOICE International, 1511 K Street, NW, Suite 633, Washington, DC 20005.

NGO Resource Centers to Translate, Adapt, and Publish
the VOICE Funding Guide

Empowering Through Information

The Information Clearinghouse in Action

Traveling in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in 1990 with an idea to write about emerging NGOs, Nancy Pettis, VOICE International co-founder and President, discovered highly educated and motivated NGO leaders asking for materials they had never seen before and desperately needed. In Latvia, it was adoption laws. In Poland, they asked about proposal writing techniques. In the Czech Republic, models for battered women’s shelters. How were they getting information_ “When someone comes from another country, we ask for it. Sometimes we get it; sometimes not.” And so the Information Clearinghouse was born.

In the last eight years, VOICE International’s Information Clearinghouse activities have included initiatives to create customized publications, provide technical assistance, and design projects delivering new services and products to human rights and human service groups in CEE and the Newly Independent States (NIS). Throughout these expanding services, the information clearinghouse has remained a primary, ongoing means for furnishing regional groups with the information and materials based on North American experience that they could not access otherwise.

Information Requests

VOICE has collected and sent thousands of documents and publications, free of charge, to civic organizations in areas relating to organizational and program development. Samples include anti-drug and AIDS education materials, handbooks on structuring voter education campaigns, business development guides, models of strategic planning and proposal writing, civil rights and gender equity laws, and materials on establishing homeless shelters and women’s crisis centers.

In the first half of 1998, VOICE fulfilled over fifty requests from NGOs working in the areas of health, human rights, legal information, and NGO support. The latest extension of VOICE’s clearinghouse activities includes its partnerships with the English Teachers’ Association of the Republic of Georgia and the Center for Philanthropy, based in Kiev, Ukraine, to build their resource libraries (see related story above).

Linkages

In addition to sending publications and helping to develop libraries, the Information Clearinghouse has also brokered a number of linkages between regional NGOs and U.S. and other-country professionals in order to foster information and skills exchanges. In response to a recent request from an ethnic Hungarian group in Romania working to raise awareness about diabetes, for example, VOICE located a Colorado doctor who granted the group rights to translate and republish a series of patient care manuals. The value of linkages lies not only in the transference of material and knowledge, but also in the forging of cross-cultural bonds.

Even in light of the rapid transformations and acquisition of information, new skills, and technology occurring in CEE/NIS, the need for exchange of experience persists. VOICE International’s mission is to assist in the strengthening of civil societies by supporting the formation, diversity, and independence of regional NGOs. VOICE continues to meet NGOs’ needs by providing a central source of information on models and experience.

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