Active Citizens Fund will support 61 projects in 2.Call

In the 2nd call round, Ekopolis Foundation, Open Society Foundation & Carpathian Foundation gave out 3,032,745 EUR to 61 non-governmental projects. Active Citizens Fund Slovakia that falls under Financial Mechanism EHP 2014-21 helps to launch more projects around Slovakia. Projects are aimed to help improve public administration, human rights protection and status of vulnerable population groups.

Once again, 2nd call round offered five areas, in which the non-profit sector applicants can apply for grants. The areas of interest were Civil Participation, Public Interest Defence, Human Rights, Vulnerable Population Groups and Civil Society Organizations Development.

Six Civil Participation projects of total of 414,057 EUR have been funded. Funded organizations are Nadácia Rafael with the project of public involvement in Policy for Autism, Živica – Centrum environmentálnej a etickej výchovy živica with The Green School project (SK: Zelená škola), NGO Tabačka Kulturfabrik, citizens association Tichá voda with active citizens networking project and non-profit organization Mládež ulice.

Seven Public Interest Defence projects of total of 608,305 EUR have been funded. Few examples are: Cyklokoalícia with their project on sustainable mobility, IPčko with project on legal status of helplines, Transparency International Slovensko’s Where Does Our Money Flow? project (SK: Komu tečú naše peniaze?) and VIA IURIS with Pillars of the Rule of Law project (SK: Piliere právneho štátu).

Project in the area of Human Rights aims to improve the education in the field of civil and human rights. In this area, the Program funded 11 projects, with the total of 765,708 EUR. Some of the selected projects are – Educating the Critical Thinking Teachers in Regions by Slovenská debatná asociácia (SK: Vzdelávanie učiteľov kritického myslenia v regiónoch), citizens association Dúha from eastern Slovakia, or Centrum komunitného organizovania with Schools for Democracy project (SK: Školy za demokraciu).

In the area of Vulnerable Population Groups, 25 smaller projects have been selected and awarded 341,325 EUR in total, with four additional basic projects with the total of 253,350 EUR. Some of the smaller projects are, for example, civic association Childhood to Children from Dobšiná with their Early Intervention in Parents Center, organization Cesta von z geta with Fire of Hope (SK: Oheň nádeje), non-profit organization ROMA with the project for better life of Roma women. Next supported projects are: Farewell for Life by Smile as a Gift – Úsmev ako dar (SK: Cesta do života), or 3P project by STROM (3P –práca, pomoc, podpora = en. job, help, support).

Fourth funded area is Civil Society Organizations Development. Overall, the Program financed eight projects in total of 650,000 EUR. Supported projects are, for example: WWF Slovakia’s Green for Business (SK: Zelená pre biznis), Inklucentrum, and Carpathian Development Institute’s KLIKRI project (SK: Silný hlas občianskej spoločnosti pri tvorbe verejných politík v čase KLImatickej KRÍzy).

For more information, visit www.acfslovakia.sk