Civil society needs more direct communication with the people and with the authorities, consider participants in the second International Festival Civic Fest that opened in Chisinau on September 24. The three-day event brought together partners from Moldova and the European Union for a civic dialogue and for exchange of experience, good practice and successful projects, IPN reports.

Liliana Rotaru, the representative of the Alliance of Active NGOs in Social Protection of Child and Family, said that Civic Fest 2014 is different from the previous festival by the awareness heightening and fundraising campaign “A school for everyone”, intended to support inclusive education. “We are conducting an awareness raising campaign because we saw that sometimes the bodies are prepared, there is financing, but the community is not ready,” stated Liliana Rotaru, referring to the resistance put up by some of the parents to inclusive education.

Andrew Young, director of the U.S. National Democratic Institute in Moldova, said a poll carried out by the Institute shows that 49% of the Moldovans have little trust in NGOs. “The NGOs should become involved more in field work. They must gain the people’s trust and campaign for causes in which the people are interested,” he stated.

Ana Mihailov, program coordinator at the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, noted that a functional democracy needs people with democratic thinking in every area of activity. “Given that confidence in the political class is decreasing, we need civil society organizations active on the spot, which would represent the interests of ordinary people,” she said.

President of East-Europe Foundation Sorin Mereacre said the festival is important in the context of the internal political situation and the regional security situation. He expressed his concern about Moldova’s vulnerability to a number of destabilizing internal and external factors. Civil society must help the ordinary people to resist and discern the information disseminated by the media. A panel discussion within the Civic Fest will focus namely on manipulation and freedom of expression in the mass media. Prime Minister Iurie Leanca will take part in a civic dialogue with representatives of civil society during an hour on September 26.

Civic Fest is organized and implemented by the public association Synergetica Eur/Est with the support of East Europe Foundation with the resources provided by the Government of Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark/DANIDA, the Austrian foundation ERSTE, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Moldova, the U.S. National Democratic Institute in Moldova, SOIR Moldova, the Academy “Nicolae Dumitrescu”, the National Museum of Art and Theater, and the Magazine Theater “Ginta Latina”.