Introduction
The
Rozmberk Society was established in April 1998 as a public benefit
corporation for heritage conservation combined with regional development.
Our main operating area covers most of
the Trebon Basin, comprising the mostly flat, rural fishpond region
in the eastern part of South Bohemia, Czech Republic. With a
surface of about 1,100 square kilometers (430 sq. miles), the region harbors
approximately 48,000 inhabitants in 50 villages and small towns.
This
year, the Society celebrated its five years of existence. In this period, we
have build an impressive track record starting from scratch. The Society now
closely works together with other NGOs, schools, and authorities in numerous
regional and national projects and is involved in several EU projects. Since
December 2000, we managed to secure 8 million CZK in project funding (over
250 000 EUR or 310 000 USD), with an additional 2 million CZK in already
contracted but yet unpaid funds for 2004 and 2005. To compare, 8 million CZK
pays for well over 40 person-years in average Czech wages.
We hope to continue this record over the coming years.
I.
Activities and Projects in 2003
1.
Kojakovice
Peasant Museum and Information Center
Since
2001, the Society operates a small museum and information center in the
former school of the protected village of Kojakovice. The Center was open
during weekends from April until October 2003 and full-time from June until
1 October. The Center was also opened on request outside hours to visitor
groups, in particular from the Greenways program.
People
from the region again donated several historic objects, notably a second
historic grain thrasher and other agricultural utensils. The exhibition
about the history of emigration to the USA was enlarged and the computer
room was transferred to exhibition area on historic crafts.
Around
2000 people visited the Center. The special event weekends attracted another
900 people to Kojakovice and our new location in Nove Hrady.
2.
The
Kojakovice Project
In November 2000, The Rockefeller Brother Fund (RBF), USA,
provided a three-year grant to the Society as starting fund to develop the
Kojakovice Center and to help a sustainable economic redevelopment of the
this rural region while also helping to preserve its natural and cultural
heritage. Public involvement and strengthening the non-profit sector in the
region form an important part of the project mission.
The grant enabled the Society to pay for its operating
costs and to run activities for which no other funding was available. In
addition, part of this grant was used as matching fund or pre-financing for
projects co-funded by Czech or European sources. This strategy enabled the
Society to more than double the funds provided by the RBF. Each of the
individual projects contributes to achieving one or more of the objectives
of the Kojakovice Project and the mission of the Society
3.
Improvement of village green
Kojakovice offers little in the way of attractive public
spaces or playgrounds for children. The old small tennis-play area has
deteriorated over the years and has become unusable.
The Society received a grant from Nadace Via to improve
public places in the village through a democratic decision process. We
organized two public meetings. During the first meeting, the project was
introduced and the villagers were asked to provide their suggestions on how
to improve the village green and playground. Under guidance of the architect
of the Trebon Biosphere Reserve, two students in architecture were asked to
come with a proposal based upon the recommendations of the villagers. At the
second meeting, several proposals were offered and one final plan selected
by the villagers. The selected plan includes restoring the playground for
tennis and mini-football, installing some wooden play-animals for younger
children and clearing and improving the surrounding village green.
Realization of the plan will take place in 2004.
4.
Local crafts as cultural heritage of villages
As
part of this project the Society collected information about crafts in the
region and interviewed retired craft masters. One result of the project was
the now-permanent exhibition on crafts from our region. The exhibition
explains the development of crafts in the region and displays the work of 17
artesians. An important aspect of the exhibition is our effort to promote
the individual artesians to help selling their craft products.
In
addition, the Society participated with craft demonstrations during events
in Ceske Budejovice (2x) and organized three craft demonstration events and
weekends in Kojakovice. During the weekends visitors could watch or try
their hand in blacksmithing, rope making, woodworking activities, lace
making, pottery, making decorative cakes, and making bijouterie from natural
materials. During one of the events visitors could also taste the local
traditional foods like special potato dumplings with cabbage.
A
special Christmas crafts and Christmas exhibition was organized in
cooperation with the Jilovice Elementary School, hosted first in Jilovice
and afterwards in the historic blacksmith shop in Nove Hrady
For this project the Society obtained funding from
the Foundation Open Society Fund, Prague, program Open Museum Gates,
and the Czech Ministry of Culture, program Saving Rural Cultural Heritage.
Matching funds was provided by the RBF.
5.
Traditional Crafts Incubator and Network
Helping
create new jobs and new companies, and involving low-chance groups in this
are social and regional development aims that form an important part of all
Czech and EU priorities and are also a priority for the Society.
The
Society aims to establish a form of traditional crafts network and incubator
helping young people to start new companies in traditional crafts. Practical
development of the incubator was planned to start in the spring of 2003. The
project was part of the MNEMOSYNE II proposal for funding under the EU
Culture 2000 program in 2003-2004. MNEMOSYNE I was an Italian-coordinated
cultural heritage and regional development program in which the Society was
a partner, MNEMOSYNE II is the follow-up.
Unfortunately,
in May 2003 the application was rejected and no other significant resources
were found to run this project. The Society continued developing this
project, albeit at a slower rate due to lack of funding. Obtaining EU funds for this project has become the aim of the
Society's activities within the OSF program "Non-profit
Organizations on the Way to the European Union".
6.
Non-profit Organizations on the Way to the European Union.
Non-profit
Organizations on the Way to the European Union
is the name of a large project run by the Foundation Open Society Fund (OSF)
from Prague. The project aims at educates selected NGOs in Human Resource
Development, Rural Development, and the Development in Tourism on the new
possibilities for funding from the EU that become available after the Czech
Republic enters the EU in May 2004. In addition, the NGOs obtained a grant
to design and prepare their projects during 2003 and 2004, to be submitted
under the new EU Structural and Social Funds in 2004 or 2005.
The
Society was selected with its project "Setting Up a Business
Incubator for Traditional Crafts in Trebonsko and Novohradsko Areas".
Staff of the Society participated in workshops on EU funding and proposal
design. Drafting an extensive project proposal has started and will be
completed through group and individual consultation within the framework of
the OSF project.
7.
Project Ecomuseum Ruze and Greenways “Rozmberk Rural Heritage
Trail”
The Society continues to coordinate
regional efforts to develop the Ecomuseum Ruze. An eco-museum is based on
the idea of drawing attention to an area, creating a “museum without
walls”. Nature, culture and history are interpreted in situ" through
story telling, education trails, monuments, and other symbols. The
interaction between nature and people is emphasized and local people should
be actively involved. The Society plans to link the different heritage
highlights of our region with special trails within the planned Greenways
loop Rozmberk Heritage.
The Society is a certified partner
of the Greenways-Zelene stezky program of the Czech Environmental
Partnership. Environmental Partnership and regional partners established the
separate Civic Association Greenways Prague-Vienna to specifically manage
this Greenway. The Society has been appointed Member of the Board of the
Association. Further development of our planned regional Greenways loop
"Rozmberk Heritage" will continue within the activities of the
Association. The Association is now preparing an application for EU funding
for the entire Greenway and its loops. That application will be completed
and submitted for funding in 2004.
As partner of Partnership and
Association, staff of the Society was invited to join the Czech team
participating in the Rails to Trails Conservancy Conference in
Providence, Rhode Island, USA. June 2003.
After the Robert Dulfer and Olga
Cerna continued touring through North America visiting examples of Greenways
and Rails to Trails. In Atlantic Provinces of Canada we visited a network of
Economuseums. An econo-museum combines a working traditional craft workshop
with museum displays about the history of that specific craft in that
region, a small library, and possibility for visitors to view the craft
persons at work and sample or buy their products. The network regulates a
joint propagation strategy promoting all the individual econo-museums
throughout the different provinces. This combination of workshop with museum
part cooperating within a network significantly helps making the craft shops
sustainable and helps keeping rural craft traditions and skill alive. The
society will try to develop that concept in our region as well.
In October 2003 the Society joined
with representatives of other Ecomuseums from the Czech Republic, Slovakia,
and Poland in a study visit to several Swedish ecomuseums. During the visit
participants agreed to continue a closer cooperation by developing joint
funding applications aimed at EU regional Development, Cultural Heritage,
and sustainable Tourism Development programs.
8.
Migration and Intercultural Relations, Challenges for Schools Today
(MIR)
"Migration and Intercultural Relationships,
challenges for schools today" (MIR) is a EU Socrates Comenius
Action 3 Thematic Network project (3-year; starting October 2002). The
Norwegian Stavanger University College is the coordinator; other partner
countries are Northern Ireland, Portugal, Germany, Spain, Slovenia, and
Croatia. The main objective of the project is to establish a www-supported
framework for effective collaboration between different types of
institutions in the fields of Migration (Past and Present) and Intercultural
Relations. The aim of this network will be to enhance today's education in
migration studies.
The Society initiated the Czech participation and is
sub-coordinator. The Czech-English Gymnasium (C. Budejovice, main Czech
coordinator), Pedagogical Faculty (South Bohemian University), Elementary
Schools of Jilovice and Nove Hrady, and the Servite Monastery in Nove Hrady
are the other partners of the Czech group.
Within the Czech group, the Society is conducting
research on historic migration from our region and creating a digital,
web-accessible database about this. The Society also assisted the Jilovice
Elementary School to prepare a Comenius 1 school-to-school project proposal
under the title "Investigating
Yesterday's Emigration - Understanding Today's migration"
and assisted in organizing a thematic summer camp on migration for
the Jilovice school children.
Staff members of the Society and the Jilovice
Elementary School visited the Ulster American Folk Park to obtain experience
and inspiration on how to present and interpret historic migration in
museums and schools.
Together with staff of the Czech English Gymnasium
they also participated in the MIR Conference in Lisbon, Portugal. Migration
activities of the Society and the Comenius 1 proposal were presented at the
conference and the accompanying teacher contact seminar.
More information about this project can be found at
www.migrationhistory.com.
9.
EMILE:
Leaving Europe for America – early EMIgrants LEtter stories.
The Society joined a Swedish
proposal for EU Culture 2000 funding for the EMILE project.
The period 1840 through 1920 was
one of great changes in Europe. One of its results was a large emigration
from throughout Europe to the young United States. The first years as
immigrants were, for almost everybody, years of severe hardships in many
ways.
A source for learning and
understanding of the immigrants’ situations is the ”America letters”;
letters the immigrants wrote to the people left behind in their old country.
These letters are important parts of the common European history. Nowadays
the situation is the opposite, when Europe is hosting immigrants from other
parts of the world. Giving voice to the experiences of the early European
emigrants in America is one way of linking the history and the present and
creating understanding for the new immigrants.
The
main aim of the EMILE project will be to study and compare that part of our
common history as told in letters from America written by early European
emigrants. The project will be a joint transnational study on emigration
history from individual points of view found in letters and other personal
documents. The results will be made public through a website, traveling
exhibition, and exhibition catalogue.
The
proposal for the project has been submitted in October 2003. If approved,
the 1-year project will start in September 2004
10.
Helping Czech Schools Entering the International Eco-School Program
Rural
schools in South Bohemia seldom enter international projects, and
environmental education has a low priority. The International Eco-school
Program (IEP) of the Federation Of Environmental Education (FEE, Great
Britain) can be an easy entrance into both environmental and international
education. The Eco-School Program aims to raise students’ awareness of
environmental and sustainable development issues through classroom study,
and provides an integrated system for environmental management of schools,
with water, waste and energy as priority areas. Pupils are encouraged to
take an active role in practical steps to reduce the environmental impact of
the school. Eco-schools thus extends learning beyond the classroom and
develops responsible attitudes and commitment both at home and in the wider
community
Until
now, Czech schools were not involved in the IEP, and there is no coordinated
effort to involve in particular rural schools in environmental education.
The Society obtained a grant from the British Department of Environment,
Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA, Environmental Assistance Fund) to help
schools join this program.
Progress
was made in preparing material for the schools and hosting some trials
introducing the program to schools, teachers, and pupils. The Society was
not able to obtain membership of the FEE already in 2003, which is a
pre-requisite for being allowed to coordinate Czech FEE projects. This will
the delay the introduction of the program on schools in our region
significantly.
It
is expected that membership will be granted in summer 2004. That would
enable the Society to stat practical implementation of the programs on 7-10
selected schools in our region.
11.
EU Youth Exchanges
a.
Exchange program “Sustainable Development and biodiversity:
sharing experiences”
A
EU Youth Exchange hosted by the Italian ARCI organization of Chieti, our
Youth Exchange partner from the previous years. The Exchange focused on
sustainability and biodiversity of Costal Dune Biotopes in the Abruzzo
region. From the Czech Republic, 7 students participated. Participants were
shown the different biotopes and exchanged experiences by working in
workgroups, comparing practices from each country. Workshop topics included Bio-Diversity policy, critical
points in Local Landscape Planification and Sustainable Landscape Policy, role
of protected landscape
inside "Natura 2000", protected landscape management, and
practices of sustainable management.
The
participants also performed physical work, like taking stock of biodiversity
in sample locations, cleaning garbage from selected dune stretches, etc.
b.
Exchange program: "Promotion of people's awareness on
sustainable development and environmental respect”
The exchange offered lectures on and excursions to farms
and ecological landscapes, which were also discussed in working groups.
12.
Local and regional cooperations
Cooperation with local and regional authorities and
institutions continue to grow.
The Society was involved in applications for regional
development projects under preparation by the Village Association
Microregion Ruze, of which the Society is a Board Member. These applications
are aimed in particular at the different LEADER funding programs and at the
larger Czech and EU Regional Development funds. As member of the Association
and active NGO in the region, the Society is also involved in helping to
establish a new regional Civic Association MAS (Czech abbreviation for Local
Initiative Group) within the Microregion Ruze. The Czech Government has
decided that only such Local Initiative Groups can apply for certain types
of funding and they will forward the funds to specific regional development
projects. The Board of each MAS has to a be a mixture of representatives of
Municipalities, For-Profits, and NGOs, making sure that approved projects
have the wide public support needed for successful implementation.
13.
Friends of
the Rozmberk Society Inc, Iowa, USA.: shared Czech – USA heritage and the
need to find alternative funding sources.
Like most NGOs the Society is
permanently searching for new funding sources. Unfortunately, EU
and national funding obtained covers at most all actual project costs but
often covers significantly less. For example, most EU funding requires
between 10-55% matching funds, funds are paid late, and the final
installment often is paid months after project completion. That means that
matching funds have to be found and an NGO should be able to pre-finance
part of the projects.
Contemporary project funding in Central Europe does not or
hardly cover any operating costs or proposal development costs. The latter
can take several months of work and then it takes between 4-12 months before
a project is approved and funding is provided. Building a reserve funds to
help pre-finance projects or keep staff members employed and the
organization operating in-between projects is impossible. Virtually all but
the largest NGO's in the Czech Republic exist less than 10 years and are
without such financial reserves. All have to look for additional funding
outside projects and many persons working in or for NGOs have to work in
other jobs as well to have a secure income.
The extra financial sources available in Western Europe or
North America do not (or not yet) work here. Having ousted communism after
50 years, the general public here has little to spare itself. The system of
volunteer work, donating to, or becoming a paying member of a NGO is new and
still on a low level. Corporate sponsoring is still an unfamiliar concept
and sparse. Tax incentives to support NGOs are virtually non-existent.
The 3-year grant from the American Rockefeller Brother Fund
enabled the Society to start its operations and work flexible and respond
quickly to changing circumstances, conditions paramount to achieving our
current situation. The Society has also other good contacts in North
America, in particular with persons from the extensive communities of
Americans with Czech ancestry. This already resulted in the Sister City
Partnership between Jilovice-Kojakovice and Oxford Junction, Iowa. Since
2002, two projects of the Society and part of its museum activities are
focused on migration of Czechs to America.
The Society has decided to
intensify the contact with American persons and institutions and bring the
cooperation on a more active level. To achieve this, together with our
American friends we established the Friends of the Rozmberk Society Inc,
which was incorporated as a charity in the State of Iowa on 28 August 2003
and has its seat in Oxford Junction, Iowa.
The mission of the "Friends
of the Rozmberk Society, Inc. " (FORS)
is to:
-
Support the Czech Rozmberk Society and help realize its
mission
-
Actively help persevere the Czech heritage in North
America
-
Facilitate joint US - Czech projects and student
exchanges
-
Promote a free, democratic, and multi-cultural society.
It is expected that it will be easier to raise funds
through FORS in North America for the operating cost, matching funds, and
project pre-financing of the Czech Rozmberk Society than it is currently for
our Society to raise such funds itself.
As part of these activities we also visited the Czech
Heritage Festivals in Wilson, Kansas, and in Wilber Nebraska.
II Future activities
In
the year 2004, the Society will further focus mainly on developing the
Crafts Incubator Network within the Ecomuseum program and on the historic
migration activities. Funding for the network is secured, the historic
migration activities are secured through the participation in the Comenius 3
Thematic Network Project MIR. Before completing this Annual Report the
Society also learned that the EMILE project has been approved as well. if
this will be approved.
III. Financial Year 2003
The full financial and auditors report over the year 2003
are available upon request. The main points of the report are mentioned
here.
1.
Funding sources
In 2003, the main income for the Society came from the
three-year grant from the Rockefeller Brother Fund (RBF). Additional funding
was received from Nadace Partnerstvi (Greenways program), Ministries of
Culture and of Education of the Czech Republic, The EU Socrates and Culture
2000 programs (through foreign partners), Nadace Open Society Fund Prague,
Nadace Via, Labor Offices Ceske Budejovice and Jindrichuv Hradec (employment
support), the EU Youth for Europe program, the Municipality of Jilovice, and
various small donations.
2.
Income and
expenditure
Expenditure exceed income with 50 thousand CZK at a
turnover of 2,4 million CZK (approx. 78 000 EUR or 96 000 USD).
Trebon,
30 June 2004.
Dr. Vilem Zachleder
Drs Robert Dulfer
President Rozmberk Society
Director Rozmberk Society