From 25 till 30 June 2006 representatives of Russian and Polish NGOs met to exchange information and share experiences. The meeting was organized by the New Eurasia Foundation (Moscow) and the Stephan Batoria Foundation (Warsaw).

To participate in the meeting 25 NGOs were selected in 14 Russian regions: Kazan, Kalinigrad, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Ptrezavodsk, Pskov, Saint Petersburg, Tver, Tyumen, Toliatti, Tomsk, and Ust-Ilimsk.

Nadezhda Maksimenko, manager of the inter-sector cooperation programs of the Krasnoyarsk Centre for Community Partnerships, joined the group as a representative of Krasnoyarsk. The complete list of participants, please see at http://www.neweurasia.ru/rus/news/20060601.html. The Polish participants came from Warsaw, Olsztyn, Gdansk, Lomsza, and other Polish towns.

During the first two days of the visit the participants discussed the issues of the development of the third sector in Poland and Russia, the cooperation and collaboration of the authorities, business structures and the third sector, as well as of international cooperation of NGOs in Poland and Russia. The participants developed ideas of joint projects that should be further elaborated and presented to international foundations for financial support.

The rest of the visit was devoted to meetings with local NGOs and getting to know their experiences. The participants visited the Stephan Batoria Foundation (Warsaw), the Academy for the development of philanthropy in Poland (Warsaw), the Ecological and Cultural Association “Zerno” (Gszibow), Pro-Akademia (Lodz), the Local Volunteer Center (Lodz), MISTIA (Krakow), the Support Center for Ecologial Initiatives (Krakow), and the Partnership for the Environment Foundation (Krakow).

The Local Volunteer Center in Lodz invited Russian NGOs to participate in the 9-th International Festival of Arts of Handicapped People that would take place in Novemeber 2006 in Lodz. This year the Festival is organized by the Social Protection Center No. 5 of Lodz. The NGOs working with handicapped people are invited to submit art works made by their fosterlings that would be exhibited at the Festival.

The participants expressed their hopes that the meeting would be a beginning of a lasting cooperation between Polish and Russian NGOs.