Belarusians Learn About Tourism in Visit to U.S.

Since returning to Belarus from an exchange visit to the United States through USAID’s Community Connections Program, Tatyana Snitko, who belongs to the NGO, Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect, has begun a project that builds directly on the knowledge and experience she gained while there.  Working with the Community of Christian Youth, a locally-based NGO, and the Regional Center for Social Care in Brest, she is in the planning and development stage of a project to build a family resource center.  The center aims to unite family, community and professionals.  The center incorporates the central ideas, principles, structure and activities found in many American social care organizations. Information that Tatyana gathered during visits to the Wisconsin Children’s Trust Fund, the NGO Great Rivers 2-1-1, Family Services and the United Way provided particularly strong models for the overall design of the center.  She believes that the experience she gained during her exchange visit to the U.S. was integral to the development of the general concept of the center and its constituent parts.

USAID’s Community Connections program is a three to five week U.S. training program linked to competitively selected U.S. host organizations for professionals in Belarus.  In 2006, the program provided 50 Belarusian professionals, NGO leaders and entrepreneurs with valuable exchange opportunities.  Just like Tatyana, other participants have already started putting into practice what they learned during their several weeks in the U.S., and have begun projects or practices in their communities, companies, or institutions that build directly on the knowledge and experience received.

Elena Vetrova, coordinator of the tourist agency Green Routes in Belarus and the NGO AgroEcoTourism, and Vasil Hryn, director of the tourist agency Magistr Vita, have worked together in creating a web-connected community of green tourism service providers in Belarus dedicated to Green Tourism Development since their return from the U.S.  The concept of greenways in the field of green tourism was introduced to them during their exchange visit to the U.S.  Their site, www.greenways.by/, which was launched in January 2007, has already been formally presented at a conference for green routes managers and administrators, and potential donors.

Another exchange participant, Vladimir Kamenkov, is certain that the knowledge and experience he gained during his visits to U.S. tourist centers in Washington State can be directly applied to the development and benefit of local businesses in Belarus.  He has already developed two green routes: one in a local health/spa center and the other on his own property.  Also, as a member of the Public Council for Ecological Coordination of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of Belarus, Mr. Kamenkov recently participated in drafting a statute that would set state policy for in-country tourism development.  Mr. Kamenkov has introduced six additional motions to the initially-drafted version designed to promote more effective strategies for ecological tourism development.