This is how happy the BRYC crew is after a great annual meeting in Luleå last week. In the front you see our new chair person Ksenia Kipurova (Arkhangelsk) who will chair BRYC for the coming year! Congrats Ksusha and congrats the whole of BRYC to have chosen such a good leader! To her left is the vice chair person John Asle Somby (Finnmark). Around them you see their happy team!

The new board is as follows: Ksenia Kipurova (Russia), John Asle Somby (Norway), Halvard Rundberg (Indigenous people), Risto Ukkonen (Finland) and Ylva Maria Pavval (Sweden).

It feels great to leave my position as the BRYC chair person after two wonderful years, and I’m looking forward to see the new directions where Ksusha will lead us.

The board of BRYC, caught singing the Lucia song in four different languages during a meeting last year.

One of the ideas from Yeah Rights! was discussion clubs for saami girls, where teenagers can meet up and talk about different topics in a safe environment. Different organisations like Amnesty and the Red Cross have discussion clubs like that for both boys and girls in Sweden, but nothing for the indigenous people.

So BRYC have developed the idea together with the swedish saami youth organisation Sáminuorra, and we have come up with an suggestion for how a saami version would be. Now we’re inviting everyone interested to an open meeting in Jokkmokk on January the 7th.

Welcome!

/ylva

I also want to say hi and tell you something about myself since I’m a new BRYC-member.

I’m really looking forward to coorporate with all of you, this is such an important council for every youth in our regions. Today I’m in the council for youths in Tromsø, and we are seven members from all around the Troms region representing different regions. We are the youths mouthpiece, and our vission is to make Troms the best region to grow up in based on culture, school, transport and activities.

Now days I’m a student where I want to become a lawyer when I’m finished at High School. I’m living at Senja, an irland not far from Tromsø.

I have so many thoughts about this council, and I can’t say anything more then I’m really looking froward to this. It makes me really happy to think about what we can do to change or improve things!

So, I hope to see you all soon, and take care.

Best wishes, Silja Kristianne.

One of our main projects is the festival week “Dialog of Cultures”. That’s an international youth week where we have seminars, workshops, discussions, screenings and concerts. We welcome creative people who want to make their future better and suggest some alternatives to what we now have. Possible topics for the next festival (March 2010) :
- arts in the crisis
- city as an environment
- the society of consumption and etc.

You can find the information about the previous festivals on dialogmurmansk.ru and feel free to write me and ask for it. My e-mail is: irkarmazina@gmail.com

Warmest wishes from cold Murmansk!
Irina

To Laila, the amazing secretary of the Barents Regional Youth Council.

Adopted September 19^th 2009 by the participants of

“ReACTion”- A workshop against prejudice

Arkhangelsk 16.-20.September 2009

We, the participants of the Workshop “ReACTion” are youth representatives from Norway, Russia, Finland and Sweden.

We recognize the Declaration on Human Rights and other declarations encouraging the objective perception of people with various viewpoints and beliefs, building on tolerance and fight against prejudice.

We understand the importance of international youth cooperation, dissimilation of information and cultural exchange between young people in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region;

It’s necessary to join efforts to break various forms of social, religious, racial, sexual, and other forms of intolerance among youth and people in general.

We call for a society based on the principles of democracy. And underline the importance of protecting the rights of minorities, their way of life and the right to choose your own sexual identity.

We are ready to take active part in the work against prejudice and we stress the value of a free press and the freedom of expression.

We suggest the following actions:

• Secure youth participation in international work and the involvement of disabled people in different activities
• Increase the number of international youth initiatives
• Prioritize democracy building, for instance trough informal meetings with policy makers
• Create international arenas in order to exchange ideas and views e.g. Camps and exchange programs
• Implement projects that increase cultural competence based on the principle ”Diversity is the Barents identity”

To make this possible we need to take concrete measures including:

• Continue the non-bureaucratic and youth-friendly financial funds provided though The Barents Regional Youth Program. To develop it further into a multilateral fund in order to facilitate international youth initiatives in the Barents Region. Establish other forms of financial support that aims to strengthen youth cooperation in the High North
• Support the Barents Regional Youth Council and projects that provides concrete experiences with democracy practices, involvement and the realization of own project ideas.
• Continue to provide the facilitation service for multilateral youth work in the region, the Barents Youth Cooperation Office (BYCO).

We believe that an open and tolerant society is necessary to create an attractive and sustainable Barents Region.

We are the present and the future. We are able to change it!

I am in Arkhangelsk where we just finished out event reACTion – a theatre workshop against prejudice. These last five days was aboslutely fantastic. Around 50 people gathered from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, everyone ready to leave any shyness behind and together with the group face their prejudices and use them to create a GREAT theatre show.

The swedes and norwegians waiting for the flight from Moscow to Arkhangelsk.

Team building activities at the outdoor museum Malie Karelie.

The BRYC member Ksenia jumping it!

These were some photos from the first days. After that, I left my camera at the room. But I saw plenty of people with big cameras around. Maybe someone else could upload some pics?

Also, please join our facebook group reACTion to get in touch with the other participants!

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