ASOCIAŢIA PRO - MEHEDINŢI
234 Calomfirescu Street
Drobeta Turnu Severin, România
C.I.F. 22381127
Phone/fax:+4(0)252. 311.126
e-mail: pro@mehedinti.ro

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Mission, intervention protected areas

The association Pro-Mehedinţi is a nongovernmental organization founded in July 2007 in Drobeta Tr Severin, with its declared mission of supporting the overall sustainable development in the Mehedinti county by promoting the values of this place at regional, national and European level. From the perspective of the natural patrimony - and in particular from its unique components, the Mehedinţi County gives very valuable landmarks to the European civilization.

The association Pro-Mehedinţi  has set out objectives and types of activities in its statute aimed to protect and maintain a clean environment, increase the citizens' involvement in social, administrative and political life,  aware as many of them on the natural values of the this region.

Members, staff, previous activities

On the 1st of May 2009, the Association has 40 volunteer members with specific professional skills, who have acceded to the organization convinced of the utility of setting it up. Pro-Mehedinţi meets from doctors in biology, economics and geology - with university career, studies and research in popular fields; doctors, teachers, engineers, IT and media specialists or lawyers - to pupils and students. Many of them are already known in the county as people involved in the community’s life, participating in multiple activities to promote tourism and natural values, bringing their personal guaranty to the organization they are part of, too.

Association Pro-Mehedinţi has a number of 7 employees and the experience gained by its members in their fields of activity, professionalism and willingness towards direct involvement in the community life which they represent favored the Association to win (in less than a year after its establishment) 4 projects: 2 projects with Phare CBC funding to promote tourism in the Romania-Serbia cross-border area, 1 project funded by the U.S. Embassy, which promotes youth involvement in the local community life and a project aimed to raise the awareness on the importance regarding the environment protection, financed by the Environment Fund Administration.

Individually, in the last 3 years, the Association members were involved in national and European projects, as volunteers or members of the implementation teams, in partnerships with other NGOs and public institutions.

Description of the implemented projects

The Project entitled: „Cross-border Danube Itineraries”, financed by the Euroepean Union by the Neighbourhood Programme Romania-Serbia 2005

Short description: The project " Cross-border Danube Itineraries: facilitate the visibility of the tourism potential, and consequently, development of tourism in the border region Mehedinţi – Borski; develop the traditional links between local communities of the border region; renew the interest towards the natural values, historical, religious and cultural identity of the region by identifying and promoting the common features of local communities on both sides of the Danube. The project achieved the following activities:

  • Established and set up a database of travel information on the natural and cultural tourism in the border region
  • - Placed an Info-kiosk with virtual tourist itineraries in the cross-border region. The application is easily accessed by the tourists passing through the crossing point of the Iron Gates I.
  •  Created and organized a photo exhibition on "border zone: past and present" (bilingual exhibition). A part of the photographs were taken on the field by the project implementation team members, another part was taken from the archives of the Romanian partners, who have conducted such research and have organized exhibitions, other part was taken from the Serbian partner who owns photos made in its 10 years of activity, and the old photos, testimonies of the past, were taken from the members of the local communities.
  • Printed a bilingual guide tour of the cross-border region Romania-Serbia
  • Visually signaled the tourist objectives in the cross-border region. Within this activity there were made 2 indicating panels measuring 4 m x 3 m, each panel showing two tourist maps - one for the Mehedinti county and one for the Borski District. The indicating panels were placed in the border area, close to the border, in places of rest and visibility, so they can be studied by tourists.
  • Made 2 documentaries that highlights and promotes the religious objectives and tourist attractions of the Romania-Serbia cross-border region. A documentary movie on religious themes has as subject the life of St. Nicodim of Tismana, Serbian- monk form the 15th who built monastic establishments both in Borski and Mehedinti and still exists even today. The second film promotes the tourist attractions in the Borski area and is addressed particularly to the Romanian tourists, eager to visit that area.

Implementation Period: 01.12.2007-30.11.2008

 

The Project entitled: „Danube with no frontiers”

Short description: The Project “Danube with no frontiers” aims to stimulate the development of rural tourism and promote the ethno-cultural tourism landmarks of the Danube river border region Mehedinţi-Borski, by strengthening the sustainable links between Romanian and Serbian communities in order to develop the tourism and facilitate the cross-border intercultural communication. The project has the following activities:

  • Establish a database of cultural - artistic and sports events, festivals, fairs and folk events coastal towns of the Danube river border region Mehedinţi
  • Borski involves gathering and documenting both bibliographic and field information of tourism potential which is popular in the border region. The information will be primarily stored on electronic material. This activity is very important because by the means of the documentation and information collection there will be done the database of tourist information, documentation needed for the catalog of the popular events in the concerned region, developed the files of the InfoPack stand, a virtual tour of the tourism center and the seminar with tour operators.
  • Identify and contact the Romanian and Serb tour operators in the project area. The information was needed for organizing the seminar with the tour operators, 10 conferences about ago-tourism and tourism fair, the InfoPack stand and virtual tourism center.
  • Organize a work seminar with the Romanian and Serb tour operators from the Mehedinţi Borski region. The seminar represented an opportunity to the participants to lay the foundations of a cooperation meant to develop the tourism on both sides of the Danube and learn modern methods of promoting the services they offer.
  • Organize 10 conferences on agro-tourism. The participants received training aimed to inspire a desire to develop business in rural tourism in a region where it is perfectly feasible, with potential tourism value.
  • Set an InfoPack stand up of the target region and its distribution involves realizing of cards with sizes of a visit card containing travel information on categories: cultural, historical and religious tourism objectives, places of accommodation and restaurants, places of leisure and panorama. The stand will include travel information in the subject area, both from the Romanian and the Serbian bank of the Danube. The cards will be marked on the both sides - in English. Also, the stand will include a catalog of popular events from the Danube river border area, published in Romanian, Serbian and English. They will be distributed for free in the information center, points of transit, tourist attractions and places of accommodation from Mehedinti and Borski.
  • Realization of a tourism virtual centre of the Danube Borski-Mehedinţi region, practically a web page that contains all the necessary tourist information of this area: the history, tourist attractions, transport, accommodation places, traditional products and activities, tour operators, weather conditions, etc. being practically an on-line tourism guide of the region. A team member will be in charge with the activity of the tourism virtual centre being constantly in relation with both the local tour operators and the tourists that access the site so that the information will be permanently updated and tourists will receive answers to any questions or requests. For the best possible addressability, the page will be promoted on national and international tourism sites as an effective way of promoting the concerned region.
  • Organize the tourism fair "Danube with no frontiers", with the participation of the Romanian and Serb tour operators from Mehedinti-Borski. The event was held on 22-23 April 2009, in Drobeta Turnu Severin, and aimed to promote the tourism offer of 20 Romanian and Serbian operators in the concerned region.

Implementation Period: 18.09.2008-17.09.2009

 

The Project entitled: “Responsible Youth”

Short description: The aim of the project „Responsible Youth” is to convince the young people of the importance of their involvement in political and social life by making them familiar with the basic notions of public government as a major influence factor in developing the local community they belong to.
Project duration: 12 months

Project objectives:

Overall objectives:

  • Facilitate the active participation of the youth in the political and social life
  • Acquire, structure and promote basic concepts about the public administration at local and county level

Specific objectives:

  • Acquire basic knowledge on political parties and civic rights of the citizens
  • Aware the young people about the role of the local administration within the community
  • Acquire basic knowledge on civic participation in the decision making act of the local government
  • Induce a positive attitude among young people on the need of their active involvement in the public life

Implementation Period: 01.12.2008-31.12.2009

The Project entitled: „Manifest for a clean city”

Short description: Create the premises for developing a civic behavior of environment protection among students. This can be achieved by informing on pollution and its forms, strengthening the teachers’ capacity to organize work sessions on environmental issues as civic education. The project responds to a need for information that exists in present in the pre-university education, the need being justified by the great capacity of involving the students and possibility to determine favorable behaviors on long term. The ecologic education is one of the new dimensions of the education. It is centered on the fundamental objective of seeking knowledge about the importance of protecting and conserving the environment, rational exploitation of the natural resources and imposition of a positive attitude from the citizens. The thems of the environmental education can be addressed in school activities at all levels and in extracurricular activities. With these, it is aimed to form the attitude of responsibility towards the ecosystem to the young generation.

The environmental education needs to develop an attitude of respect and responsibility towards nature, an attitude of protecting it at the community level.

In accordance with those presented above and taking into account that the elements of environmental education are present in all activities, especially in the environment knowledge, we considered as being necessary an environment education project lasting one year (12 months).

Starting from this, the project aims to aware the pupils through extra-educational activities.

The project aims:

  • Creating assumptions to develop a civic behavior to protect the environment among students. This can be achieved by informing on pollution and its forms, strengthening the teachers’ capacity to organize work sessions on environmental issues as civic education. The project responds to a need for information that exists in the pre-university education, the need being justified by the great capacity to involve students and possibility to determine the favorable behaviors on long-term.
  • Setting up and equipping an ecological information point, The Green House, in one of the high schools or school groups in which the project is implemented. This ecological information point will be coordinated by a team of students and teachers under the direct guidance of the school education inspector and will be available to all students and teachers.
  • Collect information and print brochures, flyers, a magazine necessary to implement the project, but also to the future work of the ecological information point.
  • A guide on environmental protection, sustainable development and social responsibility.
  • Form specific skills in some students and teachers directly involved in the project implementation (the 12 groups of action that will be formed).

Implementation Period: 01.09.2009-01.09.2010

 Other activities:
The association Pro-Mehedinti is the custodian of the protected natural area Gruia-Gârla Mare, custody set by the Convention of Custody with effect from 23.07.2008.

The representatives of the Association Pro-Mehedinţi, specialists in flora, vegetation, fauna, geology, paleontology, and environment protection have conducted activities on informing the local communities on the biodiversity conservation of the protected natural area of Gruia-Gârla Mare, participated in the development of the database on the Natura 2000 network in Romania, have obtained funding from the European Union to create an information center in Gruia and tourism equipment renting center in Gruia. In partnership with the Mehedinti County Council, the representatives of the Association Pro-Mehedinţi obtained funding from the European Union for a study related to the biodiversity in the area of Gârla Mare-Salcia, also to develop a plan for the conservation of biodiversity in the area of Gârla Mare-Salcia, for visual signs of the elements of flora, fauna and natural habitats in the area of Gârla Mare-Salcia and awareness of the local communities on the biodiversity conservation in the area of Gârla Mare-Salcia.

The Project entitled: The Summer School “Let’s rediscover the Roman life in Drobeta”
Funding Line: National Cultural Fund Administration
Short description: The project aims to familiarize the children and wide public with the values of the Roman civilization on the present territory of Romania, encouraging the knowledge of the past and promotion of the ancient Roman civilization elements, youth involvement in practical events, which involve activities related to the experimental archeology.
The innovative character consists in the assimilation of fundamental knowledge about our history by friendly methods. Children's participation in designing, conducting elements of Roman art and civilization facilitate the understanding of the ancient history of Drobeta.
The project deals with a new way to put in value the mobile and stationary national cultural heritage, intangible assets, encourages children in the arts of dance, theater, and creation. Through workshops, the project develops new participatory artistic practices, new forms of artistic expression.
Project’s activities:
A1.1 Develop a seminar to promote The Summer School “Let’s rediscover the Roman life in Drobeta”
A1.2 Develop 4 information sessions “Let’s rediscover the Roman life in Drobeta”
A2.1 Develop a workshop on Roman clothing
A2.2 Develop a workshop on Roman ornaments
A2.3 Develop a workshop on Roman dances
A2.4 Develop a workshop on Roman Theater
A3.1 Develop a spectacle “Let’s rediscover the Roman life in Drobeta”
A4.1 Develop the documentation for the public tendering procedure
A4.2 Project management development
Implementation Period: 01.06.2009 - 30.09.2009

PRESIDENT,
DIANA NODIŢ

Members of Pro-Mehedinti association :

  • NODIŢ Isabel - Diana
  • TUDOSIE Nicolae
  • MARINESCU Roxana-Cristina
  • DIACONU Florina
  • DRĂGHIA Octaviana-Mariana
  • MATACĂ Sorina Ştefania
  • LĂPĂDAT Raluca Mihaela