Eastern Europeans Meet
Nine women—from Russia, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, and East Germany—met in a topic group at the Pre-world Conference in Poland in May 2013.
We shared our thinking about this part of the world and what we like about our countries and the role we play in RC. We hope that our declaration will inspire people to discharge and think about us.
Some of what we like about our countries:
• our hospitality
• how Romanian is connected with the other Latin languages
• our connection with nature, but also how much beauty is made by people
• our ability to stay flexible in difficult situations
• that we work hard and move forward
• the sense of community among us; our safe relationships in which nobody is criticized or hurt.
Declaration
We represent the survivors of an ex-political and ex-economic system. There have been difficult experiences among our countries. We feel the pain. We apologize to each other. Most of us are not seen and our oppressions are not referenced. We have experienced and still experience a lot of oppression. We have fewer opportunities to meet and build together, compared to the countries of the “developed West.”
However, size and growth are not everything. Ours is a special part of the world. We have excellent examples of people taking power and changing the world. We are worth being known. We would like our leaders to play a greater role in the RC Community and be used as allies and resources.
There is so much to learn from each other. There is so much hope. We will continue and do our work when we return home.
Juliane Cieslak
Potsdam, Brandenburg, East Germany, Germany
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion
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