World Organization of Talented Children (WOTC)

A radio show about and for Moldovans from all the places in the world

Reporter. Dear listeners, good evening and welcome on the frequencies of our national radio station. Here is a new show for our people who left abroad… The calendar of the events reminds us that on 10 November, tomorrow, we will celebrate International Youth Day… We want to say also that this event is carrying out as much as possible our achievements and problems that the young people deals with, especially the ones in direct contact with foreign world.
With this occasion I have invited in our studio one of the most active supporters and promoters of our nation, abroad. Dear listeners, I salute Mrs. Renata Verejanu: hello, dear lady. I have invited you in this show and because you’re also leading a prestigious organization – it’s the Little Prince Magazine. Please correct me if I’m not right…
R.V. I am the founder of over 40 NGOs of local, national and international level – a very spiritual and beautiful creation, one of its kind with general headquarters in Moldova, and one of the first international NGOs with general headquarters in former Soviet Union, first even in Eastern Europe: the World Organization of Talented Children (OMCT).

Rep. Very nice… A nice symbol, very important for Republic of Moldova, for us who want to be in Europe. Let’s talk about this connection with European area. Our values… of they are similar with the European ones… Do they match theirs?
R.V. I would like to say, for beginning, what Europe represents for me. I believe that every person or society has as its primary objective of creating its prestige. The prestige of a nation, of your country… And this prestige gets bigger every day, even if it is created by a simple man or personality, a person with a healthy spirit will try to create its prestige. And I tryied all my life to create my prestige…

Rep. How? Teach us…
R.V. I never stepped down from barricades. I always was present on the barricades of spiritual renaissance…

Rep. …You fight…
R.V.(…people that can’t divide something are fighting each other). Only due to spiritual renaissance; and this desire of create my prestige has held me on these barricades, no matter who comes to power, who leaves the power… No matter if outside rains or snows… Feeling like I owe to create this prestige and I have launched many projects of all levels… And I have tryied to get my prestige, the prestige of my community, outside my community… Somebody makes traffic with fruits over border, other – a good wine, somebody – I don’t even want to talk bad things, only good things. I became, without wanting, a PR advisor to Republic of Moldova abroad.

Rep. You are like an ambassador of Moldova in the world.
R.V. … In this blogs network (I have created over 30 blogs), somebody has asked me what’s my profession. I named only a few: journalist, ecomonist, director, writer… And the journalist-blogger said: I think you are the advisor that creates the image of Moldova in the world…

Rep. A very responsible mission, otherwise.
R.V. I want to come back to over 40 NGOs. I have founded this network with some children. It all started from a joke. I know that I am full of ideas… I have started to create civil society in Moldova, which lacked. Or, a country is considered democratic if has a healthy civil society. Starting with ”Micul Prinț” Magazine, that you mentioned of, a first magazine for children, the most important is that all I have created, it was for the first time in our country.

Rep. Like a first try…
R.V. Yes, like a premiere not ony for Moldova, but for entire Europe… A magazine for children, founded by children, I managed relations with publishing house, finances, but the conception was very interesting… It was a first independent magazine for children, created by children, for children, a magazine with a NGO status, the first, first… and a magazine with editorial staff composed of children from different countries… This idea inspired some Scandinavian countries, later UNESCO, who started to promote some school newspapers, and we felt very satisfied knowing that all started from our beautiful idea… In the meantime, we have started to search in all villages of Moldova for talented children for our editorial staff. Every weekend we travelled with national TV… to discover talented children…

Rep. You have worked many years here at national television…
R.V. I haven’t worked, I only collaborated with national television, for free. I had this show ”Little Prince…”. While other people rest in weekends, I gave my weekends to this projects and discovered children… in order to create a world of talented children, a talented children movement… The Little Prince movement… In hthis way, the Festival Contest ”Little Prince” became an independent project. Until 1995 it was a nationwide project, since 1996 it became international. I have invited 6 countries to come to Chisinau and they all responded and participated at our contest.

Rep. Mrs. Renata Verejanu please tell us how many little princes from all Moldova were seen and heard, over the borders…
R.V. If counting local, national and international stages of the Contest… there are over 55,000 young talents from all the continents who participated at this project… at this dialogue between cultures and people that we implement for 15 years already… I am very glad that this year edition of the International Festival-Contest of the World Talents ”Little Prince” took place under the patronage of President of Parliament, Mr. M.Lupu and of Secretary General of Council of Europe, Mr.Terry Davis. The Council of Europe accepted to take another edition of our festival in 2002. After us other agencies were created, other press firms… But we were the first media school for students. And in the moment when we decided to create, on the basis of these projects, an entire organization with such beautiful name – World Organization of Talented Children, we made requests to Council of Europe in order to obtain status with such European forum, as we had to have branches in several countries… One thing is when in our country comes a UN fund, for example, with its millions of dollars, all government officials start to help them quickly to open a representative in our country, and another thing is when we come from Moldova, a country that nobody has heard of, and we try to open branches abroad…

Rep. And you come without millions of dollars…
R.V. … Yes, we come with no money… A French once told me: you are the first Moldovan I met, through you I found out of the existence of such a country, Moldova. You smile?… You come from the former Soviet Union and you still smile? I know that all the people from that area are very serious.

Rep. Even sad.
R.V. And here we are, starting to open these branches… First one we opened in Bucharest. In 2001 we made necessary arangments with Council of Europe, even the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Mr. Walter Schwimmer, wrote about us. We were so nervous that someone from Moldova would try to create obstacle in our way to be admitted to Council of Europe… Moldovans are capable of such things… We were probably saved of the thing that they knew few about Internet and didn’t aknowledged that our presentation written by Secretary General of Council of Europe was hosted 6 months on the Council of Europe website… And after we have obtained consultative status with Council of Europe… we received invitations to participate at the NGO sessions, ar plenary assemblies from Council of Europe, where usually attend only parliamentarians sent from all Council of Europe member states… And we were so happy, so proud… we trully felt like ambassadors of civil society from Eastern Europe, especially from Moldova… For the first time in Council of Europe, in the hemycicle… It was something amazing for our youth. And our friends asked us: what, the Council of Europe doesn’t cover your travel and subsistence expenses? But it costs thousands of euros… I replyied that there were very prestigious meetings…

Rep. It’s possible that you pay membership fees, for such a prestige…
R.V. At these meetings participated hundreds of representatives from many countries. The civil society from western countries is composed of great academics, with a lot of expertise, which do that as a hobby, sharing their expertise with the youth. In our country people knew almost nothing about what is civil society, and we had to work hard for this reason. I left all my jobs and worked for more than 20 years to create in Moldova a durable civil society. And not to create some branches, like the ones that came on the plate from the west. I wanted to bring the proof that we can, we are smart, talented and we can come with new projects… In this way, everything that we created are new structures, of European level and type… absolutely new. We are not a branch of something or somebody, thing that is not very suitable for some journalists that should write about our organizations. And when somebody asked me where did I get so beautiful names, I said they are beautiful because they represent some very interesting structures… Even the Secretary General of Council of Europe asked me why I choose to establish general headquarters at Chișinău… That is because all important international NGOs, funds are gathered near UNESCO, where they get financial support from, near Council of Europe, at Bruxelles, near European Union and I had the impression once that the whole Earth can overturn to West…and we can’t let that happen under no circumstances…. So I have created international NGOs too, this time in Moldova, to balance the planet. The Secretary General supported us, morally of course, especially when we launched new networks, projects – like Clubs of Council of Europe… for youth, created by them which promote among they the activity and structure of Council of Europe. The Secretary General sent a delegation to us, in our small and modest room from Chisinau named ”general headquarters” (that recently the Culture Minister took it from us and gave it to his own wife), to see what we are doing with this big project…

Rep. The projects costs money… Big thoughts – cost money…
R.V. Yes, in our case, as soon as we launched this project – we started to create such structures… so nobody can steal the project from us. And this officials from Council of Europe asked us what are we doing with this project… Especially ours… All the NGOs can be made and registered in any village or at Justice Ministry, only we needed to bring confirmation from Council of Europe, from Strasbourg. It wasn’t just any other organization, it was Clubs of Council of Europe. First Club of Council of Europe was founded in Moldova. Then we created similar Clubs in Ukraine, Moscow, Ekaterinburg, and to Malta, also in Romania… at Leova, with juridical personality, at Chetrosu, Drochia, also in Mingir, in different highschools from our country…

Rep. A network… You have created a network… new structures throughout the country…
R.V. When the officials from Council of Europe asked us what will you do with this project of ours, especially ours, as even there, at Strasbourg, some projects are stolen. We replyied clearly: we should create new youth structures, in Moldova, then in all Europe. This thing was liked by the chiefs from Council of Europe, (but we don’t know if this thing was liked by the persons from our government, from here…). There are very drastic conditions for obtaining this status with Council of Europe. One has to have a specific number of members in different countries. But we came with such interesting projects that they realized that we will obtain all the rest. Even without financial support…

Rep. But where this desire to create so much comes from?
R.V. It comes from the wish of create prestige: to me, my son is volunteer since early age. He started ”Little Prince” Magazine. I supported him, in ideea of becoming a Man… in this way I started to help all children from Moldove…

Rep. And what’s your stimulus?
RV. I mentioned already, at the beginning… The prestige… Prestige costs so much that you can’t buy it with all the money in the world. This was my idea – of creating a healthy civil society in Republic of Moldova. To create for me, as a person, but also to my country – the prestige. This is, I think, the wish and the aim of every human – to create a name for himself.

Rep. Dear Renata, all the things you said – it’s from the history of this beautiful organization. What can you tell us about the present, what are you doing here and now, in 2008, the national year of youth?…
R.V. Our project, Caravan of Culture of Peace, launched in 1993, at national level, and in 2000 was launched at international level. The Culture of Peace is something very fine… To cultivate, to promote, to educate a man to involve himself in culture of peace is very important. Here, you only touch someone in public transportation, and a fight begins. With this project we started from Chisinau to Council of Europe, Strasbourg and UNESCO, Paris.

Rep. Which cities did you passed through?
R.V. We travelled through Bucharest, Budapest, Viena, Strasbourg (European capital), Paris… where the members of the Caravan of Culture of Peace was received by high dignitaries, soirees at Council of Europe and UNESCO. Our children and young people which were the members of the Caravan of Culture of Peace were very happy. Since 2000 we were focused on this project. Every year the Caravan of Culture of Peace and Non Violence is achieved, every year it has different routes, criteria, many countries or just one… but the Caravan remains one of the most beautiful projects… With this project we are one of the actors of the UN program ”Decade of Culture of Peace and Non Violence” for 10 years (2001-2010) and because we sent a lot of ideas from World Organization of Talented Children, so after a while they added to program title some words, and it became ”Decade of Culture of Peace and Non Violence in the benefit of the Children of the World”. And we are one of the actors of this great program. UNESCO Paris has even opened a website for our organization and we, from Chișinău, can access and place events every year that we achieve in the framework of the Caravan of Culture of Peace.

Rep. …very beautiful…
R.V. Besides Clubs of Council of Europe, we, the volunteers from WOTC, we have created the UNESCO Clubs… me and my son created in Moldova first UNESCO Clubs.

Rep. So you have a direct connection with Council of Europe…so to speak.
R.V. Yes, on one side with Council of Europe, on other side – with UNESCO.

Rep. Two directions… Council of Europe and another – UNESCO… Very original…
RV. We have in our network the Moldavian Federation of UNESCO Clubs, Centers and Association, where I am president-founder, and we have several Clubs. The UNESCO Clubs were created over 50 years ago, near UNESCO, and, at their wish, we created some in our country.
The Clubs of Council of Europe didn’t existed before we created. We have created totally new organizations, as a concept, as an idea. I mentioned that Secretary General asked us how nobody from Strasbourg came with this idea before.. and we came with it… to Moldova… We are capable, we have competences to launch new ideas… And not only to launch new ideas, new projects, but also to achieve them… After 5-7 years other Clubs started after us, belonging to EU.
Rep. And you kept your word.
R.V. Yes, or after 1-2 years someone steals it, like it was with Youth Parliament, with Free Microphone… someone tryied even to steal Caravan of Culture of Peace…

Rep. Caravan of Culture of Peace…
RV. We will launch daily new projects… And as soon as we launch them – we implement them, evaluate, and then spread them through our publications. About all these we have written in a statute of some NGO, to Justice Ministry, so if somebody would try to steal our project, we will have the proof…
This autumn we have launched a new edition of the Caravan of Culture of Peace, first new project ”Talented Children – are saying NO to corruption”… Near my birthday I have decided to have some speeches. Almost daily I have such a speech in different institutions, public libraries… And at one of the highschools I asked them if they heard about UNESCO, or if they know the location of Council of Europe, or UN, what is this…

Rep. By the way, people know about these projects, about European forums… about these things?
R.V. Pupils don’t know what is UNESCO, UN, don’t know nothing about Council of Europe, some even don’t know if Moldova is a member or no to this organizations.

Rep. Well, you have some work to do…
R.V. What to speak about students, even parliamentarians don’t know and sometimes confuse Council of Europe with EU. I taught some courses… in highschools, colleges… Students when come to Law school, International Relations, Administration, Journalism etc., all these they must know… What to say, this is connected with cultural knowledge of each of us. In this Caravan of Culture of Peace, my daily meetings with students, I asked if somebody has a tough question. A child asked me: ”How do you perceive the voice of starving child” … I felt a pain in the chest and we launched the second project in autumn, that we will achieve at that highschool: ”The voice of starving child”… these 2 projects that will be implemented soon. The children are starving not only for food, but for information, or an attitude towards them…

Rep. …speaking of the book…
R.V. …yes, starving for books… I had yesterday one of the thousands of meetings in a special project… After the meeting from G.Latină Highschool, from Ciocana, I have concluded yesterday a cycle of meetings near my birthday (this was my gift)… I had a meeting at Dante Alighieri Highschool… Some hours the students from here read me and analyzed my poetry like real critics, like some connaisseurs, I was astonished. They took my nine books, recently appeared at Universul publishing house, in three colors of the flag, they analyzed my how they understand my poetry as a picture, they drawed a picture, some took a poetry and analyzed some metaphoras… I was so happy and I said that I can’t leave without opening a Club of Council of Europe. And the headmaster has supported the idea at the end of the meeting so we created a representative of Club of Council of Europe. Why mentioning that the meeting was with poetess Renata Verejanu… Because in these two decades I had some self-sacrifice from my poetess carreer and I dedicated totally to promote to civil society, and I totally forgot about the poetess Renata Verejanu. I don’t know if somebody is capable in promoting so fruitfully the activity and structures of Council of Europe.
And after working in youth NGOs, I asked myself, our volunteers, after graduating the faculty, after finishing a master degree, where did they go? As every structure has an age bracket. So we have created a new structure, that will open also branches worldwide – European Academy of Civil Society… It is a new structures that promotes collaboration between civil society from Moldova and civil society from other countries.

Rep.Dear Renata, you mentioned so many organizations that I got lost among them… Yes, is a very interesting network… You should come with some tv shows…
R.V. I think I would be capable of defending my doctor thesis in the area of civil society…

Rep. This would be an idea. You spoked with so passion in what you are doing. How good is your work for society? You feel… an echo in what you are doing?
R.V. Our projects are very viable. A lot of people was involved in these projects. Some confuse the project with a grant. Some echoes was beautiful… You should see how some woman, without knowing what we are doing, tells me: Mrs. Verejanu, I also am involved in activities with talented children. Give me your sponsors list. I almost laughted to death, and told her: sponsor no.1 is Renata Verejanu, and sponsor no.2 is Dan Verejanu. I talk about projects. The project is a hard work. And we are happy that people has something to inspire from, they have a starting point. I am happy when some people steal a project at local and national level… All the projects started in previous century we continue to achieve. Among these projects that we achieve every year there are:
Transfrontalier Conference of the Youth on the subject ”Young Politicians, Advocates, Economists, Journalists and their view on European Union” – first transfrontalier project launched only by young Moldovans, for youth in 2004, at Bucharest, implemented yearly with the most prestigious universities from Moldova, Romania and Ukraine.

First European Conference of the Young Journalists – it was truly first children journalists conference, achieved by us in 1995, together with TV station. Our young journalists, editorial staff of Little Prince Magazine from Ukraine, Germany and other countries, from different areas of Moldova, walked with a group of 40 Romanian young journalists on the field in highschools, different companies and organizations. Six days lasted this European Conference of the Young Journalists.
These two projects we develop at this beginning of November. Then, with these ideas, unknown to people from villages, we go to them. I remember one year we went to Bălți, where the Culture House was full, where our young people spoked about the activity of Council of Europe and European Union. When we exited into the hallway, over 100 young people rushed and asked to become members of the Club of Council of Europe. Not everything is lost. Moldovan youth is not present only in bars and disco, we must come to them. At all meetings I speak directly, as equals, and therefore I feel I have their respect. We must challenge them to want to become someone important.

Rep. I believe that in this show you must have provoked the youth to become fine people, good professionals for their country or where they want to work. Thank you very much because you accepted our invitation for this evening. If you have one last word for youth, please say it now, especially we are in the eve of International Youth Day.

R.V. This year at the beginning of December it will be celebrated the 60th anniversary since the proclamation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (with this ocassion I have an invitation to Paris) and I want to tell to every young people, every parent: let’s try and support our children, our youth so they would create their prestige, and the prestige of their city, country.
9 November 2008, Alina Ivașcu.