Valeria Goginetchi ’15
Project Location: Chisinau and Calarasi, Moldova
$250 in Eastern Europe FLEX-Ability Grant Funding
Inspired at the Eastern Europe FLEX-Ability Workshop by the work of FLEX alumna from Ukraine Halyna Yanchenko ’04 who works tirelessly to fight corruption in her country, Valeria Goginetchi ’15 launched a project to promote transparency in Moldova by creating a website to track corruption. Valeria began her project by creating a short survey to help her better understand perceptions of corruption in her country. The survey asked respondents to define corruption, name the most corrupt systems in society, name several causes of corruption, and share what they believe are strategies for fighting corruption. From June 15-20, Valeria collected anonymous responses to the survey from citizens of Calarasi and Chisinau. Out of 50 respondents, 34 stated that they believe the educational system is the most corrupt system in Moldova.
For the next phase of the project, Valeria plans to organize a series of educational outreach programs in Calarasi. Members of the Calarasi City Hall administration have agreed to take a survey to assess their level of understanding of corruption as a phenomenon in Moldovan society during a meeting scheduled for August 2016. The principal of a local school, the Theoretical Lyceum Vasile Alecsandri, has also agreed to support the project. Valeria plans to organize a series of lessons on corruption for the school’s debate club in September, culminating in a debate on the topic “corruption is caused by lack of education” planned for September 17, 2016. A video of the debate will be made available on the website, which is scheduled to be finished by September 20. The statistics collected during the first phase of the project will also be shared on the website, along with information on judicial cases related to corruption. The website will additionally feature a map for tracking these corruption cases and a forum for discussion.
