The e-publication presents 42 good stories from across Europe in the context of the COVID pandemic. Lithuania contributes 5 good stories.

The online brochure “STORIES OF GOODNESS” under the project “Manage the COVID crisis with Care, reasOn, Values, unIty, soliDarity” (Acronym: Care on) is ready. Lithuania was represented in the project by the Open Society Foundation of Lithuania, which presented to the publication the work of Sidabrinė linija, the Association of Young Doctors, the Gediminas City School, and the initiative “Padėsiu mokytis!” and the national volunteer coordination network “Strong Together”.

The COVID crisis is not going away anytime soon. We want to supplement the SWOT analysis of this process with the results of the activities under the project “Manage the COVID crisis with Care, reasOn, Values, unIty, soliDarity”. Let’s note the mistakes and omissions, but let’s see what the conclusions and lessons are, the organizers say.

At the center of this project is placed the Human: doctor, manager, teacher, creator, parent, unemployed, young and old, convinced European or Eurosceptic. The participants in the project consortium listen carefully to everyone’s voice to make it clear and reach millions of European Union citizens. For this purpose, 10 thematic debates were held under the title “Lessons from the crisis”. The lessons for the cultural and social sectors, for education, people with disabilities, young people, families, business, the media, health care were discussed in them with different target groups.

As a result of the discussions during the debates and extensive research work, 42 ​​stories from 8 countries were collected: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Poland, Republic of Serbia and Spain. They are presented in an online brochure in English. “STORIES OF GOODNESS” contains photos, videos and stories of help and empathy, personal experience, good practices from the experience of doctors, NGOs, communities, cities and countries. In it you will find many personal, human stories, some of them – famous, others – about “small” characters who remained out of the limelight.

This booklet shines a light on the daily, quiet act of kindness that we believe is even more contagious than the virus.

The project is funded by the Europe for Citizens Programme of the European Union, Strand 2: “Democratic Engagement and Civic Participation”, Measure 2.3 “Civil society projects”. The coordinator is Contemporary Pleven Media Foundation, Pleven, Bulgaria. Partners are organizations from 7 other European countries: ASOCIACIÓN DE INNOVACIÓN FORMACIÓN Y EMPLEO PARA EL DESARROLLO SOSTENIBLE (AIFED), Granada, Spain; EDUCOMMART, Athens, Greece; JUGEND-& KULTURPROJEKT EV, Dresden, Germany; MINORITY & LOCAL MEDIA DEVELOPMENT CENTER (MLMDC), Novi Sad, Serbia; SPIRALIS, Prague, Czech Republic; OPEN LITHUANIA FOUNDATION (OLF), Vilnius, Lithuania and 36.6 CENTRUM KOMPETENCJI, Lodz, Poland.