Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya held a meeting with the Cabinet of Representatives. The representative for education Olga Shparaga spoke about the work on helping the repressed students and teachers, as well as exploring new possibilities for further education for the expelled ones. In particular, she talked about the launch of a new aid programme for Belarusian students and teachers from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde.
It is an open competition of providing 30 new scholarships for students and 20 for teachers who came under pressure due to their civil position. Help includes both financial and academic support. Both of the programmes are implemented by a larger project – International Association (http://www.bystudentsol.org/) of student support. The Scholarship Foundation is based on donations from Germany.
The representative for economic reforms Ales Aliakhnovich spoke about a new round of sanctions that are being imposed by other countries and about other ways of economic pressure on the regime (its effectiveness and feasibility). Aliakhnovich also reported that a general aid programme at the rate of at least $150 million, is now in the development of the headquarters. The programme includes:
- Small business support aid programme at the rate of at least $70 million;
- Compensation programme for the victims of repressions at the rate of at least $50 million;
- Independent trade union movement aid programme at the rate of at least $10 million;
- Educational programmes for the affected due to political reasons at the rate of at least $20 million.
The representative for the Constitutional reform Anatoli Liabedzka shared the principles of a democratic Constitution that will meet the requirements of the people of Belarus. It is important that the referendum in relation to the amendments to the Constitution will only take place alongside new fair elections.
