Nearly 500 associations throughout Croatia opened their doors

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NGOs Open Days 2015 were held from 28 to 30 May 2015 and almost 500 associations were open their doors throughout Croatia.
The fourth consecutive year the associations from every Croatian County organised a series of events in order to present to the interested public their socially beneficial projects and programs implemented in their local communities. By participating in the associations’ activities, the citizens were able to get insight into a wide range of the associations’ activities and also to get motivation for continuous engagement in their local communities, either as beneficiaries or volunteers.
During those three days organised were activities of organic urban gardening and raising awareness of local government on the need for citizens' participation in creating the content on public and green spaces, presented were the innovative projects aimed at improving the quality of citizens’ life, such as, mobile application for blind persons. Also, the best students’ socio-entrepreneurial ideas were awarded with prizes, creative workshops and performances were held and trainings conducted for various target groups, anniversaries of the associations’ work were organised, as well as the number of other interesting events. Information on the associations that have opened their doors, including their activities are available at www.daniudruga.hr, as well as on the facebook page: www.facebook.com/DaniUdruga.
 
In 2015 which has been celebrating as European Year for Development, NGO Open Days represented an opportunity to further strengthen solidarity and confidence in local communities and to remind on a important role of CSOs in connecting citizensns in dealing with problems and creating networks of mutual support.
 
On the NGO Open Days 2015, the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs organised the Conference “Associations as agents of local development” on 27 May in Zagreb where the good examples of cooperation between local authorities and associations were discussed. On that occasion the mobile application UdrugeInfo was presented, with the view of increasing the visibility of the organisations in local community and strengthen citizens’ participation in the activities carried out by associations. The Application UdrugeInfo enables easy search of data on the activities and services of the registered associations according to the place and time, or the information contained in the Register of Associations, but also easy access to the association which is of interest to citizens. The Application is now available for Android mobile phones and soon will be also for Apple phones on which it will be possible to learn more on the Government Office web page www.uzuvrh.hr. Also, the Application may be accessed via the website: https://udrugeinfo.uzuvrh.hr/.

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