U.S. Assistance to Belarus

Support to Democratization

The United States encourages the development of democratic political institutions and a more open society, and takes very seriously the honoring of commitments by the government of Belarus to human rights and freedoms.

Democracy Fund Small Grants Program

The Democracy Commission was set up by the Embassy to issue small grants, primarily through purchases of equipment, to assist the still nascent and needy independent media sector. The other facet of the Commission's activity is to support private and NGO initiatives in the field of rule of law and civil empowerment.

Belarusian Soros Foundation

The Belarusian Soros Foundation, opened and funded in Belarus by the U.S. financier and philanthropist George Soros, administered before its closure in Belarus a wide range of programs to promote open society. This concept postulates independent and unhampered press, active NGOs, government openness, free flow of ideas transcending international borders and civic education as the pillars of democracy. The Foundation's educational information centers (now run by ACCELS) administer programs of graduate studies in the U.S. funded by the U.S. Government.

Internet Access Training Project

The Internet Access and Training Program (IATP) Belarus is part of a U.S.-NIS public-private sector partnership. This partnership promotes academic and professional exchange through providing sustainable access to the Internet and training in its use, primarily to alumni of U.S. Government-sponsored programs.

IATP Belarus began in July, 1997, to work toward the following goals: establish sustainable access to the Internet and provide training in e-mail, Internet and World Wide Web for alumni of US Government-sponsored exchange and training programs and their colleagues in Belarus at universities, libraries, and NGOs.

The program is administered through a grant awarded to IREX (the International Research and Exchanges Board).

USIA (United States Information Agency, now part of the Department of State), IREX, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and other U.S. and NIS public and private sector organizations, launched the IATP in December 1995.