Belarusische Gemeinschaft Razam e.V. | |
Founded | 9 August 2020 |
---|---|
Location | |
Membership (2024) | more than 270[1] |
Official language | German, Belarusian |
Chair | Yuliya Salauyova (2024)[2] |
Chair | Maria Rudz (2024)[2] |
Treasurer | Lena Borries (2024)[2] |
Website | razam.de |
The Belarusian community RAZAM e.V. is a non-profit association of people from Belarus living in Germany. The association emerged as a result of the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests against the government of Alexander Lukashenko.[3]
The Belarusian community RAZAM e.V. was officially founded on 9 August 2020, the day of the 2020 Belarusian presidential election, of which the results were considered to have been falsified according to Der Tagesspiegel.[4] As of May 2021[update], it is the biggest group representing the approximately 26,000 Belarusians living in Germany.[5]
The official goals stated by RAZAM e.V. include:[6]
RAZAM receives funding via donations.[7] Some RAZAM projects are financed by the Federal Foreign Office, the German Marshall Fund of the United States and other funds.[8][9]
RAZAM's activities include helping victims of police violence, refugees, and victims of political repression that occurs in Belarus.[10] Families of political prisoners in Belarus are helped by RAZAM with financial support for legal cases[7][10] and moral support such as sending presents to the prisoners' children.[11] Victims of police violence or torture are assisted by RAZAM in getting to Germany for medical treatment.[7]
Within Germany itself, RAZAM helps Belarusian refugees find legal assistance for asylum applications and with donations for families without work permits and ineligible for governmental financial support.[12] RAZAM has also helped Belarusian refugees in Ukraine, in cooperation with the NGO Free Belarus Center based there.[13] During the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, RAZAM supported Belarusians fleeing Ukraine[14] including those in Poland.[15]
After the outbreak of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, RAZAM helped to collect relief supplies for Ukraine, opened a storage room in Berlin to provide refugees with clothing and hot meals, and supported mine-clearing teams in Ukraine.[16]
RAZAM disseminates information and communicates with governments in the European Union.[7] In 2021, regional RAZAM groups organised rallies, concerts and art exhibitions in Germany against the Lukashenko government and publicised their view of the situation in Belarus.[17][12]
In August 2020, RAZAM was one of the co-founders of a Germany-based "Belarus Working Group" together with the German-Russian Exchange, the German think tank Zentrum Liberale Moderne , the association "Human Rights in Belarus," the European Exchange, and the German–Belarusian Society .[18]
On 23 May 2023, the Belarusian community RAZAM was awarded the Gustav Heinemann Citizens' Prize of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.[19]
In the summer of 2023, a Belarusian court recognized the pages of the association and its regional groups on Instagram as extremist materials.[20]