Representatives of ethnic communities, experts and opinion leaders discussed candidates to be featured in the videos, which will be shot as part of the project “We all are Moldova – what do we know about each other”, during the second round of consultations, hosted by the Institute for Strategic Initiatives (IPIS). The meeting on Friday, August 3, helped establish the first three of the 10 characters for the videos.

Curiously, some of our potential characters identify with multiple ethnic groups. Adriano Marian, the head of Moldovan National Youth Orchestra, for example, told us during the consultations that, while he is Roma, there are representatives of other ethnic groups in his ancestry. Adriano himself identifies as Moldovan.

Adriano’s example is widespread in our country – so the participants at the meeting stressed the need to have the characters in the videos define their own identities as they see fit.

During the previous meeting, which was held on June 25, representatives of ethnic communities suggested to focus the videos on the contribution of various ethnic groups to the development of Moldova. The IPIS project “We all are Moldova – what do we know about each other” is funded by the US State Department. It targets young people of diverse ethnic brackgrounds from Moldova.