Hearing the voice of civil society „ Discussion with every single person in the street is important and can make the difference,“ said Mr. Michal Dobiáš whose Association of Youth Informational and Consultation Centres carried out several grant projects under the governmental information strategy aimed at increasing public awareness of NATO and security related issues. „'Pass it on...', it was the first sentence that came to my mind when we were debating with my friends and colleagues from the Association on how to address our fellow-citizens, how to spread the message further. In putting together our project called 'Pass it on...' we were inspired by a similar project of the NGO, GEMMA 93. Their youth activists crossed Slovakia right from the eastern border to Bratislava, our capital in the West of the country, stopping on their way in towns and villages and debating with people in the streets. We thought that it was an excellent idea and that it would be worthwhile to do something similar focusing on the Central Slovakia,” recalls Mr. Dobiáš, a president of the Association of Youth Information and Consultation Centres adding: “I remember a debate with a man in Rajecka Lesna, a small village in the northern part of the country. He was very strongly opposed to our NATO membership. But when I asked him to give me his arguments, he didn’t have any. His opposition was purely emotional I took the time to talk to him and when we finished our debate he agreed with me. In the end we had our picture taken in front of our special bus decorated with a poster that said 'Slovakia in NATO'. It really is only about information. Discussion with every single person is important and can make a difference in the end.” A painting by 8-year old Barbora. She took part in the competition “My safe future in the Third Millennium” organised by Professional Women, a Bratislava-based NGO.       The idea to reach out tow Slovak citizens, to educate them about and attract their interest to NATO and security-related issues, and in the integration project in general, through various non-governmental organisations, professional agencies, local media, academics, think tanks, etc. has been at the core of the governmental information strategy on NATO. It is worth noting that already the first national MAP (National Programme of the Preparation for the NATO membership) of 1999 has accorded public information policy a prominent position in the process of preparation for NATO membership. Throughout the years, the Slovak public administration accumulated valuable experience in dealing with non-governmental actors of public life, more than 60 NGOs were involved so far in this public information undertaking, covering almost every corner of the country and various categories of the population. High School Parliament of Slovakia, an NGO with a network of local agencies around Slovakia, has organised public debates at schools and an essay competition on NATO, where more than 500 essays were delivered. Bellow you can read an extract from one of the papers, wrote by 15-year old girl: “ There is a garden with trees, neither too many, nor too few. And we are a small tree, but a nice one. We wish to be in a beautiful garden too. And we do not wish to be in a garden only because there is a gardener who would take care of us, to protect us from worms and insect. It is true, all these things gardeners really do. We are a fruit tree, and there is a good fertile soil. And we want to grow as fast as possible and give the best fruits we can to feed all people of the earth. For our nation, for a better world, and to save fruits from worms. ” However, public debates and competitions are only two examples of the whole spectre of activities carried out to-day, the other being TV and radio programs, special supplements in local newspapers, conferences, concerts, special websites , free news agency updates on NATO, etc. One of the premises of the grant competition has been to target those parts of the population which either were least informed about or indifferent to NATO, minorities, women, soldiers, people in most remote areas among them. Information leaflets were translated into Roma, in order to get closer to large Roma minority living in Slovakia. Roma NGO from the Eastern Slovakia was in charge of the project.       You can read more on the Public Information Strategy and the projects in the brochure Slovakia’s road to NATO: a Story of Public Opinion, which is placed at the website www.foreign.gov.sk.