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Prof. Radka Argirova – a life like a movie

Sofia, December 16, 2019

Besides the time of year for festivities, December is a month of books. On the evening of December 16th in the packed Comedy Club below the Satirical Theatre, Prof. Radka Argiriva presented her book “A pseudonym with a tint of diversion – A documentary book about Prof. Radka Argirova. The history of AIDS in Bulgaria”. Yulia Piskuliyska has recreated in writing the cornerstone moments of the life and career of Bulgaria’s best virologist. Another great lady - the famous actress Tatyana Lolova – was the main agent in the presentation of the book.
The documentary novel follows the life of Prof. Argirova, and besides her personal story focuses on the cornerstone moments of her scientific career, full of triumph and peril, friendships and obstacles. All is important, but her constant scientific interest is HIV – she is the person who founded a laboratory for researching the virus that causes ADIS – the plague of the 20th century, she brought to Bulgaria the first samples for research, and the intelligence service took an interest in her work – just like in the movies.

BFPA supports the eighth “Valya Krushkina – Journalism for the people” awards

Sofia, December 2, 2019

On December 2 at an official ceremony at the “Peroto” Literary club in the National Palace of Culture the names of this year’s winners of the “Valya Krushkina – Journalism for the people” award were announced. Six journalists received awards in the separate categories. As every year, BFPA supported the awards.
The Grand prize went to Polina Paunova from Radio Free Europe for the journalist investigation “Apartmentgate” – exposing how people from the government bought apartments at much lower than market prices. The award for “Electronic media” went to Genka Shikerova for the material “War of corpses”. The award for first place in the “Writing journalist” category was received by Martina Bozukova from Mediapool for the article “The pharmaceutical industry paid doctors over 30 mln. for trainings and fees”. The winner of the “Photojournalist” category is Ivan Filchev from bTV media group for the film “Bulgarian connection”. This year the prize in the “Upcoming Young Journalist” category went to two nominees – Tatyana Yordanova from BNT for the material “Is the integration of disabled people in Bulgaria just an imitation?’ and Vladislava Trichkova from Nova TV for “How to trade with Bulgarian pickpockets in Spain”.

30 years from the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Sofia, November 20, 2019

World Children’s Day – November 20th, this year was commemorated with two significant events in which BFPA actively participated. A National forum marking the 30th anniversary of the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, organized by UNICEF in partnership with the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the Bulgarian Association for People with Intellectual Disabilities, as well as the Youth Forum Voice It, organized by the National Network for Children and the “Megaphone” Program.
The National forum called “With eyes open for all” was under the patronage of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria Boyko Borissov and its theme was social inclusion and empowerment of children with disabilities. The participants were young people with disabilities who, through their personal stories, revealed the huge potential they have, which often remains untapped because of the lack of clarity on behalf of teachers and employers for the necessary individual approach to each of the young people. Different disabilities often have easy solutions for facilitation of the working conditions with and for the people, but these solutions in most cases remain only theoretical because of lack of understanding of the problem.

Good Practices Exchange

Sofia, October 30-31, 2019

Ralitza Zgalevska from the Bulgarian Family Planning and Sexual Health Association (BFPA) team participated in two interesting events at the very end of October. Good practices shared enrich our resources and contribute for more complete realizing of our networking activities in the Learning Action Partnership, as well as on topics connected with young people with learning disabilities.
An American innovative practice for developing skills for independence of people with learning disabilities was presented by Maria’s World Foundation on October 30. The model is developed by YAI/National Institute for People with Disabilities Network (USA) and applied in Worlds Day Center activity. The project is realized with the financial support of Social Innovations Programme, founded in 2018 by Sofia Municipality. How to conduct conversations, how to be a good listener, nonverbal communication, hygiene, safe walking, the outside world are just part of the topics in the manual with educational materials in which advices for leading interactive trainings are given. Young people with learning disabilities were at the presentation, some of them shared how the work on the model of this practice is useful for them.

“Pass it on!” – BFPA supports BRCY’s Volunteer Academy

Kamchia, September 2-9, 2019

As every year, in the first week of September the Bulgarian Red Cross Youth (BRCY) holds its Volunteer Academy. For a third consecutive year BFPA is a part of the training team of the Academy. “Pass it on!” is the motto for 2019. During a full and intense week – from Sep 2nd to 9th , 74 volunteers from all over the country worked on the topics “Leadership and youth empowerment”, “BRCY’s health program”, “Social support activities” and “Life skills”.
The health program this year for the first time incorporates the three main strategic health directions: 1. Sexual and reproductive health and prevention of HIV and STIs; 2. Prevention of addictions; 3. Healthy lifestyle. The session about fake news in healthcare, conducted by Dr. Radosveta Stamenkova from BFPA and also the discussion on partnership and networking, moderated by her attracted a lot of interest. The highlight of one of the evenings was the traditional REDx event, where the motivational speakers were Dr. Stamenkova and Nicoletta Gabrovska from “Single step”.

The “Valya Kruskina” Fund “Journalists in School” campaign reached thousands of students and their teachers all over the country

Sofia and the country, May-July 2019

The campaign against fake news, organized within this year’s edition of the “Journalists in school” initiative of the Valya Kruskina Fund, which BFPA has supported actively since its founding, has reached more the 11 000 from all over the country. The campaigns took place in 24 schools in 20 different locations in Bulgaria. The initiative for the campaign comes from students who want to protect their peers from fake news attacks. Here is a summary of the campaign:
- 1010 high school students who organized the campaigns
- 24 schools hosting the campaigns
- 30 teachers mentoring the student campaigns
- 20 locations included in the initiative
- 11000 in total reached by the campaigns
- 12 prominent journalists actively engaged with the cause
The campaigns had different formats and duration – student competitions, during which the participants are separated in teams and have to guess which news is fake and which isn’t; informational banners and seminars; fabrication and gossiping of fake news in the school community. The students were mentored during the implementation of the campaigns by 30 teachers from different schools.
For example – the closing event of the campaign against fake news for the students from the Professional Tourism High School “Dr. Peter Beron” in Veliko Turnovo had the motto “The title that sells”. Students and mentoring journalists from local media were randomly separated into teams. All teams received the same text they had to put a title on.

Dr. Radosveta Stamenkova from BFPA received a “Golden apple” for overall contribution

Sofia, June 1, 2019

The National Network for Children (NNC) organized the “Golden apple” awards for a ninth consecutive year. The awards are a sign of acknowledgment for the effort that different people, organizations and institutions put into improving the life and well-being of children in Bulgaria. The awards were officially handed out on the eve of June 1st - World Children’s Day at Bulgaria Chamber Hall.
The event was attended by the Minister of Education and Science and the Minister of Labour and Social Policy as well as the Chairman of the State Agency for Child Protection. “Very often the people working with children are silent and invisible and their work remains unappreciated. That’s why they absolutely deserve these awards since all of us count on these people in the educational system to take care of our children and surround them with love and understanding”, commented Minister Vulchev.
The awards are in eight categories – “Children’s hero”, “School”, “Hospital”, “Municipality”, “Journalist”, “Benefactor”, “Award for overall contribution to the Network for Children” and a “Special award”. In the “Children’s hero” category the nominations come from the general public on the “Golden apple” initiative’s website. The selection of the winner is done by public vote. The nominations in the rest of the categories are made by the 152 member organizations of the Network for Children from all over the country.

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