Sofia, December 15 2014
"Work must go not only with institutions, but also at entrance and exit levels, in order to not loose connection and common sense" – this is only one of the bunch of messages that we took with us after the training for specialists form North Bulgaria, part of the activities for 2014 on the project “The Art to Inform - A network for reducing vulnerability of children for sexual exploitation and abusive practices”, financed by the OAK Foundation. The activities for 2014 ended with two trainings. Trainers were Dr. Radosveta Stamenkova and Ventzislav Kirkov from the central BFPA office in Sofia. The first event took place in Stara Zagora on Nov 26 and 27 and in it participated specialists from pedagogical and socio-pedagogical schools, temporary residence homes and homes for children without parental care from South Bulgaria. The seminar for specialists from pedagogical and socio-pedagogical schools, family-type residence homes and homes for children without parental care from North Bulgaria happened two weeks later in Ruse on December 11 and 12. The efforts of the trainers were supported by the local coordinators of the Association – in Stara Zagora by Dr. Boryana Parashkevova and in Ruse – by Kina Velcheva.
These trainings were preceded by site visits to all institutions that were afterwards invited to the events. A snapshot of institutional activities in the field of health prevention and education was made. The project will continue for two more years and part of its goals are to transfer knowledge and skills in the field of health education and prevention of sexual exploitation of young people in institutions in the process of deinstitutionalization. Another major part of the activities are targeted at young people from vulnerable groups and field work creative activities are foreseen for 2015. The feedback from the participants in the trainings rated very high the interactive methods and the unconventional approach of the trainers towards the problems which might prove to be the most successful when seeking a dialogue with young people who need the same, even a more careful and understanding attitude than mainstream youth. 
In 2015 the activities on “The Art to Inform” will continue with the core field work in two main directions – with vulnerable communities on the field and with partner institutions. We foresee preparatory steps, case collection and discussions at a national meeting with representatives of the MoE, MLSP, MoH, MoJ and SCPA, as well as intensified work on the initiated a year ago Learning Action Partnership (LAP) for prevention of sexual exploitation, which due to political instability in 2014 is still waiting for its real development for advocacy and prevention of sexual exploitation of children in institutions in transition.
