Kamchia, September 2-9, 2018
For a second consecutive year BFPA supports Bulgarian Red Cross Youth (BRCY) Summer Academy. This year’s Academy motto is inspired by the iconic film “Back to the future”. Young people from all over the country – BYRC volunteers, representatives of the Red Cross organizations from other European countries, trainers from partner organizations in 8 large modules gathered in Kamchia from September 2nd to 9th. Dr. Radosveta Stamenkova, BFPA’s Executive Director, Petar Tzintzarski, MoH consultant and BFPA Board member and Stanimir Boyadjiev, BRCY President, were mentors for the “Prevention of risky sexual behavior, HIV and STI” module. The peer educators, motivated young people from all across the country, besides receiving information and acquiring interactive teaching skills for the topics from the module, had the ambitious goal to revise the handbook, created “far back in 2002” as they say, and since then has been used by all BRCY peer educators. The week was full of good vibes, enthusiasm, competence and dedication. This brings hope for the future and additional motivation. #Brcyacademy
During the training the group on prevention of sexually risky behavior merged for one of the sessions with the group of educators on substances addiction prevention, with which the colleagues from the PULSE Foundation were working. The joint session was on design, elaboration and implementation of preventional campaigns. At the end of the module participants split four small groups elaborated thematic health messages which they shared in plenary with the large group.
The culmination of the evening sessions was something that happened at the academy for the first time – REDx. That was the name of Red Cross’s TEDx format. Four speakers took to the stage - motivators, dressed in red. Here are the TED talks in order of appearance with the key word RED in their titles – “Thin RED Line” – Petar Tzintzarski from MoH, “Code RED”- Dr. Rada Stamenkova from BFPA; “InfraRED”- Maria Hristova from BYRC; “The RED Book” – Giuseppe Cassella from the Italian Red Cross. The format was especially highly appreciated by the young people.
At the end of the intense working week all twelve wonderful peer educators from “our” module received their well earned certificates. The module and the Български младежки Червен кръст / Bulgarian Red Cross Youth handbook’s look and contents will be updated and optimized for the next year's Academy thanks to them, so that in time the new generation of young volunteers can say “This handbook was created as far back as 2018”… Can there be a more real Back-to-the-future than this?
