Simeonovo, Yambol region, August 4-6, 2021
A meeting of the teams, working on our project ‘My Body, My Rights’ took place August 4th and 6th 2021. This time the already traditional meeting was held in the village of Simeonovo and was hosted by the local coordinator Kina Asenova and the colleagues form the Yambol team, working in the villages of Tundja municipality and in “Rayna Khjaginja” district of Yambol. Short review of the activities implemented was made and hard moments by locations, especially during the second and third Covid wave were discussed. The participants from Yambol, Montana, Sofia, working on the project, local partners and institutions as well as the teams of the Bulgarian Family Planning and Sexual Health Association (BFPA) and the National Network of Health Mediators (NNHM) reviewed the needed foreseen activities in order to be more confident in ensuring good results and sustainability. The need for Covid vaccination campaign was underlined.
Results from the interim evaluation on project were presented. In the contest “The best project change”, organized for the three participating countries – Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia, one of the stories, submitted by Kosharnik district of Montana, was awarded First Prize as Best Story. The story was publicly presented in the newsletter of the International Planned Parenthood Federation as an example for behavioral change reached – a result of work on the project. Admirations for the local coordinator Petar Cvetanov and the self-help groups, that have a really successful development.
The Project Coordinator – Ventzislav Kirkov from the BFPA team - presented the methodology for final evaluation of the project, as well as the ways for collecting data via documenting stories, interviews with partners, discussions in focus groups and in-depth interviews.The meeting ended with discussion with the NNHM team for the possibilities to continue selected field activities after project end, as well as on future project concepts for joint work for capacity bui8lding of local communities and advocacy for vulnerable groups with difficult access to health care.
The project ‘My Body, My rights’ is supported by the initiative of the socially responsible business ‘MSD for Mothers’.