Pasarel, June 11, 2022

The primary school in the village of Pasarel hosted a meeting between parents, teachers and representatives of the Bulgarian Family Planning and Sexual Health Association (BFPA) Dr. Rada Stamenkova and Ralitsa Zgalevska on Saturday, June 11, 2022. The director Ivaylo Kiskinov and the school psychologist Nadezhda Dedova, on whose initiative the event took place, were also at the vivid discussion, planned as a two-hour but prolonged three-hours without break - there were many questions, long answers, shared opinions, personal stories, observations and experience exchanged. It was about how to talk with children for growing up before they reach puberty, how to prepare them for the changes ahead, how to stay calm and confident as they go through the challenges of this specific and difficult age; how to stay in touch with them without avoiding awkward questions and at the same time not manipulating the information they receive, together with enhancing the ability to identify fake news on Internet.

Sofia, May 20, Trun, May 25, Breznik, May 26, 2022

Friday, May 20, Filipovtsi neighborhood. The consortium of the three well-known in the public space organizations NNHM-BFPA-EMHPF. or as we call each other "our extended team" - a network of mediators, family planning and health problems of minorities, launched the information campaign of the project of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The introductory event was accompanied by the exhibition "Opening the Door", which also visited the Parliament on April 8. Pavlina Filipova from the BFPA team introduced the participants to the topic of human trafficking. In addition to people from the community, the meeting was attended by representatives of the municipality of Lyulin, MLSP and other institutions. Then we continued - Wednesday in Trun, Thursday in Breznik.
May 25, 2022, Wednesday, Trun. The meeting took place at the Giurgia Pinjurova Community Centre with the assistance of health mediators Anton Anachkov and Dimitar Milanov. The consortium was represented by expert trainers Ventsislav Kirkov, Pavlina Filiopva and Radosveta Stamenkova, and IOM - by Teodora Nikolova and Yavor Lilov. Apart from representatives of the community, this first meeting for the settlement was attended by representatives of the municipality, the CPD, educational institutions, the police and other partners - 4 men and 32 women participated, a total of 36 people. The main topics covered were: Migration and Reality - a field study presented by Ventsislav Kirkov, Communication Strategy and Information Campaign presented by Radosveta Stamenkova, and Trafficking in Human Beings for Labor Exploitation, presented by Pavlina Filipova. An interesting discussion took place, and the representatives of the Consortium and IOM provoked it further with the shown short animated and documentary films. The main countries of interest in Trun are Spain and the Czech Republic, although during the discussion it became clear that the mother of one of the participants was a victim of labor exploitation in Sweden in the scandal surrounding blueberry pickers left to starve for weeks in the wilderness. The idea for the next meeting is on August 1 - until then the people from the neighborhood are in the woods picking herbs and mushrooms. Materials on the project were distributed.

Sofia, May 19, 2022

May 19, 2022, Thursday. A very important and good day for BFPA - we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the program "MSD for mothers" - an example of a truly socially responsible business. As our partners and supporters know, we are working on two projects from this program - the recently successfully completed and focused at the Roma community "My body, my rights", implemented in Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania, and the currently gaining speed "Youth voices, youth choices", implemented in Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Northern Macedonia and focuses on young people, Covid and access to health services.
The day started in the Fakulteta neighborhood - there representatives of the global and Bulgarian office of MSD met with project coordinators from Montana, Sofia, Yambol, with health mediators from around the country and people from the Roma community in the neighborhood. There was a great discussion about the benefits of fieldwork, vaccine prophylaxis, cervical cancer prevention, self-help groups and community capacity building. The afternoon was in a completely different world - in the East Hall in the Parliament, together with key people from the communities we work for, we presented to the institutions the results and philosophy of the programs we implement.