Belgrade, April 9-11 2014
The Bulgarian Family Planning and Sexual Health Association (BFPA) was the Bulgarian partner of the MAN2014 European conference held in Belgrade from the 9th to the 11th April 2014. The Bulgarian representatives shared their experience with members of delegations from 13 European countries. The main focus of the discussions was in the field of gender equality, and aggression and violence prevention, but this time from a male point of view. NGOs, international organizations and governmental structures shared their different methods of work and good practices. It was a pleasure to share our Bulgarian experience. During the discussion special attention was given on the relevance of media and social networks – according to the latest data 16 minutes out of every hour on the internet are spent in Facebook, which shifts the communication models and the approach to news dissemination among not only young people, but all the generations.
BFPA was represented by Dr. Rada Stamenkova and Ventzi Kirkov. The rest of the Bulgarian team were Dimitrinka Borisova and Georgi Nikolov from the National Network of Health Mediators, Alex Yordanov from the Pulse Foundation – Pernik, who is also a member of the “Megaphone” Youth Network of the National Network for Children, as well as the long-term consultant for Component 9 of the GFATM at the Ministry of Health Petar Tzintzarski. We were all able to present our organizations and share our experience. The trip was a very useful and pleasant experience. One of the best things was that we sensed our colleagues from the other 12 countries as allies united by a common cause – in fact, by using different methods we target the same goals.
