Sofia, November 15-16, 2017
On November 15th the National Network of Health Mediators (NNHM) held a General Assembly Meeting of the organization – at the beginning of the meeting were presented the activities of the organization from 2011 to 2017 and the Management Board reported on its activities. The election part included voting for a new Management Board, Chairperson, Deputy – Chaiperson, Ethical Committee and Secretary.
The General Assembly elected for members of the Management Board of the network prof. Ivailo Turnev, Dilyana Dilkova, Tzveta Petkova, Petar Tzvetanov, Antoaneta Eftimova, Natasha Todorova, Nargis Mihailova, Jeman Hassan and Zahari Atanassov. The current NNHM Chairperson Pater Tzvetanov received enormous support from the assembly attendees but announced his decision to make room for a new face and announced his support for Antoaneta Eftimova, health mediator in Blagoevgrad municipality. Antoaneta’s application was strongly supported by the General Assembly and she became the new Chairperson of NNHM. Petar Tzvetanov was elected as her Deputy. In the afternoon hours of November 15th were cast the votes for the candidates for members of the Ethical Committee and Kina Assenova, health mediator in Tundja Municipality was elected as Chairperson. The General Assembly was chared by Dr. Radosveta Stamenkova, Executive Director of BFPA and a member of NNHM.
In the evening of November 15th at the Ramada Hotel an official festive dinner was held for the NNHM’s 10th anniversary and Ethnic Minorities Health Problems Foundation 20th anniversary. The event was attended by colleagues and allies from other NGOs, health mediator tutors, Roma medical students, some of which medical doctors at present in renowned hospitals in Sofia and the country. Honorary diplomas were handed to mediators for contributing to the developing and establishing of the profession of the health mediator, as well as to some of the mediators’ favourite tutors – Prof. Maya Grekova, Prof. Mira Kojuharova, Prof. Radka Argirova, Dr. Radosveta Stamenkova. The celebration continued with lots more presents and words of recognition from the health mediators towards Prof. Ivailo Turnev and experts from the Network, among which was Ventzislav Kirkov, towards whom were expressed lots of love and respect.
On November 16th under the patronage of the Parliamentary Health Commission, a discussion on the topic of the 10th anniversary of the establishing of the NNHM took place. Four informational booths presented the work of the health mediators throughout the years in the fields of Preventive medicine, Sexual and reproductive health, Working with institutions and Community work. The booths in Parliament were unveiled by Dr. Daniela Daritkova, Chairman of the Parliamentary Health commission. BFPA held booth “Sexual and reproductive health” was the most attractive. We had there Dr. Krasimir Romanov, Dr. Radosveta Stamenkova, Ventzislav Kirkov and the health mediators from Blagoevgrad Antoaneta Eftimova and Katya Kirilova and Elena Mihova from Kovachevtzi handed out informational materials and told about family planning related activities. The meeting also was attended by the coordinator of the Macedonian health mediator program, organized and working by the Bulgarian model
In 2018 in Bulgaria there will be 230 health mediators working on a delegated budget in 117 municipalities.
