December 
2 2014
Nine workshops under the title “Adequate health messages and prevention of sexual abuse for young people with learning disabilities” for intermediaries in the country took place on the project Keep me Safe. Methods and techniques for working with young people with learning disabilities have been presented to support the understanding and realizing the importance the knowledge to reach successfully to them and in the same time to support them successfully to prevent themselves against sexual abuse. More than 282 intermediaries working with people with special educational needs and parents were trained.
„To read what I want”; „to be legally prevented in case of discrimination”; „to be able to take decisions about own well-being”; „to have personal life”; „to express own opinion and to have it esteemed”; „to choose clothes”, „to go shopping alone”... some of the rights, which everyone has. One of the methods provokes the participants to imagine how they could feel if they were denied of the opportunity to have these rights, which they value the most. The purpose of the exercise is to change the point of view of the specialists and parents, who while working with young people with disabilities have to be able to imagine how does the world look trough their eyes, how dependent are they, disregarded and not understood and to try to change this.
Gallery training in Sofia with health mediators
https://bfpagallery.wordpress.com/events/keep-me-safe-sofia-13-14-november/
Gallery training of parents and resource teachers in Lovech
https://bfpagallery.wordpress.com/events/keep-me-safe-lovech-20-21-november/
Gallery training intermediaries in Sliven
https://bfpagallery.wordpress.com/events/keep-me-safe-sliven-24-25-november/
Researches of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show that in Europe between 39 and 68 % of girls and between 16 and 30 % of boys with problems in intellectual and / or physical development are victims of various forms of attempted sexual abuse before the age of 18 years. Violence against children with developmental problems occurs 1.7 times more frequently than violence against other children. Nevertheless, these needs of YPLD for health information and education, as well as respecting their rights and protecting form abusive practices are still a need.
Keep me Safe / DJ Justice DAPHNE 3 Program / DAPHNE – JUST/2012/DAP/AG/3092
12 member associations of IPPF European Region worked on the project.The Bulgarian Family Planning and Sexual Health Association (BFPA) was one of them. The aim – to create a partner network and to facilitate the exchange of valuable expertise and best practices experience among partners from Belgium, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands and the UK experienced in working with young people with learning disabilities, to associations in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Latvia, Macedonia, Romania and Spain wishing to establish in their countries good program practice in the area. BFPA worked in partnership with Pro Familia - Passau, Germany – an NGO for family planning, health education and counseling.
More for the project: http://www.safesex.bg/en/ongoing-projects/keep-me-safe
