The Bulgarian Family Planning and Sexual Health Association (BFPA) conducted on May 18-19, 2018 the first for this year training of trainers on health and sexuality education „About the Shared Knowledge”. High school students from 8th to 11th grade from Sofia, Pleven, Plovdiv, Ruse, Stara Zagora, Troyan and Gorna Oryahovitza were introduced to topics connected with prevention of reproductive health and effective ways for delivering health messages to their peers. The participants were from schools with different profile – entrepreneurship, math, natural science, informatics, humanities…, and what united them was the expectation to gain new knowledge and make new friends. „How can one understand that he/she is suffering from Syphilis?”, „Which of the sources of information are credible?” and „Is it possible an person living with HIV to have life expectancy as long as an uninfected one?” – were some of the questions during the sessions.
BFPA presents its newest edition: a leaflet on Fake news
Sofia, May 17 2018
A new edition with relevant information to recognize fake news was published by the Bulgarian Family Planning and Sexual Health Association (BFPA). Author of the text is the journalist Polina Paunova and of the drawings – the artist Kremena Koeva. The leaflet has a focus to health, but treats fake news and disinformation as a whole. It is targeting young people, but is useful and appropriate for all age groups. „Fake News draw attention. They are scandalous. Shocking. Spicy. They are often about sex. Or about money. Or about death. Or about the three of the above together. Fake news are “grandiose”, “shocking” and reveal “a secret”. They are presented in a way that make you feel lost or shake your understanding of the world, on politics, medicine, authorities and celebrities. ... they discredit people, sometimes even entire countries. They do not have authors, but use names. They do not use factology, but simulate authenticity…“
Learning Action Partnership – Review of Opportunities for Future Collaborations
Sofia, May 16, 2018
New meeting of the Learning Action Partnership (LAP) was held on May 16, 2018 in Sofia. The participants made a review of what was done in the period between the last meeting up to now and discussed new working opportunities for the network. Ventzislav Kirkov, BFPA Program Manager and President of the Bulgarian Platform for International Development (BPID) presented the work of the Platform in the context of the Bulgarian Presidency of Council of EU, focusing his presentation at priority 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Different editions and initiatives of the LAP members were presented at the meeting. A proposal for collaboration with a Resource Centre against Sexual Violence in Concordia University in Montreal was discussed. The conception on working of the recently established ad hoc coalition on prevention of domestic violence and violence against women was presented shortly. LAP members were invited to apply for participation in the training for building narrative skills “Changing the narrative” organized by BFPA in October 2018 in Sofia with trainers form Columbia University.
„Condom with a Cause” with a Video to Support Health
Sofia, April 11, 2018
The campaign for responsible sexual behavior of the Bulgarian Family Planning and Sexual Health Association (BFPA) and Sexwell condoms “Condom with a Cause” (in BG) continues fundraising for buying quick tests, testing and counseling people in need. The launch of a video aiming to attract and engage more people to support the cause took place on April 11, 2018. The only way to prevent ourselves from sexual transmitted infections and to save our reproductive system is to have responsible sexual behavior.
BFPA in the training team at the NCCTHB Volunteer Academy 2018
Arbanasi, March 26-28, 2018
From March 26 to 28 in the village of Arbanasi, Veliko Turnovo region, took place the annual Volunteer Academy organized by the National Commission for Combattling Trafficking in Human Beings together with the Hanns Seidel Foundation and the Local Commission for Combattling Trafficking in Human Beings – Veliko Turnovo. This year special focus in the academy agenda is given to the prevention of trafficking for labor exploitation. The training brought together 52 young volunteers that work with the Local Commissions in Burgas, Blagoevgrad, Varna, Veliko Turnovo, Montana, Pazardjik, Pleven, Plovdiv and Sliven – some have not received training yet, some have been trained and themselves have implemented peer-to-peer trainings, and some are youngsters from vulnerable communities who were part of the focus groups formed during the labor trafficking prevention campaign.
Meeting of the teams on the project ‘My Body, My Rights’, supported by the prohgamme for socially responsible business “MSD for Mothers” took place in Dolna Banya on September 2-4, 2020. Special guests during the event were the Executive Director of ‘St. Sofia’ First OB Hospital Dr. Gergana Kolarova and the coordinator of BFPA in Pleven Dr. Krasimir Romanov. The priceless opportunity to have a direct dialog with Dr. Kolarova was highly appreciated by the team in Sofia and gave them the possibility to adjust the field efforts and optimize the collaboration with the hospital in the field of family planning. Topics of the discussions during the three-day meeting were: what examinations to be done during the pregnancy and what is doing the gynecologist in the different stages; what are the benefits from health insurances; how much does it cost and how to recover health insurance rights; the benefits of visualization for understanding the information. Short educational films, developed to help the work at local level, were presented. The work during the three days with health mediators and other colleagues working on the field from Montana, Sofia and Yambol included discussing the progress currently made and future activities trill the project end. In the crisis months from the beginning of the year two tenth graders from Yambol were close to drop out from school due to the death of their parents, but the project team supported them and the boys will finish their secondary education. Two of the girls, trained on the project this year will be studying pedagogy in Veliko Tarnovo University.
“I’m a 15-year old boy, in the ninth grade. Recently I met a girl in the social networks. After chatting a few days in Skype, we turned on cameras, send saucy pictures…. Now it transpires the girl is not a girl at all, I was recorded and being blackmailed, for money, for more pictures, otherwise the recordings will be made widely public. What do I do to get out of this situation?” Another case: “I’m in the sixth grade. A classmate who is a Facebook friend of our history teacher downloaded her picture and made her a professional profile in a porn site. What do I do, how do I react?” The two cases are just a small part of the one-day training on the Cyber Scout programme for internet safety and online security for the members of the Learning action partnership (LAP). We talked about online bullying, online sexual exploitation, about the ways we should react, what rules apply, what is allowed and effective… We review different cases – from a threat from a pedophile regarding the security of a child to an innocent at first exchange between friends which escalates to online harassment that can have serious and long-term consequences for the victim’s life and mentality.
For three days – from August 20 to 22, 2020 BFPA’s team and Board together with representatives of key partners of the Association gathered at a outside-the-box work meeting in Dolna Banya. The public relations and civic law spepcialists Diana Damyanova and Ivana Murdjeva shared with the participants important accents of their professional expertise which are significant for better understanding the public environment as well as for communicating our messages. The goal of the event was to analyze the needs of our target groups and of the environment we work in, bearing in mind the challenges for the NGO sector and the specificities in communicating with different audiences in order to be more successful when working in ”our” niche – health prevention, family planning, sexual and reproductive health. A short historical overview of the legislative environment and key normative documents was made.
Sofia, May 18-19, 2018
Sofia, May 17 2018
Sofia, May 16, 2018
Arbanasi, March 26-28, 2018
