For the Management board, staff, volunteers and supporters of the Bulgarian Family Planning and Sexual Health Association (BFPA) it is a great sadness to share that the first (and only so far) Honorary President of BFPA Professor Todor Chernev passed away on June 4 2018 the age of 72. He was one of the most outstanding gynecologists in the country, with many awards and achievements, including the national “Golden Hands” award. Besides all his different duties and important causes he was supporting, the Professor , as we called him was one of the founders of BFPA and was President of its Management Board for more than a decade. Professor Chernev remained a reproductive health consultant of our clinic in Sofia for almost 25 years and was active in the work for providing access to health services for underserved and vulnerable groups. He will be missed a lot by his wife, two sons, granddaughter, relatives and friends. The short video below reflects just part of his initiatives and successes. RIP! You will be remembered.
Training of Trainers on Health Education
Sofia, May 18-19, 2018
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.
For a second consecutive year BFPA supports Bulgarian Red Cross Youth (BRCY) Summer Academy. This year’s Academy motto is inspired by the iconic film “Back to the future”. Young people from all over the country – BYRC volunteers, representatives of the Red Cross organizations from other European countries, trainers from partner organizations in 8 large modules gathered in Kamchia from September 2nd to 9th. Dr. Radosveta Stamenkova, BFPA’s Executive Director, Petar Tzintzarski, MoH consultant and BFPA Board member and Stanimir Boyadjiev, BRCY President, were mentors for the “Prevention of risky sexual behavior, HIV and STI” module. The peer educators, motivated young people from all across the country, besides receiving information and acquiring interactive teaching skills for the topics from the module, had the ambitious goal to revise the handbook, created “far back in 2002” as they say, and since then has been used by all BRCY peer educators. The week was full of good vibes, enthusiasm, competence and dedication. This brings hope for the future and additional motivation. #Brcyacademy
Representatives of the National Network for Children, Bulgarian Family Planning and Sexual Health Association, Applied Research and Communication Foundation, MoH, PULSE Foundation, MSLP, National Network of Health Mediators, Tulip Foundation, UNICEF, Institute for Social Activities and Practices and the initiative Brave Bakery participated in the next meeting of Learning Action Partnership (LAP). Summary of the activities done from the last meeting from LAP members and the work in process on topics of the working group was presented. The participants were informed on the conducted by BFPA and PULSE and ARC Foundations focus groups with young people on the second monitoring ring of Lanzarote Committee „Protection of children from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, committed trough informational and communicational technologies“. The cooperation with Canadian and other leading world universities working on the topics of sexual exploitation, violence and abuse of children and adolescents was also discussed.
-Is it legal to make a photo session with semi naked pictures of children and adolescents under 18 without parental consent? If not legal, is it really prosecuted? -To what extend and in what way a semi-naked photograph is considered to be pornography? These were just part of the questions asked by young people who participated in a consultative group on protection of children from sexual exploitation and sexual violence that took place on August 24, 2018 in Stara Zagora. The working focus with young people from the two language schools, the mathematic and the commerce high schools in the town was mainly around informational and communication technologies. We talked about the rights of the child and about the potential dangers and the required responsible behavior in social media and internet.
Todor Chernev, 1945-2018
Sofia, May 18-19, 2018
Sofia, May 17 2018
Sofia, May 16, 2018
