Sofia, October 1-5, 2018
During the week from October 1st to October 5th Lina Fadl, a 15 year old schoolgirl from the Victor Hugo French Lycee in Sofia took her internship with us at BFPA’s Sofia office. In the photo Lina is with her back to the camera, since she doesn’t like to be photographed, but her Biology teacher, who visited us to see how things are happening, can be seen well. It was a great joy for our team to be reinforced by someone with a fresh outlook and thinking. As always in such cases, the benefits were mutual – Lina learned from us how is functioning of a non-government organization, how to elaborate project proposals, how to budget and report them, how to go on when your project proposal isn’t approved, why a Pap-smear is important, why besides HIV testing, counseling and support for people coming in for VCT is especially important, how and why to use educational playing cards, which other organizations are working in the field of education and healthcare, what socially responsible business means, and much more.
We learned from Lina what a popsocket is and how to use it as promotional material for disseminating health messages (coming soon!), attracted a new volunteer and friend who will bring more young people with her and we got updated on many things. Next week Lina and her schoolmate Lili, who draws very well, will elaborate a new informational material for young people how to overcome peer pressure and we will print it. During the week Lina’s schoolmates were in different NGOs and private companies. That got us thinking – how good it would be for students from other schools got in touch with charity work the same way - since school age, according to their interests – healthcare, culture, sports, animal protection, childcare, environmental care, city planning….. That way they will remember the most important lesson for the week – it’s extremely important to love your work and what you do.
