News

UNAOC – EF Summer School

Between August 24th and September 1st in Tarrytown, NY, a conference, organized by UN’s Alliance of Civilizations initiative (UNAOC) together with Education First (EF), was held. 100 young people from 96 countries all over the world were chosen to participate, representing different social and ethnic groups and religions. One of the requirements for the participants was to be a part of a non-governmental organization. The activists were to visit a series of seminars, the UN Headquarters, take part in round tables, discussions and simulations for a positive social change. We are very proud that the only participant from Bulgaria was Ralitza Hristova, BFPA young volunteer and peer educator.

The young BFPA volunteers – medical students form the Thracian university received support from Youth Bank – Stara Zagora

BFPA Coordinator for Stara Zagora Dr. Boryana Parashkevova receiving the certificate for approved project on behalf of the Medical students association – Stara Zagora

The team of Youth Bank in Stara Zagora has approved the financing of six project for the total amount of 14 000 BGN. Twelve projects were submitted, out of which the young people chose to support six initiatives. The winners were officially announced on August 22nd 2013. The selected ones were:
- “Think, look around and stay alive!” – of the Youth Initiative Group – 2000 lv.
- “Promoting of archery with ancient Bulgarian bows” - NPA Baga – Tur – 2000 lv.
- “CULTure SHAKE” – NPA Association for contemporary art and culture – The Different View – 5730 lv.
-“Come to know the birds in Bulgarian nature” – NPA Green Balkans – 2000 lv.
- “Health and sexuality education – Association of medical students in Bulgaria, Stara Zagora branch – 380 lv.
- “Star workshop” – Amateur astronomers’ club “Gemma” – 1890 lv.

BFPA's young volunteers plan future activities at their annual meeting

Group photo On July 13th and 14th in Bankya, BFPA organized the annual national meeting of its young volunteers. Over 40 high-school and university students from Pleven, Stara Zagora, Russe, Plovdiv and Sofia discussed and planned the organization's main activities for the 2013-2014 academic year. The activities will go on into the following main directions:

Women Deliver

Kuala Lumpur May 28-30th
The world forum on women’s reproductive health and women’s rights through the eyes of Maya Kumanova, chair of IPPF’s youth network – YSAFE

Between 28 and 30th May in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the third Women Deliver conference was held. Women MAYA KUMANOVA Deliver is a global advocacy organization which aims to gain political and financial support in its struggle for improving women’s rights and reproductive health and in particular, to put into effect the fifth article of the present Millennium Development Goals which concerns improvement of mothers’ health through universal access to reproductive health and services.

As a long-term BFPA and IPPF’s European youth network - YSAFE volunteer, I was fortunate to receive a grant to participate in Women Deliver and be included among the top 100 young leaders of the conference. The grant also included a two-month long course on the subject. The online course, based on the Schoology platform, contained weekly topics, discussions and tasks and serves as a good example how social networks and contemporary technology can be used for comprehensive and accessible education. This is a method, well-known to BFPA and was used in the H-CUBE project and the construction of a digital e-learning platform for health educators and in particular for educating teachers, health specialists and health mediators on issues concerning HIV, hepatitis B and C.

Swedish institutions requested our support in the fight against trafficking of human beings

Stockholm meeting On April 10 and 11 representatives of BFPA and the National Network of Health Mediators (Dr. Radosveta Stamenkova, ED of BFPA and Anife Hasan, Vice-president of the Network) were invited by the Helsinki office of IOM to participate in a meeting in Stockholm with the Swedish National Task Force against Prostitution and Trafficking . Representatives of different Swedish state and municipality structures, directly involved in the problems and working on the issues took part in the meeting, such as the Ministry of Justice, prosecution, police, social services, migration offices and the local task forces from Stockholm, Malmo and Gothenburg.