Training on Human Rights and Tolerance in Burgas

In the primary school “Naiden Gerov” – Burgas, over 30 youths and students from three schools passed a training for leader and work with mater on the topic of Tolerance and Human Rights. The training is part of the international campaign “Different People – One Europe!”, which runs in Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany and Hungary. The trained team from the pilot schools will educate their peers transferring the knowledge they have got and on 10 of December – The International Day of Human Rights, will open temporary informational centers, which aim to provide more deep information on the topics. Meanwhile the schools will hold a survey about the level of Tolerance.
Decreasing and limiting the agression through tolerance in the schools and the society is a aim, which the local partners of the campaign in Burgas has put on its agenda. Each student to find his/her place in the school life, to feel important among its peers, to cary responsability and to put empathy towards the problems is the next chalanges in a long-term perspective.

In Karlovo the Intercultural dialogue is…taste

On November 16 the local partner from Karlovo has oppened a bazar on the Day of Intercultural Understanding and Tolerance among different ethnos and immigrant groups, living in the municipality. Roma traditional celebrations and cuisines has been exhibited and each visitor had the chance to taste it. The representatives of the Roma community from the town has been prepared posters with pictures, showing the Roma celebrations, the symbols of the Roma community and the celebration of the International Roma Day – 8 April.
The Christmas Eve has been presented on the Bulgarian table where volunteers from the local partner arranged bunch of meatless dishes, all of them home made (cake with coins, pumpkin-pastry, gold-lace, boiled corn, fruits, nuts etc.). The volunteers from the association were wear with beautiful Bulgarian traditional costumes to make the hobbit more representative, while a power point presentation with pictures was going on. To raise the spirit 2 singers from the near village were singing.
At the bazaar representatives from Latvia, Greek, Sweden also took a part presenting their countries with presentations, movies and richness tables with traditional foods, drinks, costumes and souvenirs.

Equality. Integration. Opportunity. Tolerance. Together…. You Want It?…. Join Us!

Local partner organizations of the ‘Different People. One Europe! (Mindenki Más. Európa Egy!) campaign in Hungary came together from 6-7 November to share their local campaigning ideas and further plan their activities. Participants included representatives from Khetanipe (Pécs), DCKSZ (Barcs), Add a Kezed (Tiszavásvari), Romaversitas and Romano Teatro (Miskolc). Some of the local actions planned include: monthly radio show on intercultural relations and Roma, Encounter group, video productions, Roma university student blog, community facilitation of parent-teacher dialogue to address aggression in school and wall painting byRoma and non-Roma children.

The group also came up with a common slogan based on the scope of their organizations’ activities:  ‘Equality. Integration. Opportunity. Tolerance. Together…. You Want It?…. Join Us!’

The “Different people. One Europe!” campaign to reach 50 000 people in Bulgaria

2000 young people from 12 Bulgarian towns will be directly involved in various activities within the campaign “Different people. One Europe!”. Another 15 000 will receive promotional campaign materials or will be witnessing campaign events. The numbers were announced during the official opening at an outdoor press conference in the center of Sofia on the 5th of November 2009. Adding the people who will receive information by local media and view the planned campaign movies, the “Different people. One Europe!” campaign in Bulgaria will  reach 50 000 people, the coordinators from the Pakiv European Network calculate.

“I predict four tolerant months”, said Ani – famous fortuneteller and youth activist on intercultural understanding from ELIT Association (the town of Sapareva banya). Together with her colleague Elena (Chitalishte “Aprilov-Palauzov”- Gabrovo), Ani predicted, in front of the media, what will happen between November 2009 and February 2010 within the campaign “Different people. One Europe!”.

Concerts, festivals, debates and discussions, World Cafes, forum theater, interethnic cooking events,  video and film production, competitions for video clips, essays, photos… are some of the campaigning activities which will hit 12 localities in Bulgaria. From Shument to Simitli and from Bourgas to Gorna Oriahovica young people from 14 local organizations will do any kind of crazy actions just to grab people’s attention and tell them that the world is no longer “black and white” and that some of us already see and think in colors.

The local campaigns already started in most of the localities. We’ve decided that the swine flue will not stop us and we are already widely disseminating pocket calendars for 2010 with best wishes for a more tolerant year.

“Different people. One Europe!” is an international campaign aimed at promoting intercultural understanding and mutual respect on the local level in Bulgaria, Hungary, Denmark and Germany.

Fortune-teller predicts to the media what, where and how

With 100% accuracy a fortune-teller will predict in front of the media at the opening of the “Different People. One Europe!” campaign in the center of Sofia on 5^th November. In a mystery tent right next to the Sofia University the fortune-teller will predict the events, which will happen in the 12 cities in the framework of the international campaign for encouraging intercultural understanding and mutual respect.

The Pakiv European Network invites all media to hear the predictions and be the first one to take either a postcard or pocket calendar. This time, with exception, there will not be fee of 5 leva.

National Roma youth meeting in Germany

Roma youth in Berlin met from 3-5 October to discuss their experiences with discrimination and how to relate these to campaign planning in the context of Different People. One Europe! The group plans to develop an anti-discrimination Show, with theater, dance, songs and personal stories.

The next major event will be a workshop in Berlin, titled ‘ Berlin overcomes Anti-Gypsism’, which seeks to gain a more in depth understanding of what anti-Ziganismus is and how it works in Germany.

During the meeting, the youth also produced a campaign video spot, which will be distributed by email and cell phone to other youth.

Potatoes and ideas – Bulgarian campaign planning

08.10.2009 – Day 1:

Sofia – the centre of the Planet.

In the afternoon, exactly at 13, in the neighborhood of Simenonovo, the cozy “Eleganza” hotel. 28 crazy youths from the hottest zones of Bulgaria dropped their bags and with hunger attacked:

1. Potatoes

2. Potatoes

3. Potatoes

The played the game, passed the ball, drank a coffee and got familiar with what happened and what has to happen in “One Europe”. It born the idea of creates a blog with administrator Super Liubo. Bobi gave some leva and then we dedicated our self into sweet chat and sweetest dinner.

09.10.2009 – Day 2:

Because of the Swedish Table we shared crazy ideas about local campaigns and target groups. We shared good practices from our gloriously work. It followed attack of the grey substance and the working groups were created to get familiar with the application.

The generated ideas for a national campaign transferred into the mehana “Chiflicka” not so far away from the cozy hotel. And it starts: salads, ideas, tongues, ideas, salsa, ideas, balls, ideas, mezeta, ideas, dancing horo, ihuuu, ideas, sweets, ideas and the noise group slowly went to the hotel under the watchfully eye of the beautiful Moon and accompanied by bate Joro.

10.10.2009. – Day 3:

It’s heavy…It’s difficult…during breakfast.

Work in groups (who is doing video, who is doing text)

Responsibilities and deadlines….

Pizza (for some packed in a bag, for others in the hands) and ADIOS RIO till the end of October.

Bulgarian Campaign

The in-country training session in Bulgaria took place on 8-10 October has been very useful for the local partners in terms of sharing local actions and ideas and clarifying their campaigns. The session included:

• how to create blog and use the media tools as instrument to popularize our local actions;
• getting familiar with application form and clarify the local ideas;
• discussing joint actions and link them on national level;

The first local campaign in Bulgaria will start from the second week of November and using the 16 November – Day of Tolerance. Each local partner will implement longer actions – not one day activity.

We have created a Bulgarian Blog where you will have information of each local action – www.ednaevropa.wordpress.com

A special session on Messages has been deliver and the results are bellow:

In-country Training

About 30 people from 14 local organizations coming from all over Bulgaria are getting together on 8-10 October to share their ideas on local actions for promoting diversity and respect.

Next week the partners in Hungary, Denmark and Germany are getting together as well to share their ideas within their local partners of the International Campaign – Different People. One Europe!

40 different people, one Europe in Sofia

More than 40 young people from Bulgaria, Hungary, Denmark and Germany took part in the Transnational Training Workshop on Local Action and Campaign Planning organized in the framework of the “Different people. One Europe!” international campaign. The training took place in Sofia, Bulgaria from 9^th to 13^th September 2009.

The participants, Roma and non-Roma, gathered together to learn more on local campaign planning, networking of local activities on  the international level and dissemination of results. They represent over 30 youth organizations and groups which will be organizing local campaigns promoting intercultural understanding in the next few months. In Sofia, in addition to gaining knowledge and skills, the participants exchanged experiences and ideas for the forthcoming local actions.

Workshops on Human Rights and intercultural understanding, Blog and Video creation were only part of the agenda . The participants were challenged to test their own creativity and work in mixed groups on different videos. See pictures and videos from the workshop in the galleries.

The international campaign “Different people. One Europe!” is being organized in the framework of the Pakiv European Network by an international partnership including Autonomia Foundation (Hungary), Crossing Borders (Denmark) and RAA-Berlin (Germany), as well as 30 local partners. The campaign is supported by Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme of the European Commission, The Roma Decade Matching Fund of Open Society Institute – Budapest, C.E.G.A. Foundation – Bulgaria and others.

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