News

From June 14th to June 16th, in the town of Tryavna was held the Annual Meeting for  2018 of the National Network for Children, which brought together more than 70 organizations working for the well-being and prosperity of children. The first panel of the program was on the subject "Values that unite us" and reviewed and assessed the common values and shared understanding of the 150 organizations that are part of the Children's Network. Within the program, thematic working groups of the representatives organizations in the fields of Education, Health and Early Childhood Development, Justice and Family were held.

The "Education" working group was attended by Deyan Kolev, chairman of Amalipe Center and Teodora Krumova, deputy chaiperson. The main topic that was addressed was: How to improve the climate in schools so that school is more accessible and welcoming for all children and how to develop better communication between teachers, students and parents. The next day, Ivan Todorov, participated in the Working Group on Health and Early Childhood Development, where the themes for integrated services were discussed, bringing together and coordinating all activities - health, social, educational, justice, etc., access for pregnant women to better quality health services and the need to establish a unified national children's hospital.

Center Amalipe was also one of the ten participants, who took part in the exhibition of the Children's Network and presented their activities and good practices. The General Assembly of the National Children's Network was held in the early afternoon of June 15. A special guest at the Annual Meeting was the Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria Ms. Maya Manolova and Mrs. Eva Zhecheva, Head of the Child Rights Directorate. The Executive Director of the National Network for Children Georgi Bogdanov awarded Mrs. Manolova with the Special "Golden Apple" for her contribution to the well-being of children in Bulgaria. Her efforts over the last three years has made the issue of children's rights and interest a priority and raised the issue of dropping fees for attending kindergartens, access for children with special needs to health and education services, etc.

Due to the great interest of the organizations, a training on implementing the new requirements of the EU's General Regulation on Personal Data Protection (GDRP) was also carried out.

As a regional coordinator for the Central Northern Region, the Amalipe Center also organized a meeting of the region's organizations, in which the forthcoming activities, activities of common interest and common advocacy priorities were discussed.

On May 15 Center Amalipe held the annual meeting of the Board of Principals for Intercultural Education. It brings together over 240 school principals from all over the country working under the Every Student will be a Winner-2 Program, funded by the Trust for Social Achievement.

The meeting started with an intellectual challenge by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yosif Nunev. In his presentation "Gypsy Work in Bulgarian Education", he addressed one of the biggest problems of quality education of Roma children - the segregation. The presentation raised many questions and a lively discussion. More about educational segregation and ways to overcome it, see in Dr. Nunev's book "The Roma and the Process of Desegregation in Education", upoaded in our website in Publications section.

The participants in the meeting had the opportunity to get acquainted with the concept of the new national program "Together for Every Child" of the Ministry of Education and Science presented to them by an expert of the Ministry. They found the answers to questions that were of great interest to them, as well as learned about new developments related to school life. The Board for Intercultural Education discussed actual issues, came up with concrete proposals that addressed educational reforms, such as - a commission of principals on regulatory change; the status of unified schools; the abolition of national external evaluation; financing and introduction of the position of "educational mediator",regulated by rules; reducing the number of pupils in class; free textbooks and schoolbooks til graduating the first high school stage and others.

During the meeting, the directors had the opportunity to get acquainted with the benefits of financial education, envisioned at an early age, by referring to the FINANCEGO Project, implemented by Amalipe Center in Bulgaria.

The principals had the opportunity to share about the results achieved under the project "Every student will be a winner - 2" project realized during the school year. They shared the challenges and difficulties of teachers, pupils' emotions and communication with parents, which are one of the mandatory elements of the program. Extremely valuable for the participants was the shared experience of resolving cases of early marriages, motivating students, engaging parents, etc.

Attention was also paid to the upcoming activities under the "Every student will be a winner - 2" Program. The current Phase of the Program has a 3-year implementation period (2017-2020) funded by Trust for Social Achievement. Activities aim at increasing the motivation of Roma children for continuing education in secondary and higher schools, empowering young people at school and increasing parenting inclusion in the activities of schools.

The Trust for social achievement (TSA) is a non-governmental organization which mission is to break the vicious circle of poverty by promoting opportunities that help disadvantaged Bulgarian citizens to achieve educational and economic success. The TSA supports programs that, with their integrity, growth potential and transparency, help improve the well-being of the poorest people in Bulgaria, with a special focus on the Roma.