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Over 3,000 people participated in the civil campaign Bulgaria – in everyone and everywhere.  The campaign was held on March 2 in 30  towns and villages across Bulgaria.  It was organized by the Amalipe Center, association World Without Borders, the centers for community development in 11 municipalities (Veliko Tarnovo, Strazhitsa, Novi Pazar, Kameno, Radnevo Peshtera, Etropole, Dolna Banya, Byala Slatina, Knezha and Pavlikeni), parents clubs and other groups, which unite their efforts as active Roma citizens.
   At 11 am, in the Roma neighborhoods or in the center of the city / village, volunteers organized stands called Bulgaria - in everyone and everywhere. The passing citizens were encouraged to write their answers to the questions: What do I want for my family? What I want for Bulgaria and What will I do for my family? What will I do for Bulgaria? The answers were written on a cut or drawn on flipchart chimes in the shape of bells as a symbol of the people’s voice. Citizens who participated in the campaign received handmade martenitzas and a Bulgarian flag ribbon that students and young people made the day before.
   There were lots of smiles and no conflicts and excesses at the campaign. As in Roma neighborhoods and centers for community development, citizens - Roma and non-Roma - were actively involved and without any concern shared their opinions on what they want for the society in which they live and what they will do for this society.
 
Why did we organize this campaign?

"The time is in us and we are in the time, it turns us and we turn it too"
Vasil Levski

The last weeks have been  time when we quote Vasil Levski more often- sociologists, political scientists, analysts, citizens, politicians (not that the last ones are not citizens ... but that's another story) – did his ideas  become  more up to date or did we wake up from our lethargy?  It probably is not the first answer - it always sounded current ... which is a bit sad ... It's true for all of these years we have managed to turn the time, but did we manage to change ourselves?
   The events of recent weeks make us feel like Sisyphus - getting ready to push the stone and to cross the mountain of dissatisfaction and disappointment with the lethargy of our society, but the naivety, empty phrases and manipulations are bringing us back to the starting point. We continue to resist, however, that there is nothing that can unite people (besides scarcity, poverty and electricity bills). We wanted  to believe that this is what we think of  Bulgaria – the Motherland that we create, not the politicians, a homeland to which we must give, not only to want ...especially on the eve of Liberation Day.
   This hope led us to organize the campaign Bulgaria – in everyone and everywhere. We wanted to provoke mostly ourselves - our nihilism, skepticism and disappointment. We did not have an idea how many people will participate, we did not know what the messages will be... but we decided to try. With lots of enthusiasm the young people from the centers for community development. established by Amalipe Center across the country, as well as other non-governmental organizations like "World Without Borders", "Verniat nastoynik", "Sun for All", "Equal Rights Initiative opportunities", dozens of schools across the country which work with Amalipe Center, took the initiative and asked more than 3,000 people what they want for themselves, for their families and Bulgaria. To escape the cliché we also asked people what they would do – for themselves, for their family, and for Bulgaria ... We started asking ourselves first and the least we can do now is to give our time, energy and enthusiasm for the campaign.  We would like to thank all the volunteers who participated and made us believe that the commerciality of our time has not fully poisoned our ideals. We would like to thank to the thousands of children we work with, who during the last week made martenici and painted flags.  We were hoping that the job these children did will remind to the passing citizens that Bulgaria is in everyone and everywhere.
   The campaign took place on March 2 in more than 30 towns and villages. There were people who looked at us strangely, but most stopped with a smile and greeted us for the public awareness, for the desire to show that the Roma community can actively participate in the civic process with constructive suggestions and real commitments. We asked people to write messages on the symbolic paper bells that we prepared- maybe that would make our voice stronger ...
   The goal of the campaign was the voice of the people from Roma neighborhoods to be heard. To show that Roma people are facing the same problems as the rest of the Bulgarian citizens and they want this problems to be solved; that we suffer because of the difficulties we experience when living in small towns, rural areas, abandoned neighborhoods to which the 21st century did not come yet. These problems are common to all citizens and we must work together to solve them, we are active citizens: we have ideas about how we want to live in Bulgaria and what we can do about it
   This was not just Roma campaign,  it was a campaign of the active citizens from small towns, those who are excluded even more because of the place they live in, because of their ethnicity and the language they speak ...
   All of the people who wrote their messages were unanimous that they want to live in  Bulgaria, that is a mother, not a stepmother, a country that will bring back home the children living abroad, families not to live separated by borders , and our parents live decent life at old age. All agreed that they wanted the opportunity to work and support their families. Many shared the bitterness of the exclusion. "Unfortunately, this country makes you ashamed of the color of your skin, I want that to change," "Equal rights and duties for all citizens of Bulgaria, regardless of their ethnicity" - wrote some of the people in the Peshtera. "I want to see calm and smiling people, prosperity for Bulgaria" wished citizens in Veliko Tarnovo.
 
The Small battles of the "little" people

"Politicians do not come to us because they think that the municipality is small, the neighborhood is small, people are small. So we are leading only small battles. "
   With these words, a woman explained to the volunteers why there have not been protests in Pavlikeni. It turned out that almost all of the "little" people have their small battles in order to become more actively involved in everything that happens around them. For example, in seven villages and towns of Veliko Tarnovo district local groups are doing community assessment (monitoring) of the health services they receive, and then they negotiate with municipalities and regional health inspection to correct the identified gaps. Another small battle – general practitioners need to disclose their working time and to stick with it, to have accessible place in the villages where to buy medicines from; another ambulance car to be provided so urgent aid could come for up to15-20 minutes – this is going to save lives . And there is definitely a need NHIF to introduce a mechanism this type of community monitoring to be used anywhere, not to be paid by donors but from the institution which controls the GPs pay. Maybe this way  the large number of already paid but not provided services will be put to minimum.

   In the village of Kardam, Popovo Municipality, people are battling to save the school. The municipality decided to close it down and to send the children to the "gypsy" school in Popovo without any public discussion. The regional educational inspectorate issued and opinion, the Minister of Education signed the order ... It turns out that education is supposed to be a child’s right (and the person representing the child - the parent), but there isn’t a legal requirement the parent to be asked about the fate of the school which the child is attending. The Roma parents in this village surprised everyone- they appealed the decision of the municipality and the Minister in the Supreme Administrative Court, which stopped the closing and derail the municipality to take 120,000 lv, which the Ministry of Education gives to schools that close doors. Since then there is a battle between the municipality and the parents – with all allowed and mostly illegal means: the municipality “knows better” what is good for the children. The parents, although they are in the category of "little people" do not give up the slightest battle and continued the education (ie - the future) of their children.
   In Knezha and Byala Slatina the Roma neighborhoods are poor, but there are more and more University graduates in these neigborhoods. Every year hundreds of young Roma from these towns enter universities and the high school graduates are thousands. Their parents battling poverty and disbelief that even to educated people will be unemployed when their skin is dark ...
The campaign showed that all the "little" people keep fighting in small battles. Despite the shocking poverty, feudal social relations (in some municipalities the mayor runs for decades and talks in the plural "We - I and God") and no hope for change! And do not even realize that they are "small" and the battles are part of the great war of Bulgaria.
 
Where to now?

   The campaign is not an end in itself or a single campaign. The proposals and ideas were summarized by the organizers in the local community. We will summarize the results on national level and will develop them into proposals to the responsible institutions and civil society. Then we will present them to the President, the Ombudsman and the new government, as well as the Public Council under the interim government if such is made and see that there is another structure "pro forma". Because the small battles of the "little" people from dozens of small towns, villages, districts and neighborhoods require – smaller or bigger changes (legislative, legal and institutional) to win the great struggle of the people to regain Bulgaria.