News

 The project "Youth is tolerance – combating anti-Roma stereotypes among young people" was launched in February this year. The main objectives of the project are:the establishment of volunteer Youth Task Force Groups (YTFG), as well as networks and sustainable partnership with local governmental and non-governmental organizations and institutions.

The regional meetings, which Center "Amalipe" held in five of the six Bulgarian regional centers working on the project, namely – Shumen, Burgas, Plovdiv, Vratsa, and Blagoevgrad, served as important means to achieve those goals. Those meetings were held between 26.06 and 03.07.2013.

The meetings were attended by representatives of the municipalities, The Regional Education Inspectorate, NGOs, representatives of secondary and higher education institutions, representatives of the regional Commissions for protection against discrimination, The Regional Health Inspection, as well as many young people.

The purposes of the regional meetings were achieved successfully, and the project managed to gain the attention and the hearts of all the guests. It left a lasting impression on both the representatives of the institutions and the young people.

The regional project coordinators gave a presentation with information about objectives, duration, activities and methodology of the project, and Momchil Baev, a national project coordinator for Bulgaria, presented Center "Amalipe" and its activities.

Naturally, after the presentation from each of the cities, discussions between the representatives of Center "Amalipe" and the participants in the meetings started. The information concerning the volunteers was also presented:

- Every young person can find his/her place in the youth volunteer groups, since their activities are many and varied. Volunteers can engage in various campaigns and trainings, for which different qualities are needed.

-Volunteers who will train their peers will be selected according to whether they were involved in other (previous) programs as volunteers. They must be active, communicative, they must demonstrate willingness to work regardless of their ethnicity. This is a novelty in the project -  the method "Peers train peers". The volunteers will be young people both of Roma and non-Roma origin in order to promote diversity.

-Volunteers will undergo training in order to learn the necessary information and acquire new skills: how to communicate effectively with their peers, how to train other young people, how to resolve conflicts or how to be leaders. They will also get acquainted with the culture, traditions and the problems of the Roma community; the exchange visits with the partners of the project from other countries will also be held.

- The volunteer groups will be permanently open to accept new volunteers.

- A group of volunteers will be formed in every regional city. In some municipalities, a group of volunteers working at the local level can also be formed, as well as in small localities, provided that this initiative will be supported by any local institution.

- Only a filled application is required to join to the volunteers group; in case that the volunteer is a minor, a Declaration of consent signed by the parents is also needed.