More than 133,000 refugees have entered Bulgaria since the start of hostilities in Ukraine until the end of March 2022. Of them, as of March 31 this year, more than 61,000 people remained in Bulgaria, according to the data of the State Agency for Refugees in Bulgaria. This is the largest wave of refugees in the country’s history, more than the refugees from Syria and Afghanistan in all of 2015, when it was the peak of the then migrant crisis. Almost the entire burden of reception, accommodation, assistance and support for refugees from Ukraine falls on non-governmental organizations and volunteers. Project “For a home away from home – developing the capacity of civic leaders to help and support refugees in Bulgaria” foresees a training program that will build and increase the capacity of representatives of civil organizations – alumni and experts of the Bulgarian School of Politics “Dimitry Panitza” (BSoP) to provide support to refugees and migrants; will establish partnerships and create a network of trained people to work together, exchange ideas and good practices in supporting migrants. It also includes measures to inform and involve the entire BSoP alumni community in solving the problem. End users will be refugees, migrants seeking asylum on the territory of Bulgaria. Project “For a home away from home – development of the capacity of civic leaders to help and support refugees in Bulgaria” is implemented by BSoP with the financial support provided by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under the Active Citizens Fund Bulgaria within the EEA Financial Mechanism. Its main objective is to find sustainable forms of support for refugees and to build mechanisms to respond to refugee crises.
More details about the project can be found here.