The representatives of seven countries who were elected as members of the Refugee Advocacy and Inclusion Board have completed their training. The last training module for the group was held on 13 and 14 May at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the capital’s Positano Square.
The two-day training programme was designed based on the requested and analysed needs of the group. Diana Radoslavova, a lawyer and co-founder of the Centre for Legal Aid -Voice in Bulgaria, gave some theoretical knowledge and many examples from practice on the importance of advocacy for refugees.
What is media, what is media relations and 20 examples of effective media relations. These were the main highlights of the presentation by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Evelina Hristova from the Media and Communication Department of New Bulgarian University.
Maria Mihaylova – psychologist, supervisor and therapist, certified crisis and critical incident negotiator at the FBI, USA spoke about mental health and psychological support for refugees.
The lecture part and the group work for solving training cases were separated by time for independent work of the Board members. In this time, they worked on creating a charter for the Board, assigning tasks to Board members, creating a visual identity, and giving the Board a name. Among the suggestions was to call the Board the National Assembly of Refugees (NAR) in Bulgaria.
The creation and the training of the Refugee Advocacy and Inclusion Board is part of the “Partnership for Sustainable Refugee Inclusion” project, which is implemented by the Center for Sustainable Communities Development and the Bulgarian School of Politics “Dimitry Panitza” with the financial support provided by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under the Active Citizens Fund Bulgaria within the EEA Financial Mechanism.