This became clear at a press conference on the “Partnership for Sustainable Refugee Inclusion” project, which was held this Tuesday at the BTA Press Club, as well as online with the presence of a number of journalists and representatives of numerous established non-governmental organizations.
National Assembly of Refugees (NAR) in Bulgaria is the name of the “team”, as they call themselves, which will represent the interests and needs of refugees in Bulgaria in front of a number of institutions. The team is made up of 15 people who were selected after applying to the Center for Sustainable Communities Development and the Bulgarian School of Politics “Dimitry Panitza”. (https://cscd-bg.org/en/projects/partnership-for-sustainable-refugee-inclusion/a-refugee-advocacy-board-was-established ). Within the project, a number of trainings were also held to meet the needs of the refugees. (https://cscd-bg.org/en/projects/partnership-for-sustainable-refugee-inclusion/the-trainings-for-the-members-of-the-refugee-advocacy-board-have-been-completed ) Meetings were also organized with representatives of various institutions in Bulgaria as well as with the local government.
During the press conference, Olena Hrytsyuk presented each of the members of the refugee team, as well as the logo with which they chose to present themselves to the institutions. It is a pomegranate fruit (NAR means pomegranate in Bulgarian) with many different grains, which personifies the diversity of the refugees. The logo also features a flame to illustrate their goals and aspirations. Mrs. Hritsyuk had also developed a detailed presentation on the needs of the refugee community in Bulgaria, included a number of good examples of refugee integration in Bulgaria, and also made some recommendations for better cooperation with the authorities.
Tamara Sergienko was also present in the hall. She thanked everyone for their help and interest in the refugees. She also added that the main goal of NAR is to show the capacity of refugees in Bulgaria. According to her, the project financed by the “Active Citizens” fund was extremely useful for each of the selected team members, because they found a way to communicate with each other, albeit as representatives of different countries, with a different culture. Today, they all know much more not only about each other, but also about Bulgarian culture and public structures. Since some members of the refugee board live in the countryside and others in the capital, their main communication channel is the Signal platform.
Thanks to the project, which was presented in detail by its manager, Mrs. Diana Georgieva, the refugees can count on the support of several other organizations such as the Council of Refugee Women in Bulgaria and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Bulgaria. Their representatives also participated in the media event on-site at BTA as well as online. Representatives of Caritas Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Council for Refugees and Migrants also expressed interest.
Within the framework of the project, a map of institutions that will be useful for the sustainable integration of refugees in Bulgaria is to be prepared. It will open for NAR a number of opportunities for their integration and dignified residence on the territory of Bulgaria.
Parthership for Sustainable Refugee Inclusion project is being implemented with financial support of EUR 17,067 provided by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under the EEA. The main goal of the Parthership for Sustainable Refugee Inclusion project is to enhance skills of refugee communitie representatives for recognition of the institutional environment and access points to the decision-making system in Bulgaria.
All responsibility for the content of the document is borne by Center for Sustainable Communities Development and under no circumstances can it be assumed that this document reflects the official opinion of the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area and the Operator of the Active Citizens Fund Bulgaria.