Young Friends of the Earth Bulgaria launched this autumn with a series of training programmes designed to prepare young people for active participation in the civic environmental sector.
The three modules of the training “How to be active citizens” organized by Za Zemiata/Friends of the Earth Bulgaria were held as part of the process of building the Young Friends of the Earth Europe network. The programme covered:
1. The foundations of civic activity;
2. Project working – financing and management;
3. Communication and creative campaigns.
The first of the modules took place on 12, 13 and 14 of September, near the Medven architectural reserve in the Central Balkan Mountains. There the participants learned about the meaning of the state system, how laws are created, and what the role of citizens in the legislative process is and how they can participate in it. There were also workshops on what the local and international models for civic involvement in governance and decision-making are, what your civil rights are, and what it means to be a good citizen and statesman. All this was explained in the context of the non-governmental sector.
The culmination of the training was the presentation of project ideas with environmental themes from each of the participants by using the “marketplace of ideas” method. By voting were chosen three ideas to be developed by the participants. Divided into three teams young activists analyzed the problems, identified the targets and initiatives/activities to be undertaken, planned costs and started the preparation of project proposals.
The final module on “Communications, media work and creative campaigning” took place on the 1st and 2nd of November in Sofia. The training was very useful because it provided participants with a real opportunity to work with professionals in the media and advertising sector on communication strategy projects. Participants walked along the path from conception to planning a campaign – defined objectives, stages, friends and enemies of the cause, who will listen to their enterprise and how.
The final phase of the training ended with many positive emotions and a lot of enthusiasm among young people to change the ecological reality in Bulgaria, so that we can all live in a cleaner and greener country.
Soon we expect to see the projects created and proposed by the young participants become a reality. 2015 should see the launch of a project to create sculptures from plastic garbage, which will be exhibited and sold at a jumble sale. The project is tied to Za Zemiata’s annual Mountain Cleaning project, with all of the income from the sales helping to fund the cleaning project, and the best sculpture will become the cleaning project’s logo.
The other two projects are a ‘green festival’ – where green NGOs across Bulgaria will have an opportunity to present themselves and their work to a wider audience – and a training session on organic pomiculture (fruit growing) in a Bulgarian village.