Anti-discrimination Backpack

...we asked ourselves five questions. clear and brief. New volunteers - Indre, Ida and Iuliia, who we are, with whom we want do drink a cup of coffee, what things we like in Bulgaria, what drives us crazy? 

Seeking asylum is not a crime.  Share your love. Looking forward for a new holiday season, in the rush and joy of wrapping presents and sharing the happiness with our beloved ones, let’s not forget about the importance of other things we share – our words and actions  In the past couple of months, with an increasing influx of asylum seekers to Bulgaria, xenophobic attacks on asylum seekers have spread out through the country. On-line media commentators incite hatred on those of different  race or country of origin suggesting to “lock  them up” or calling asylum seekers “criminals with no legal right to stay in Bulgaria”. It seems so hard to step into the shoes and imagine that most of these people were soldiers deployed against their own people whos conscience did not allow to shoot the innocent so they were sentenced to death. Or mothers, who did not want their children to see the outrageousness of war. Are those, fleeing from unbearable, are criminals? One can clearly

Today the first snowflakes came to Sofia this year. I guess everybody knows that it comes in a variety of sizes and shapes. But did you know that individual snowflakes are nearly unique in structure? Doesn't it remind you of human beings? There are around 7 billion of us in the world, like never ending snowflakes falling from the sky. All the human beings are different, like individual snowflake is unique in structure. Different face features, different height, different habits, different hair colour, different skin colour, different eyes... We are all unique. Every single one of us. But at the same time like all the snowflakes are called snowflakes we all are called - humans. We are all uniquest and equal.

You can get inspiration from a lot of different things, people, ideas. You can be inspired to do some piece of art, to write a song, to post something on your Facebook wall, to comment an article, to comment your friends picture or post... you can be inspired to share piece of you with the world or just close ones. We are wishing that everybody would be inspired to share their best...love messages, bright thoughts, encouraging ideas, positive energy!  Our colleague George Psarros was inspired by his EVS service in Sofia, landmarks of the Bulgarian capital, Bulgarian culture, traditions, and beautiful people around him. Therefore today in only few hours he will open his photo exhibition which will guide you through the extraordinary life of EVS volunteers in Bulgaria. It is called "Another Point of View" and will be exhibited in Sofia City Library till 30th November, 2013.

Today we would like to share a peaceful moment from last summer in Bulgaria, Plovdiv. Peace of mind, clear thoughts, sunny days... We are sending you positive energy that we can feel in our office in Sofia.

Internet - that magic word. It lets us communicate with our friends, relatives, fr enemies, enemies, the world around us. It lets us share our life. It lets us share our ideas. It lets us share our creativity. It lets us share information. It lets us provide information. It lets us see the piece of world without moving out of your home, office, coffee shop. Internet - the place you live you digital life. We prefer Internet without hate.

No matter what language you are using to express your feelings it has the same meaning in any other language in the world. In this case we are not so different, a? Feel.

Simple as it is! Social media is a huge part of our life's so why not to make it a nice space to be?

Every reality has different faces and in crisis situations all of them become more intense. Thus, last brutal racist attacks against refugees in Sofia, which ended up with the stabbing of youngsters from different nationalities, are faced with the same intensity by people who are offering everything they have in order to help those who need it. In most of the cases this solidarity actions are anonymous, not being possible to find them in any newspaper or television. Last week, some days before the nationalist march against immigrants took place, I had the chance to experience one of this philanthropy stories in person. I was having a drink with an amazing person, refugee, who was explaining me the terrible conditions they were suffering in the overcrowded refugee camp where he was living. We were keeping this conversation while having a cigarette in the door of a bar. Suddenly, another smoker who heard us by accident, jumped into the story out of the blue offering to my friend his

One more design to our campaign. As one wise man said: " If you have nothing nice to say , don't say anything at all " . It is worth to rethink do you really want to hurt other persons feelings before saying anything. If you don't even agree to this saying always think what would you feel if somebody would tell you this. You can always find a different ways how to express the same thoughts and feelings, in this case you can accomplish much more and feel more peaceful to yourself.

All these words defines different people characteristics, but despite it at the end we all are humans.

Racism and xenophobia are becoming more visible in Sofia streets. The 3 rd of November three nationalist parties, Ataka, VMRO-BND and National Resistance, organized a march in the center of the city against foreigners and “immigrant terror”. The request was the expulsion of refugees from Bulgaria, shouting slogans like “we have to sweep the streets”, “Bulgaria for Bulgarians” or “we have to impose order”. The leader of VMRO, Pearl Milanov, is currently being investigated for inciting racial hatred. The excuse used to promote this racist demonstration was an attack of one 20 years old woman the 2 nd of November. According to the local newspaper Dnevnik , the girl was injured with a knife by a 20 years old guy from Algeria who entered in the shop she was working in and stole 300 levas. Refugees living in the Voenna Rampa center have denounced the aggression, expressing solidarity with the victim and her family. Meanwhile, in the surroundings of this same camp, a 17 years old Syria

Sunny autumn, smiling people. All in the support to our campaign against the hate speech!

This week we have started our presentations in Sofia's high schools. We have already visited two of them and several more we are going to visit in the nearest time. The first school that we have visited was 28 Средно Общообразователно Училище "Алеко Константинов". There w e gave a presentation to the seven graders. The second school was that let us in was 113 СОУ "САВА ФИЛАРЕТОВ". There we had a little bit older audience – 10-11 graders. But at the same time there were few children from the lower classes. During all the presentations in the classrooms we gathered around 50-60 youngsters. During the presentations we have presented the video about bull y ing that led to the discussions what youngsters are seeing there and what they think about this topic . Later on it was our turn to talk more about human rights, specifically about hate speech online. We have presented our work and what we are doing here in Sofia . We ended up all the presentatio

Some flashbacks from International Youth Day in Sofia where we took part in. Our friend, EVS volunteer in Lovech Maria Sonia Vigart made an amazing video about that day and our EVS experience. Thank you Maria!

In Nadezhda there are not playgrounds but children willing build them up. As an alternative, they are using a steep ramp inside a tunnel - the one they should cross everyday on their way back from school. Built under the railways, this narrow and yellow corridor is the entrance and exit passage to two entirely different realities: the Tsigani and the white Bulgarians’ one. This is the story of the Roma Neighborhood in Sliven, one of the cities with the highest Roma Population in Bulgaria.  Tunnel to Nadezhda When we arrived to Nadezhda´s doors I didn´t even notice we were there. This huge Roma Settlement starts behind the red building of the train station in Sliven, and when the train reaches this stop the neighborhood disappears. It is like a curtain made of wagons which hides for a couple of minutes every two or three hours one of the biggest Gipsy ghettos in Bulgaria. During my visit to Nadezhda my Polish friend and I were guided by Stefan and Dorothea. Two of the wor