Description
The project addresses the need to enable children and young people to freely express their opinion and be active citizens. The project aims at promoting children’s participation among the 115 organizations working with and for children in Bulgaria. First, the practices and forms of children and youth participation will be studied and 5 practices will be selected. Second, 75 representatives from the applicant’s network will raise their capacity and acquire practical skills through onsite visits. Next, 60 participants will attend 3 children’s/youth schools each 5 days long to expand their knowledge and skills to communicate, generate ideas, express opinions before the local and national authorities. Then 3 small joint initiatives of children and youth will be funded. Next, mechanism will be set up to involve children in the initiative of the applicant’s network. The project will benefit the selected children and young people and the NGOs involving them in various activities.
Summary of project results
Some of the clauses in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child reflect the right to participation, the underlying philosophy being a leading principle in the agreement and at the same time a key challenge for the countries and organizations aspiring to uphold the child’s rights. The implemented project is based on issues taken out of the Strategy of the National Network for Children (NNC) for the period 2013–2015 that was adopted in June 2012. The project aimed at promoting authentic children and adolescents’ participation in the processes of decision-making by working in partnership with organizations working with children and young people, raising the capacity of the NNC member organizations to apply the philosophy of children’s and young people’s participation and identifying and expanding the scope of the existing and efficient local practices. A significant achievement of the project was the expansion and development of the youth network Megaphone as well as the resources that were created such as a website, a manual, etc. By the end of the project activities Megaphone had more than 130 members. We created a certain programme for training and inclusion of young people via the cycle that we introduced of Spring Camp, Autumn Camp and an Annual Meeting. We used this cycle to start working with all the project stakeholders, i.e. children and young people, NNC member organizations and the national and local institutions. Another key project activity is ensuring funding for small-scale initiatives for children and young people from Megaphone. One of the leading criteria to be granted financial support is for the initiative to include as many as possible children and young people as well as encourage and promote citizen participation of children and young people. For more information, visit:
www.megaphone.nmd.bg.
Summary of bilateral results