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Antoaneta Bozhikova – fellow from Bulgaria

ani_photoAntoaneta Bozhikova is 30 years, born in Sofia, Bulgaria. She has a brother and sister who both live in Germany. Antoaneta finished humanitarian high school, studying exclusively English and Greek.

She continues with the Law Faculty of the University of National and World Economy. In 2012 she successfully graduated as Lawyer. International law, EU law and American law with Mr. Joseph Benley were her favorite subjects. She has been intrigued by the American judicial system which is very different from the Bulgarian one.

Since 2013 she works as a legal counsel in the Technical University of Sofia. Antoaneta is mainly responsible for all the contracts, which the University signs, Public procurement and international relationships.

First time she has been involved with the non-profit sector was during the high school years. At that time she got involved with Bulgarian Red Cross, where she became a volunteer, organizing different health campaigns and initiatives. She has also organized different events for and by young people, collecting clothes and books for children in orphanages, sports events where children from such institutions played basketball, volleyball or football with other young people.21809579_l

While she went to her mandatory internship to the Ministry of Justice, Antoaneta was introduced to the social democratic political party. She got involved in event dedicated to youth unemployment. Then she started to follow this issue and she received trainings in leadership such as the “Summer Academy For Social Democracy” and “Give Your Voice a Volume”, both organized by Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Antoaneta also participated in C.H.A.R.M. project organized by C.E.G.A. foundation. Since then she was involved in variety initiatives on gender issues and political leadership. One of her recent activities related to volunteering is the mentoring program called “Able mentor” and for 4 months she worked as mentor of a young girl, who wanted to become a lawyer.

For the last two years, Anotaneta is a volunteer in Gender Project Foundation where she is working on projects dedicated to the empowerment of women in Bulgaria.

© 1999 EyeWire, Inc.

© 1999 EyeWire, Inc.

Currently she is engaged in the “Civil Discussion for Change” project tackling the problems in within the legal system, electoral Legislation, direct democracy and other issues. Recently she has been chosen to represent the project aims and goals in front of members of parliament and ministers. To prepare she will undergo special training on how to assert and defend thesis.

From January 2015 Antoaneta got involved and committed herself to be part of Pro European Network, an organization where Alumni from the Professional Exchange Programs are in strategic planning and one of the main topics is Community Organizing.

Antoaneta is a very active person – she likes hiking, jogging, fitness, dancing salsa and Zumba. She is open minded and a friendly person.

She speaks English, Greek and little bit of Russian and German languages. Currently she is taking French language courses. Antoaneta will be doing her internship at Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (Chicago). 

Testimonies from Bulgaria

Nevena Pashova – Sofia, Bulgaria
Internship with Pioneer Valley Project, Springfield, Massachusetts 

BU_Nevena Pashova„The experience in the USA is a lifetime experience for me. I saw the difference between the people here and the people in Europe in the positive way. I have had the most incredible and inspiring host family, host organization and colleagues. The time spent in the USA helped me develop myself in a professional, personal and cultural way. I’ve learned about the power and that the power is based on the relationships between the people in the community. It is always with the community and for the community; it is not about the individual person, but for the power of the whole community. Thank you very much for this great opportunity!”

Dilyana Gyurova – Sofia, Bulgaria
Internship with the Seed House, Wichita, Kansas

diliyana“Community Organizing was a brand new concept for me, when I arrived to the U.S. about a month and a half ago. Now, after having had some short but intense sessions with the many mentors, activists and other resource people that the Professional Fellows Program connected us with, but mostly after having experienced it myself during the fellowship in Wichita, Kansas, I can honestly say that I have my own understanding of what Community Organizing is.
The experience in the field was the one that helped me a lot to reach that – I really enjoyed door-knocking, but even more the whole process of planning, conducting and disseminating campaigns. I would like to finish with an example that was brought to me by my wonderful host, Laura Dungan, who told me about her work with Shel Trapp, an example that best underlines the concept of Organizing that I perceived – in one of his books Trapp is photographed from the back on purpose, because it is not the organizer, but the people who are the ones that matter.”

Kirilka Angelova – Yakoruda, Bulgaria
Internship with Logan Square Neighborhood Association, Chicago, Illinois

Kika“I found this fellowship to be a life and work experience. To engage and to involve, to see how people organized themselves for a better life, to see the people power, to feel the truly engagement of the community leaders, to understand more about USA life, to see all this amazing places, to have wonderful time with the group and all people who I met since I am here – great people, professionals and community organizers – this is priceless. I found all the programs very inspiring and interesting. I am very grateful and satisfied. This was a life-changing experience in a good way and of course a great opportunity. Thank you very much! It is never about us, it is about the community! With all my respect”

Dilyana Gyurova – fellow from Bulgaria

Dilyana Gyurova-Kyupeliyski
Sofia, Bulgaria

Dilyana (Diki) Gyurova is working for CONCORDIA Bulgaria Foundation in Sofia since it funded in 2008. Initially she worked as a Deputy Director and since 2012 as an Executive Director. Mrs. Gyurova is managing the overall work of the organization in Bulgaria starting from the pedagogical aspects and establishment of a certain organizational culture till networking, communication, budgeting and fundraising.

Mrs. Gyurova previous working experience is in the field of social work with elderly people, and also in national and international volunteering projects within the peace organization Service Civil International and its Bulgarian branch Cooperation for Voluntary Service.

CONCORDIA is an independent international organization that supports children, young people and partly elderly in Romania, in the Republic of Moldova and in Bulgaria. The social services in Sofia are provided to homeless young adults, to neglected children and their families, being about 90% from the Roma ethnic minority. Community organizing and support belong to the priorities of her organization CONCORDIA Bulgaria Foundation, so she and her team in Sofia are very interested in the exchange program and quite ambitious about the field work and its outcomes.

Alexander Nevski Cathedral, Sofia

Their target groups for the current social services are homeless young adults (very often former orphanage children) as well as children and families from several marginalized Roma communities in the city of Sofia – the districts Orlandovtzi and Malashevtzi with population of up to several hundred people and no official information as many of them don’t have a proper housing and thus also don’t have permanent addresses nor jobs. This is where also the future plans for Community organizing are focused with the main aim to support the Roma families so that they can provide better care and education to their own children and thus to achieve a smaller number of neglected children, school drop-outs etc. The field work is planned to be conducted in cooperation with mobile social workers’ teams of CONCORDIA and partner organizations acting in the particular districts and Dilyana finds this as very challenging and a great opportunity at the same time.

Keeper of the Plains Statue (Wichita, Kansas)
photo by: Jordan McAlister

Mrs. Gyurova holds two Masters’ Degree; first is in Social Work obtained at the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” and second – in Accounting and Controlling from the University for National and World economy in Sofia. Also Dilyana (or Diki as she is mostly known among fellow trainers and volunteers) has some experience as a non-formal education trainer in youth work, volunteering projects, human rights education and other topics, mostly gained from working with international youth groups. Her own long term volunteering project back in 2003 was also in the field of Human rights education in Germany. Apart from English, Mrs. Gyurova speaks German and in the last years she learned some basic Romanian. She has good knowledge of Russian and French too but unfortunately she doesn’t get many chances to practice.

Mrs. Gyurova has never visited the U.S. before. She is really excited about this learning opportunity. Some of the topics that are of greatest interest in the overall program of the Exchange are Organizational development, Direct action and Fundraising.

In her free time Mrs. Gyurova enjoys playing, cooking and drawing with her children as well as doing some Yogalates or karaoke singing.

Dilyana will be having her internship at Seed House (Wichita, Kansas) together with Claudia Popa and Monika Jurikova 

Short picture’s story from our fellows

On 12th of April our fellows safety arrived to their fellowship placement site in 9 states at 11 hosting organizations. Read some of their first actions/meetings and impressions:

Raluca Negulescu, Romania

My first day at the Granite State Organizing Project was delightful. I met a group of fantastic Latin-American women from Nashua and we discussed about the main issues in their community. In the evening, I attended a fundraising event – the 2nd Annual Spaghetti Supper organised by Holy Cross Family Learning Center in Manchester. I met the Mayor of the city and enjoyed a Bhutanese dance show.

Raluca Negulescu

Raluca Negulescu, Romania

Martin Klus, Slovakia

I had a “sharp start” here in Little Rock and today became part of very strong state-wide initiative within Arkansas State Congress and will be famous for couple of seconds even in local TV.

Martin Klus

Martin Klus, Slovakia

Dzhevid Mahmud, Bulgaria
Csaba and Dzhevid met with senator Kennedy in Brockton, Boston during interfaith community action meeting.

dzhevid mahmud

Dzhevid & Csaba

Simona Barbu, Romania

Two very interesting meetings today in Seattle, the first one at CASA LATINA, where the Care Council meet to discuss about the national updates on the law of immigration and the activities they prepare for the next period: on the 9th of May they will put together and action called Mothers Day in order to highlight the role of the mothers in immigration.

Later on, in the Industrial district (aka China Town) we had the opportunity to participate at the meeting of the coalition for preparing May Day in Seattle, a totally different concept that what we usually celebrate in Romania. May Day is the Immigrant’s Day and will be celebrated by marching on the main important boulevards of the city and organizing the members of the immigrant communities to participate.

Together with Kovács Tímea Éva , we’ll be peace keepers during the march on the 1st of May! We are looking forward to it!

simona barbu

Simona & Timea

Miroslav Ragac, Slovakia

Very successful day today! Our S.A.G.E group (Survivor Advocacy Group Empowered) met with several members of the Illinois House of Representatives in Springfield and they got their support and commitment to vote for SB 1872!!! Well done girls!!!

Miroslav Ragac

Miroslav Ragac, Slovakia

US Mentors

A third U.S. mentor group in Europe

US MentorsA third U.S. Mentor group with 8 participants will travel to Europe from January 25-February 15, 2013. The U.S. participants of this exchange will have an opportunity to share professional expertise and gain a deeper understanding of the societies, cultures and people of other countries.

They will participate in workshops, seminars organized by the alumni of this program and contribute with presentations, discussions and mentoring.

They will also visit public and civil society organizations working with the alumni in implementing projects in minority communities and provide them on-site consultations.

We hope that community organizing will start and will have success stories in many communities in 2013.

 

US Mentors in Budapest

U.S. mentors delegation visit in Europe

US Mentors in BudapestThe Great Lakes Consortium – through WSOS Community Action Commission, Inc. – as Contract Agent and Manager – received a grant for a two-way exchange between September 2011 and May 2013 from the U.S. Department of State for the “Citizen Legislative Advocacy in Minority Communities”.

The overall goal of this exchange is to provide a professional development opportunity for up-and-coming and mid level professionals to gain knowledge of U.S. practices in engaging citizens and community leaders in collaboration to inform changes in legislation that make a difference in minority communities (incl. Roma, disabled, homeless, immigrant populations) and strengthen democracy.

In 2012 two delegations with a total of 16 fellows in each from Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia visited the U.S. from March 26 – May 5, 2012 and from October 1-November 10, 2012. They were exposed to diverse community organizing methods how to engage citizens as active participants in solving problems in their own communities.

European fellows participated in the U.S. in group seminars, round-table discussions, site visits, and had interactions community organizers and leaders. A 3-week internship with mentoring, multicultural events, and participation in volunteer activities as well as in the Professional Fellows Congress in Washington, D.C. were also included in the 6-week professional fellows program. Participants did

prepare a 6-9 month individual and group Action Plan for follow on activities . They had various opportunities to experience the American family life and the diversity in the U.S. through staying with American host families during their internship in many states and communities across the U.S. They gained hands-on experience at both public and civil society institutions in the U.S. and a deeper understanding of U.S. society, culture and people.

The first delegation of 9 U.S. mentors traveled for a reciprocal visit to Europe between July 8-29, 2012, and the 2nd U.S. Mentors group will travel to Europe from November 24-December 15, 2012. A third U. S. mentor group with 8 participants will travel to Europe from January 25-February 15, 2013. The U.S. participants of this exchange will have an opportunity to share professional expertise and gain a deeper understanding of the societies, cultures and people of other countries. They will participate in workshops, seminars organized by the alumni of this program and contribute with presentations, discussions and mentoring. They will also visit public and civil society organizations working with the alumni in implementing projects in minority communities and provide them on-site consultations. The U.S. Mentors also will meet with applicants for the new project “Building Grassroots Democracy in Minority Community”, which will host the first European delegation in the spring of 2013. We hope that community organizing will start and will have success stories in many communities by 2013.

This citizen civic exchange will promote mutual understanding, create long-term professional ties, enhance the collaboration between GLC and its overseas partners: CEGA in Bulgaria, Civil College Foundation in Hungary, CeRe in Romania and Center for Community Organizing in Slovakia as well as many U.S. and European partner organizations.

Read the newsletter to get familiar with the U.S. mentors, their interests and the itinerary in Europe

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Extended deadline for Open Call For Participation in U.S. Exchange

GLC is extending the application deadline in each country. For those who are interested to travel on the Spring 2013 program needs to submit their application before the training and interview dates in each country (please contact your country director for the workshop/ interview date in November/December for your country).
For those who would like to come only with the Fall 2013 delegation to the U.S. the deadline is extended until January 1, 2013.
Participating in the country workshops is open to everyone who are interested to learn more about community organizing in the U.S. and discuss how those experience can be used in Europe! (Please contract your country director and make reservation for your participation in the Nov/Dec 2012 workshop in your country).

GREAT LAKES CONSORTIUM FOR INTERNATIONAL TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT in collaboration with C.E.G.A Foundation in Bulgaria, CC Foundation in Hungary, the CeRe  in Romania, and CKO in Slovakia

Open Competition for Participation in:

“BUILDING GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY IN MINORITY COMMUNITIES”
An exchange program for Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and United States of America

glc-democracyWe invite professionals from any regions of Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia to apply for participation in a 42-day fellowship in the U.S.A. We encourage professionals to submit their application who are actively involved in the legislative process and/or policy-making through their work in government, civic education organizations, citizen advocacy groups, community activists, community organizers who work with minority population.

The joint program will be organized in Toledo (Ohio), Detroit (Michigan) and in some of the larger cities as Chicago (Illinois) and/or New York (NY), but internship placement may include smaller communities across the U.S. An enrichment program of Professional Fellows Congress will be also in the itinerary where program participants from different U.S. State Department exchanges will have an opportunity to meet with government leaders and other program alumni and share experiences at the end of the visit in Washington D.C.

Deadline for submitting your application: 15th November

Read the full Announcement: Announcement_Revised
Download Application: Application_Revised