The U.S. Mentor Dave Beckwith visiting Romania and Hungary

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The last U.S. mentor David Beckwith, U.S. Project Advisor on this grant will travel to Europe between August 18-September 12, 2014. He welcomed and trained every European participants during their visits in NW Ohio in the Spring or Fall 2013 delegation. He will work with the European alumni in providing workshops, assist with consulting and mentoring. He will also gain cultural experience in Europe. He will visit Romania and Hungary and will review all the accomplishments and discuss plans for post-grant activities with our country directors and alumni, not only from these countries but also from Slovakia who will meet with him in Budapest. As this grant ends in September 2014, we will start a new grant on “Sustaining Civic Participation
in Minority Communities in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia” and during
his visit during the introductory community organizing training he will announce this new program and will have an opportunity to talk with some interested people who are involved in minority communities. This will be very helpful, because his experience can be used during the selection process later.

The book “Taking Action & Changing Lives in Minority Communities” was presented in Bulgaria

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During July the country partner from Bulgaria has organized and participated in few events where they’ve presented the “Taking Action & Changing Lives in Minority Communities” publication.

20 representatives from local youth-oriented organizations get familiar with the publication, more specifically on the campaign component as they had two days training on how to develop and implement campaigns at local level. Going through the steps of developing a campaign such as: identifying the problem, analyzing the situation and based on that developing aims and objective, identifying the target groups, messages of the campaign, methods and evaluation, the group explored the methods used in the publication from each country.

Another occasion the publication was present is during the annual summer camps organized by Arete Youth Foundation, where Miglena Yordanova an alumni had presented her case to a group of 42 youths from different part of Bulgaria. She officially received the publication and had chance during the 7 days of the camp to engage the youth with the community organizing through the book.

The U.S. Mentors in Bulgaria

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Justn Turrell (Minesota) , Emira Palacios (Wichita), Zach Chesnoff (St. Luis) and Neil Sealy (Little Rock)just started their mentoring visit in Bulgaria. After fruitful experience in Romania, Budapest and Slovakia the 4 U.S. mentors gathered in Bulgaria to visit their mentees as part of the Fellowship Exchange Program, financed by the U.S. State Department.

The first day of their visit they have got to know C.E.G.A. Foundation’s activities and met the alumni who were enrolled in the program since 2012.

The second day in Bulgaria, the mentors went to Vratsa, northwest part of Bulgaria to meet Kalina Hristova – one of the Bulgarian alumni, taking part in the last Exchange visit.

She invited the group in the Resource Centre she is working in and surprised as with a workshop where 35 children with special needs, 15 resource teachers and 3 local TV channels were waiting us to start making the so called “martenica”. This is a traditional souvenir that each Bulgarian is wearing on 1st of March for health prosperity.

After the workshop, Kalina shared with the mentors what she achieved so far in organizing and her major challenges. The mentors got to know in details her work and gave her few ideas on furthering the activities she is doing.

In the afternoon we visited the local museum to learn about the Thracian Treasure found in those lands around the Vratsa town. It was an hour of deep history about a tribe lived 4 000 B.C.

At the end of the day, the visit finished with a claiming the nearest hill, which discovered a beautiful view of the land in Vratsa.

Stay with us for more, next visit is Plovdiv.

9 U.S. Mentors will travel in Europe in February 2014

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9 U.S. mentor will travel to Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia between February 9-28, 2014 on the “Building Grassroots Democracy in Minority Communities” professional exchange program sponsored by the U.S. State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Office of Citizen Exchanges, Professional Fellows Division. Click here to learn more about the U.S. participants and their organizations.


Testimonies from the Fall 2013 Professional Fellows European Delegation visiting the United States

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“The most important part of this program for me was to see in practice how the community is engaged in solving the problems of a wide variety of stakeholders including parents, business, grassroots political organizations, ethnic minority organizations and faith based groups”, – Kalina Hristova, Bulgaria

“When I applied to this internship, I didn’t know what to expect from it or myself. That was a good move because I had the chance to experience the American life on my own from scratch. I’m very grateful for this great opportunity to come to the U.S. and learn about community organizing, the culture and people” – Oana Botezan, Romania

“I found this internship to be very insightful and inspiring. Through my wonderful mentors, I was reminded especially about the significance of the genuine connection with people and my experience has become mostly about the people and that the people matter the most. Power comes from the people, for the people” – Roman Tyska, Slovakia

“My experience during the trainings and the internship helped me to develop a broader understanding of the different roles and possibilities in working with people while on the other hand, I also could experience different types of organizing – Annamaria Kovacs, Hungary

Read the testimonies from all the alumni here:

school outreach in Humboldt park in Chicago

Volunteering in Humboldt park, Chicago – school outreach on housing issues

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school outreach in Humboldt park in Chicago

school outreach in Humboldt park in Chicago

On Wednesday afternoon, October 23, we (two European fellows: Boba Baluchova from Slovakia and Lia Gaudi from Romania as CCH interns) decided to join three Community organizers from “Chicago coalition for the Homeless” (CCH) and leaders from organization “Casa Central – La Posada” in order to help them during school outreach in the area of Humboldt Park. It is one of the neighborhoods in Chicago – widely known for its large Puerto Rican presence. We were divided into groups of two – to be sure that at least one person in group is able to speak Spanish fluently.

The goal of this outreach was: contacting adults/parents in front of the Lowell elementary school (while waiting for their children coming out from school) and sharing particular information. We told them about special educational rights and school support  (according to U.S. law) for children from families – struggling with housing issues (homeless families, doubled-up families, moving families without regular place to stay etc.). These children should receive free transit cards, fee waivers for uniforms, field trips etc. in order: not to be discriminated or excluded.

CCH people, few leaders from Casa Central (mothers and women from this Latino community) and us (volunteers – European fellows) tried to raise awareness about educational rights and encourage people to ask for them. Many adults in front of the Lowell elementary school have known somebody else in neighborhood – experiencing homelessness or “doubled-up” life (sharing the house with another family), but they haven’t known about this possibility – to ask Homeless liaison (particular person in every single school – dealing with housing issues of students) for support for their children. It was very interesting practical activity in the field.

Text by Boba Baluchova

Seven European fellows at BBQ party together

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On Saturday, first day of weekend (October 19), European fellows didn’t go to work to their host organizations. Instead they attended nice BBQ-party at house of Joanna Brown and Josh Hoyt house (Zsofi and Viktoria – Hungarian and Bulgarian fellows’ hosting family). Few weeks ago we already met Josh Hoyt (chief executive strategist at Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights: http://www.icirr.org/) at training on community organizing in Chicago. So it was nice to meet him and his family again.

Some of fellows (Laura, Annamaria and Gabriela) also came there with their host “mothers” – very interesting and active ladies (involved into community work). Zsofi and Viktoria prepared few examples of very delicious Hungarian and Bulgarian food. Finally all seven girls from Romania (Lia, Laura), Bulgaria (Viktoria), Hungary (Annamaria, Zsofi) and Slovakia (Gabriela, Boba) were able to meet at the same place and share their experiences from their interesting internships. All European fellows (placed as interns in Chicago organizations) are looking forward to meet again next weekend…

Volunteering in Wichita, Kanzas

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The European fellows Vladislav Petkov (Bulgaria), Robert Bekefi (Hungary) and Elena Carbunaru (Romania) volunteered in the logistical preparation of a fundraising event – Second Annual Art Auction. The event was organized in Anna Murdock’s café in Wichita, Kansas by The Seed House (Casa de la Semilla) and took place on October 12th 2013.

77 pieces of art donated by local and external artists were offered to the public on silent and live auction. The European fellows helped with moving furniture, arranging spaces, decoration and other logistical details.