The project aims to cast a light on propaganda before and during WWII, focusing on its role to enforce the concept of “enemy” – from national and ethnic groups to political opponents and social groups. Moreover a special attention will be given to the role of grassroots media and peace organizations in challenging propaganda through innovative communication methodologies and tools.

Whithin the project there will be 5 Remembrance weeks (short term mobilities) and currently we are looking for participants for the Remembrance week in Poland, Poznan, from the 25^th of June till the 4^th of July 2021.

During the Remembrance Weeks participants, supported and guided by the Remembrance Messengers, will implement different activities aimed at going in depth into the following key words/topics:

• Remembrance                                        
• Propaganda and media
• Nationalism
• Hatred of the enemy
• Grassroots media
• Pacifism
• Counter narratives

The Set of Infographics will be created on the basis of the researches participants will realize during the activity, focused on 10 specific topics:

• Fear
• Propaganda
• Gender
• Freedom of speech
• Nationalism
• History
• Normalization
• Youth
• Social Frustration
• Hate crimes

Participants will be asked to implement some previous research on the topics listed above with relation to their local contest, both in the past during the fascist/nazi regimes and in the present, in the policies or propaganda carried on by right-wings parties or movements.

It is important to bring to the Remembrance Week every material (soft and hard), pictures, fanzines, presentation, testimony that can give a contribution to the debate and to the research realization.

We are looking for participants who are:

Age 16+
Able to understand and express themselves in English
Willing to be open-minded and eager to learn from the workshops in this activity and from their peers, as well as maintain a positive attitude and a critical approach to the problematics and topics that will be reviewed
Interested in the topics of fascism, anti-fascism, propaganda, counter-propaganda, anti- racism, migration, etc.
 Willing to contribute to the research creation with material, ideas, participation
Willing to share experiences and stories from their local environment/context and to collect material that will be useful for feeding the debate and realizing the research
Are committed to assist or take the lead role in planning and implementing local initiatives during the Remembrance Week in order to disseminate the learning outcomes.

The project covers the costs for:

• Travel (reimbursement up to 100 euro under reception of the Boarding Passes and all travelling documents)
• Food and accommodation during the Remembrance week
• Local transportation
• Health insurance

The costs for the eventual Covid-19 test cannot be reimbursed.

More information and Application:

General information about the Remembrance weeks can be found below
http://cvs-bg.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Call-for-participants-RW.pdf
You can find more information about the Remembrance week in Poland (25 June – 4 July) and apply by clicking here!

If you have some questions, please do not hesitate to write to cvs.katerina@gmail.com or to incoming@jedenswiat.org.pl

We would like to invite you to participate in the Online Training Course “CHAPTER: Anti-fascism on the Spotlight” which will gather 25 representatives of organisations from 9 countries – Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain and Bulgaria. Participants from other EU program countries are also welcome to apply.  The training is designed for active volunteers who are eager to learn more on the topic of anti-fascism and later apply their knowledge in three types of project activities: Remembrance weeks, a Research and a Campaign.

About the Training Course “CHAPTER: Anti-fascism on the Spotlight”

The online training will gather 25 participants,  nominated by the partner organizations, who are interested in the topic, politically and/or socially active and available for (at least) one of the Remembrance weeks, described above. The training aims to build and train a group of experienced multipliers (remembrance messengers) and remembrance week coordinators, set up a research on the topic and define contents of the Remembrance weeks within the project.

The training is designed to prepare the future Remembrance messengers and Remembrance Weeks’ coordinators, providing them with practical and theoretical knowledge on the topic of anti-fascism. Apart from being introduced to research methodologies and communication/anti-propaganda tools, they will learn how to use non-formal education tools in order to reflect on the following main questions:

• What do we understand by “fascism”? Where does it come from, why does it appear and why do people fall in its net?
• What history tells us about fascism?
• What are the current trends and why far right wing parties/movements are rising across Europe? What are the effects of globalisation on the new forms of fascism?
• How to deconstruct the narrative of “them vs. us”?
• Which psychosocial mechanisms are involved in fascism and populism? What do fascist speeches have in common?
• What are the effects and consequences of fascism in our societies?
• Why must we fight fascism? What’s the role of activism and peace organizations?
• What new communication methodologies and tools are used to fight fascism?

The specific goals of this training are as follows:

• To train a group of messengers and coordinators  who will lead the following Remembrance Weeks in each of the partner countries and organisations;
• Gain and share knowledge on the basic concepts, history and theories around the topics of  fascism and anti-fascism, based on meeting with experts, peer learning and self-assessment techniques;
• Develop critical thinking on the topic of fascism, to be able to recognize fallacies in speech and identify the signs of extremism;
• Developing the competences of the participants to plan, organize and implement educational activities on anti-fascism;
• Develop tools to work on prevention or to react in cases of fascism, hate speech, exclusions or violence (online and offline);
• Learn new tools on how to develop and implement a campaign based on previous examples;
• To conduct a research on all materials that can be useful and relevant to the specific tasks of the training and gather them ;
• To create a toolkit with all useful information at the end of the training, which can be used in the following Remembrance Weeks;
• Create a bond and ground for international cooperation and networking.

Dates, platform, methodology, experts’ team and draft program of the training course

The training will take place from 3rd to 12th of April 2021 and the team will use the ZOOM platform to interact between 2 and 4 hours daily in the mentioned period. 

Within 10 working days (the program envisages 2-4 working hours per day, using non-formal learning methodology) the group will be able to:

– gather a collection of coordination tools, which will be used for the activities during the Remembrance Weeks

– collect materials on the topic from the different national contexts

– define the scope and framework of a research on the topic, receive tips on research methodologies

– set the outlines of a media campaign on the topic

– contribute to the report of the activity.

The participants are required to be available for the whole duration of the training, taking part in all the plenary and small group sessions, as well as pair and individual tasks. The methods used during the training will follow the non-formal learning methodology: working in small groups, discussions in plenary, brainstorming, presenting, role play, simulations, etc. The team of trainers will consist of international experienced trainers, facilitators and experts.

The selected participants will receive the training program, trainers profile info and some individual small tasks to complete prior to the start of the activity.

Partner countries and organisations

• Service Civil International Osterreich – Austria
• CVS-Bulgaria – Bulgaria
• Service Civil International Hellas – Greece
• Servizio Civile Internazionale Italia – Italy
• Centro Studi Sereno Regis – Italy
• Stowarzyszenie Jeden Swiat – Poland
• Servei Civil Internacional de Catalunya Asociacion – Spain
• Le Service Civil International – France
• Service Civil International – Deutscher Zweig E.V. – Germany
• Utilapu Nemzetkozi Epitotabor Halozat Egyesulet – Hungary
• DINAMOpress – Italy
• UNITED for Intercultural Action – Hungary

Participants from other EU program countries are also welcome to apply however priority will be given to candidates from the project partner countries.

Schedule

The schedule of the training will follow the proposed below agenda:

3rd  April (Saturday) – 4h – 10:00-13:30 CET
4th  April (Sunday) – OFF
5th  April (Monday) – OFF
6th  April (Tuesday) – 4h – 10:00-13:30 CET
7th  April (Wednesday) – 4h – 10:00-13:30 CET
8th  April (Thursday) – 4h – 10:00-13:30 CET
9th  April (Friday) – 4h – 10:00-13:30 CET
10th April (Saturday) – 4h – 10:00-13:30 CET
11th April (Sunday) – 4h – 10:00-13:30 CET
12th April (Monday) – 4h – 10:00-13:30 CET

*There will be 30 min break in between sessions of 4h.

The selected participants will receive the training program, trainers profile info and some individual small tasks to complete prior to the start of the activity.

Profile of the participants

The profile of the candidate should be the following:

• Age 18+
• Able to understand and express themselves in English;
• Politically or/and socially active;
• Have and/or willing to gain experience in coordinating international activities (such as Workcamps, Peace weeks or Remembrance Weeks) and ready to organize the Remembrance week in their country on the topic of the project;
• Committed to attend for the full duration of the online training
• Volunteers, activists and youth workers/coordinators who want to learn more about innovative communication methodologies and effective tools to protect refugees and national minorities from organised violence;
• Willing to learn more about the evolution of fascism, effects and consequences of the ideology in the current situation;
• Willing to share experiences and stories from their local environment, family, friends and school (university) regarding to unfair attitude to refugees, national minorities and other;
• Willing to be open-minded and eager to learn from the workshops in this activity and from their peers, as well as maintain a positive attitude and a critical approach to the problematics and topics that will be reviewed;
• Are committed to assist or take the lead role in planning and implementing local initiatives in order to disseminate the learning outcomes.

Certificates

All participants will receive a certificateupon successful completion of the training course.

Application procedureThe detailed call for participants can be found here.

If you are interested in participating, apply filling in the online application form.

The final selection will be done by CVS-Bulgaria, giving priority to candidates proposed by the Partner Organisations as long as their application is submitted within the deadline and the candidates profile fits with the participants profile envisaged in this call.

Selected participants will be informed. All applicants will be informed about the final decision.

You can reach us on the following e-mail: trainings@cvs-bg.org if you have further questions.

Looking forward to meeting you soon in the virtual space of or training!

Chapter project team

During our life we often face stereotypes, injustice and prejudices.We are asking ourselves: “Why some live in abudance while others count the coins in their pockets? Why some enjoy freedom while others even don’t have a passport?” But as volunteers we do not only ask questions, we want to do something about it: act and make people aware. This is why we decided to make migration a main topic of the Human Library ” Community, Communication, Common Space” , that our organisation CVS-Bulgaria and UNHCR Bulgaria held on 14 September in Plovdiv during the Night of the Museums. The Human Library was complimented by UNHCR’s interactive exhibition “Identity” , featuring some of the books’ stories.

“Human Library” methodology was not chosen by chance. In our case every refugee became a “book” telling their story to a reader from the local community for 15-20 minutes. Any person passing by in the park could be a “reader” if they were instrested and could spare some time.
We had a total of 10 books, which were10 stories filled with life hardships during war and civil outbreks one one hand. On the other, each book was talking about new beginnings and possitive experiences finding a new home in Bulgaria.
The power of the method is to be in the moment, diving into a story which could not be repeated again with the same sencereness and passion.
There is a belief in the local society that refugees are an asocial group of people, who do not want to be integrated and do not contribute to the host country. Thanks to Human Library “Community, Communication, Common Space” the citizens and guests of Plovdiv(the Capital of Culture 2019) could face the challenges that refugees encounter and understand better their emotions and break different stereotypes. They met people who want to belong, to love and be loved, to work, study and thus be a valuable member of the society.

The readers were firstly intrugued by the exhibition and then timidly approached the librarian desk to subscribe for “reading” a book. Each person has a limit of four books to read so in this way we could reach more people. We also managed to read some books. It was really useful experience since we are starting now to dig deeper into the topic of forced migration. There was no unhappy reader, from what we saw in their eyes, or from the conversations and evaluation forms we had later, we got the feeling that everyone was very happy with the event. We especially remember the comment of one girl “You are doing very valuable work. Thank you”.
This event was very significant for the books as well. They were able to share their worries, get support and empathy, as well as a feeling of belonging, which is very important for the refugees. Our books were very glad to meet interested people in their stories and spend some time with locals. We, as a team of organisers also contributed to their positive experiences, travelling and spending some free time together. We, the volunteers believe we have found some new friends among the books we have recruitred for this event.

“Reading” such kind of books helps us recognize the value of positive attitude in our life. We only need to support each other in our community and communicate learning more about each other. We understood, that there are no issues that can’t be solved, and we remembered that the main rule of happy life is to meet all that is ment to come with a smile, believing in the good outcome.

Volunteering Circles project / 2018-2-BG01-KA125-048262/ is co-financed by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union

The Project

“Volunteering Circles” is a long-term initiative of the organization CVS-Bulgaria, which includes 6 motilities in 3 circles (Cinema, Refugees and Volunteering) as well as a number of complementary activities to improve the quality of the project results achieved in Bulgaria with international participation.
The envisaged activities will lead to strategic changes in the field of volunteering, the inclusion of young people from marginalized/ vulnerable groups as well as small settlements, encouraging active participation by young people and capacity building for critical thinking.

More about the project and the context you can find here:

Activities

Each circle will have its main focus but the volunteers will work as a team and will be included in all the tasks and events provisioned within the project. Along with the regular activities the volunteers will be included in several complimentary activities envisaged in the project. Detailed description of the regular and complimentary activities you can find here:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Practicalities

The practicalities of the project are arranged according to the Erasmus + guidelines, allowing the volunteers to enjoy a free participation. All necessary costs for the implementation of the project are covered, including accommodationa and utilities, food and pocket money, international, local transport and insurance. Detailed information can be found here:

How to apply

If you think this is your dream volunteering project and you are ready to join The Volunteering Circles, please send us an e-mail with title the circle you wish to join and your name (example: Refugee Circle_Marina Costa) at cvs.katerina@gmail.com:

– your CV

– motivation letter

Deadline for applications: 25th June 2019.  All shortlisted candidates will be invited for a skype interview. 

For any further questions, please contact us at cvs.kаterina@gmail.com

Testimonials

We asked our volunteers to share their experience and help you choose CVS-Bulgaria as your future hosting organisation:

Information about CVS-Bulgaria

CVS-Bulgaria is a non-governmental organisation that has been working in the field of international volunteer exchange since 1998 and was officially registered in 2002 as an organisation working in public benefit. CVS-Bulgaria is a branch of the international peace and volunteer-exchange network of Service Civil International (SCI – www.sci.ngo) and a full member of South Eastern European Youth Network (SEEYN – www.seeyn.org).

CVS-Bulgaria aims to promote the values of volunteer work through organizing variety of voluntary activities; to motivate young people to be active and participate in volunteer actions – thus taking part in the development of the civil society; to promote and support intercultural understanding and solidarity, social justice and environment preservation.

Main activities of CVS-Bulgaria are: organizing short- and long term volunteer projects, youth exchanges, trainings, hosting and sending volunteers for projects in public benefit in Bulgaria, Europe and the world, as well as working in partnership with other NGOs on local and international level to promote volunteering as a tool for active citizenship.

The project

Five countries (Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania, Tunisia and Lebanon), ten non-profit organizations (Rota Jovem, ALEM, GAT, CVS, Dominou, Association de Progression de Jeunes Tunisiens and MAP) and eight volunteers are involved in the project “Social Bond”.

It is an EVS project focused on the promotion of social inclusion in the educational and health fields and it consists in a long-term EVS (12 months, from October 2018 to September 2019) with a booklet about good practices to work for social inclusion as a main result of the project.

 

 

 

 

 

Volunteers tasks and how to apply

The volunteer will be working in the framework of the Refugee Project. In 2010 we started a very ambitious initiative – to create a space where people could meet people regardless of their background and current vulnerable situation. The Refugee project is a space where thousands of volunteers every year open their hearts to asylum seekers in Bulgaria and give them a warm welcome through activities and quality spent time together. The project is managed by volunteer coordinators from CVS-Bulgaria and Caritas Sofia. The project gathers local volunteers who organize variety of lessons and workshops for the asylum seekers and refugees in the main refugee reception centers in Sofia – Ovcha Kupel, Voenna Rampa and Vrazhdebna, as well as excursions and different events. Every year EVS volunteers join this team and make a difference by being part of this crazy, vibrant and hardworking crew. The main activities within the project can be seen in our brochure.

If we sparkled your interest and you would like to find more about this position, please check the detailed call for volunteers:

Infopack CVS _Social bond

Tell us why would you like to be part of this project in a motivation letter and send it together with your CV to cvs.katerina@gmail.com

Deadline for application: 25 September 2018