Sliven, Bulgaria

See Bulgaria’s mission is to use the power of film and online film sharing to allow youth in disadvantaged rural and urban communities in Bulgaria to increase their participation in civil society and create the kinds of communities that they envision. Our vision is a society in which a new generation of Bulgarians are active in using the tools around them to take control of their communities’ needs and dreams.

The youth of Bulgaria have suffered many of the negative consequences of these dramatic changes, therefore they must also receive special attention. According to UNDESA statistics, youth are in a particularly difficult place in Bulgarian society. For one, the country’s aging population and low national birth rate translate into 15 to 24 year-olds being only around 20% of the total population in 2005, with a projection that this number will drop to around 17% by 2015. The unemployment rate for this age group in 2005 was a high 38.4%, compared to Switzerland’s European low of 7.7%.¹ Also, statistics show that registered juvenile crime rates increased three and a half times between 1989 and 2002, affecting over 4% of children aged 14 to 17. Meanwhile, half of all trafficked individuals between the years 2000 and 2003 were minors² – a reflection of both the widespread economic difficulties in everyday life in Bulgaria and the especially challenging position of youth within this context. Youth are the future of a country, and what all of these numbers indicate is that those in Bulgaria are off to a disadvantaged start. As the country’s population faces their future as a member of the European Union and the global community, it is essential that Bulgarian youth are given a voice. Bulgarian youth, especially those from marginalized and disconnected rural and urban communities, need more and expanding opportunities to participate in local and national decision-making and in the shaping of their community’s and the country’s identity.

In 1989 in Bulgaria, nearly half a century of a planned and secure present and future came to an end. Quickly moving out of the first, honeymoon phase with their new democracy, the Bulgarians saw that, despite the widespread oppression and countless causes for dissent, the communist state had provided a certain level of stability that was now gone. Their new system would present many challenges and ongoing uncertainty. The last 17 years have brought dramatic economic, political, and social changes. The ongoing transition from a communist regime into the current system of democracy, open markets, and long-term efforts towards integration into the European Union has brought political and economic uncertainty, unemployment, and isolation and marginalization for many rural and increasingly more urban communities and populations.

Program Goals

§ To facilitate experiential learning and growing opportunities for marginalized youth (potential next-generation leaders).
§ To address development challenges in low-income communities.
§ To foster increased understanding, tolerance and appreciation among world communities that may not traditionally interact with one another.
§ To foster constructive and sustainable relationships between youth and their own communities, and to maximize entrepreneurship opportunities for youth to benefit their communities and themselves.
§ To complete a full program cycle with a comprehensive impact evaluation to measure achievements of the new model.
§ To lay the groundwork for the replicability of the program.

Needs Assessment and Impact

A number of organizations and programs with a focus on children and youth in Bulgaria exist. Among these are: Free and Democratic Bulgaria Foundation, providing mostly programs for institutionalized youth and foster children; Outward Bound, an organization that teaches life skills through outdoor experience; Junior Achievement Bulgaria, providing courses in market economics and entrepreneurship; and American Councils, offering opportunities to learn English in Bulgaria and through exchange in the United States, as well as a few others. None of these organizations utilize a form of art and creative personal expression and communication as the main theme of their work.
The overall purpose and impact of making the films will be to allow the youth a rare opportunity to focus on sharing the strengths of their communities through the universal language of images, and drawing attention and resources to the needs their communities face, all the while increasing their awareness of and participation in decision making. We also create opportunities for the youth to communicate to others, including most importantly the rest of Bulgaria, the images, thoughts, hopes, and strengths of their underserved, often forgotten communities. This form of civil engagement will encourage community connectedness, community development, and community engagement in decision-making as well as the development of local solutions to issues of both the community and the country. This project will also develop a sense of empowerment in the new generation of Bulgarians who have in their hands the future of their communities, the country, and the world.

Proposed Project Expansion

We ultimately aim to select 8 public schools in villages and in challenging urban areas from the four corners of Bulgaria. One rural and one urban school will be selected from each of the following four geographic regions: North-West: provinces of Vidin, Montana, Vratsa, Lovech, Pleven, and Gabrovo; North-East: provinces of Veliko Turnovo, Turgovishte, Ruse, Razgrad, Shumen, Silistra, Dobrich, and Varna; South-East: provinces of Burgas, Yambol, Sliven, Stara Zagora, Haskovo, and Kurdzali; and South-West: provinces of Sofia, Pernik, Kyustendil, Blagoevgrad, Pazardzik, Smolyan, and Plovdiv.
The focus of the project is on involving communities in villages and towns that are geographically, and therefore politically and economically, isolated from the rest of Bulgaria as well as the rest of Europe. A call for applications will be announced country-wide and schools will be selected based on their applications and background. Each school will be asked to assemble a group of 12 adolescent students for the project. See Bulgaria staff, equipped with one video camera and one laptop will visit each selected school and deliver an after-school workshop in film-making over the course of one week. In partnership with each school’s teachers, See Bulgaria will work with students to determine topics, about which they will then independently make a short film over the next two weeks. The topic chosen by the students will promote community awareness and civic engagement.
After the students complete their films, See Bulgaria will return to each school and, using a laptop provided by the project, will assist students in editing their movies and creating a final product to be shown to the public. The finished work of each student from each school will be uploaded onto the Global Potential website, TakingITGlobal.org (a social networking site for youth in Europe), and the internationally popular YouTube, where all participating students will be able to view each other’s work. Also, the films will be screened at film festivals and cultural venues in Bulgaria, such as Auditorium “Sredetz” in the Ministry of Culture in Sofia, NATFIZ, and NDK; and at Bulgarian or Eastern European film festivals in Europe and the US, such as the Bulgarian Film Festival in New York City. International exposure of the works will allow us to facilitate partnerships with groups of youth outside Bulgaria to engage in cultural exchange and dissemination of helpful ideas.
[1] UNDESA, Youth Statistics.

[2] UN, 2006 UN Country Review: www.undp.bg/publications.php?id=1925.