Youth Up, Sport Up

Youth Up, Sport Up - EDS v Bulharsku
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Date/time
Date(s) - 11/08/2018 - 08/10/2018
All day

Locality
Sofia, Bulgaria

Project type

Selected participants


feedback from Nikola that we got during her EVS:

TO BE VOLUNTEER. Home I wasn’t brave for that or I thought I cannot do this. Time after time my opinion get changing. At my work for Transparency I could appreciate the volunteering from oposite site. I could see enthusiastic guys, who didn’t hesitate to spent their leisure time with helping us. Now I can do the same on fulltime position due to Erasmus plus programe. I am in foreign city, that’s why I am brave maybe. With my colleague I am organizing plogging (you run and collect the garbage). Besides it perfectly meets the agenda of my organisation (sport), it addresses our impression of poor care of the cleanness of the public space. As our organisation fully supported us, we started to work. Limited by time, language, with any knowledge about local conditions, but we are trying. Already after 2 hours of catching people and letting them know about our activity we are back and we hope for a little bit success. Tomorrow is the day „D“ and we will see if „Do you speak english and what’s about plogging?“ bring at least 10 participants. So, please cross your fingers for us!

Official report of the project and its results:

The Bulgarian Sports Development Association has hosted four international volunteers in Bulgaria who have carried out a variety of volunteer activities for the local community in Sofia, Bulgaria for a period of two months. Mobility was 59 days, starting on August 11 and ending October 8, 2018. During this period, volunteers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia and Portugal had the opportunity to gain experience in organizing sporting events, running sports projects and holding several youth workshops aimed at promoting volunteering. As soon as they arrived in Bulgaria, the volunteers joined the Eurasia Bulgarian Open Badminton Championships 2018 – the biggest international badminton tournament in Bulgaria. It is in the International Series class and has a prize pool of $ 10,000. Top European and world contestants participate as well as Bulgarian stars such as Stoevi sisters, Maria Mitsova, Daniel Nikolov, Ivan Panev, Ivan Rusev, Peyo Boychinov, Petya Nedelcheva and others. The international sporting event held at Badminton Hall Europe and was attended by over 280 contestants from 37 countries.

With the support of the volunteers, two sports celebrations were held in the German and Giggins Monastery, which is a way of innovation for sports activities in ecclesiastical environment, the feedback from the hosts of both events is more than positive.

On September 4 (Tuesday), at 16:00, a voluntary workshop YouthUP, SportUP was held in the Conference Hall of Sandanski Municipality. During the meeting, the international volunteers and experts of the Bulgarian Sports Development Association presented the overall framework of Erasmus+ as well as the opportunities it provides in the field of education, youth and sport, focusing on the opportunities for inclusion of young people people in them. The meeting was attended by young people, chairman of the Sandanski Municipal Council, director and lecturers at the sports school in the city, coaches in various sports.

“Plogging in Sofia” is an initiative promoted by international volunteers in the Bulgarian Sports Development Association, who are interested in supporting good practices for the sustainable environment of Sofia through sport. The aim of this initiative was to reduce the amount of garbage that was located in the area where the National Sports Academy “Vasil Levski” is located and which was home to the international volunteers during their stay in Bulgaria. We believe that together with other citizens of Sofia, we have been able to raise awareness of the implementation of good practices in the care of the community in which we live. We believe that sport alongside volunteering is the best way to work together and create friendships for life. The event was held on 20 September 2018 and was intended to lay the foundations for a new trend in Bulgaria and also to give a start to the upcoming European Sports Week which took place in the Member States of the European Union and 11 non-EU countries in the period 23-30 September 2018.

A few hours before the plogging initiative the volunteers also held a volunteer workshop YouthUP, SportUP at the National Sports Academy “Vasil Levski”, in which more than 40 young people took part in. During the meeting, the overall framework of the Erasmus+ program, as well as the opportunities it provides in the area of education, youth and sport, was presented, focusing on the opportunities for involving young people in them.

On September 28, 2018 at 10:00, the opportunities for young people from 16 to 30 years of age and the implementation of Erasmus volunteer initiatives in the country and abroad were presented at the reading room of the library “Ivan Vazov-1872” in Berkovitsa. The organizer of the event was the Bulgarian Sports Development Association, Sofia, and partners in the initiative were Berkovitsa Municipality, Municipal Club of the Bulgarian Red Cross, Ivan Vazov-1872 Lyceum, Berkovitsa and Health in the Northwest Association. The meeting was attended by more than 40 young people who were able to get information about a European volunteer service from international volunteers who are currently supporting BSDA, all of whom received a certificate of training.

In the last days of their stay, the international volunteers visited the Home for Mentally Disabled People in Banya, Karlovo, where they had sports activities with the residents and introduced them to their history and joined the organization of Babomalt Badminton International – an international badminton tournament in Sofia, where 148 athletes from 34 countries participated.

YouthUP, SportUP project is co-funded under the Erasmus + program, administered in Bulgaria by the Center for Human Resource Development and is realized in 2018.

Participation in the project

If you would like to apply for project, please answer the following questions:

1. Question:  What is your motivation to participate in the project?
2. Question:  How do you think you will use the knowledge and skills which you gain at this project in your future life?

Prihlasovanie na tento projekt bolo uzatvorené. Momentálne prebieha výber účastníkov.