YVYC and LYRA Projects Youth Advocacy
March 24-26, 2023, Pleven
A platform for psychological help of young people; a series of initiatives to present a film about the project activities in several towns; preparation of graffiti with health messages with the participation of young people from Kavaklia neighborhood; exhibitions in Blagoevglad and Dupnitsa, using the photovoice method; “travelling training” on health education; preparation of free cardiology examinations; campaigns about fake news and the harms of smoking and drug use; field visit of extended teams for ongoing advocacy work; blood sugar measurement and additional efforts such as caring for those in need of treatment. These are just some of the activities that the youth teams from Dupnitsa, Blagoevgrad, Lom, Byala Slatina and Breznik carry out within the framework of our projects “Youth voices, youth choices” and “LYRA – launching young Roma advocates”.
On March 24, 25 and 26, 2023, representatives of the two project youth teams gathered in Pleven to exchange information about their work, about the difficulties they face and about the prospects of each of their ideas, as well as about further initiatives, incl. joint. Youth work on advocacy campaigns in their communities, focusing their efforts to support people locally. Serious problems have been identified, such as the need to secure a railway crossing near the Kavaklia neighborhood in Dupnitsa Municipality, as well conducting preventive cardiological examinations and subsequent treatment for the people who need this in the neighborhood; the need to build and improve the infrastructure of Predel neighborhood in Blagoevgrad Municipality; continuous work for the prevention of diseases and prevention of dental and general health in Breznik Municipality.
The initiatives are extremely diverse, meaningful and interesting. In some of the teams, we have young people from Sofia that lead some of the actions. Some activities we perform for the first time. We thank the health mediators from Lom, Byala Slatina and Dupnitsa – Tanya Kirilova, Mirena Bocheva and Daniela Ljubenova, who support us in our work.
Young people actively work to change for better the environment and to improve people’s health. We are going to consider and trace some regularities through family retrospection and thereby contribute to the ancestral memory, the contribution of our ancestors and the traditions of regions, and also provide internships for youth in various institutions for a short period of time so that young people can see inside how institutions work and know how to use their potential to support their advocacy efforts.
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