GEW 2007
“6 billions – one Humanity’’
Bulgaria

Open Education Centre

During the Global Education Week, open debates on Justice and Responsibility have been organised in several schools in the capital Sofia.

Open Education Centre has developed the Value Program under which about 100 teachers and 500 young people have been trained about Responsibility, Justice, Privacy and Authority. Training courses for teachers and students aiming at linking Human Rights Education with AIDS prevention and conflict resolution at school were also organised.

Furthermore, OEC developed under National Plan for In-Service Training of Teachers more than 30 trainings in the field of Human Rights, Work in Multicultural Background and Conflict Resolution with about 800 teachers.

In four sites in Bulgaria, OEC has been developing the Project “Order and Security at School’’ under which community programs for fighting violence at school and in the community are developed together with representatives of parents, teachers, students and of the police, through a five module training course with following themes: Tolerance & Human Rights; Conflict Resolution; Problem Solving & Community Project Development; Rights of the Child. Community Antiviolence Programs are elaborated at the end of each training course.

In the frame of the Uniting Humanity GRUNDTVIG Project, which aims at training educators in the field of Global Citizenship and Global Problems, OEC has developed a two module training program for trainers, in which 20 trainers participated, and organised an international seminar on Global Citizenship with the participation of Educators from South Africa, Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria. The next OEC International Seminar on the same topic will take place in January 2008 in Sofia.

Under OEC’s Civic Education Program, the Regional Youth Center in the city of Pleven organised an Essay Competition “All different all equal’’. The final of the competition coincided with an International Friendship Festival in this city.

In another Regional Centre in the city of Haskovo, there was a Project focusing on teaching interculturality through dance and music. This Centre organised as well the traditional Tolerance Football Competition for students from different ethnic groups and organised special training courses for young volunteers for Charity work. These volunteers participated in the campaign “A Gift of Knowledge’’ which aimed at gathering books and manuals for the children in orphanages.
Haskovo Center organisec a special Open Air Concert commemorating 16^th November – the Tolerance day and a second one for 1^st of December.
They had also organised another project “A Stage for everyone’’ which provided facilities and gave opportunities for the handicapped young people to participate in drama activities.

Yambol Regional Center, which closely cooperates with Open Education Center, developed a Training Program for Volunteers working in orphanages and social care facilities for young people.

Open Education Centre developed as usual in summer the Project ‘’Schools for Social Skills’’ under which young people from all over the country went through a whole cycle of trainings aiming at Personal Development and Life Skills Development . They did explore problems of their communities but as well problems of the world to which they do belong.

Finally, OEC organised from June 17-21 under the auspices of UNESCO, the First International Olympics in the field of Human Rights gathering 40 participants from Bulgaria, Albania, Russia, Slovakia, Romania and Kosovo- Serbia. The topic was Human Rights, the Right to Education and the Right to Development. For the second Human Rights Olympics in 2008 the topic naturally will be 60 years of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.