Bulgaria: Anti-discrimination training in the village of Chepintsi

Chepintsi, Bulgaria: 18 September 2024

In our project ‘Legal Empowerment and Advocacy for Minority Women’, we aim to empower minority women in remote rural areas of Smolyan Region by helping to increase their knowledge and awareness of their legal rights and civil responsibilities. In pursuit of this goal, the Rodopchanka Women’s Club team has focused on creating an inclusive environment where women can access educational resources, participate in skill-building workshops, and receive direct support and confidence building.

With the help of our partners from the Rhodope Fund for Women “Poprelki” and his chairperson Dr. Neziha Huteva, we organized and held in the village of Chepintsi an educational seminar with representatives of the Muslim community on the topic “Fighting discrimination and protecting women’s rights”. The interest in the subject was extraordinary.

The seminar was opened by Nedyalka Stefanova-Petrova, who presented the activities of the Club, the mission, the goals, the activities, the donor, as well as the project under which it is being held.

This was followed by a presentation by Eng. Radka Tuneva-Yanchevska, in which basic concepts such as what is discrimination, what are the types, how to recognize it, what are the protected signs, how to oppose it, who and how can help us were discussed, what are our rights, how to protect them. There was also a practical part, including what constitutes a complaint to the Commission for Protection against Discrimination (CPD), where and how it is submitted, what are the deadlines for examination, initiation of proceedings and obtaining a decision.

In the subsequent discussion, several ‘sore’ local problems were identified, which, with our help, will be sent to the Regional Representative of the CPD in the city of Smolyan.

Through our anti-discrimination training, we aim to promote a more inclusive community, and we are making progress in that direction. We were pleased with the participants’ openness and willingness to share, which led to tangible results.