Bulgarian Health Mediators Share Professional Experience Abroad

September 2014 

In August 2014 the Health mediator from Sliven Municipality Natasha Todorova went for five days exchange visit in Stockholm. The invitation came from Mr Patrick Sedelrev, Secretary of the Commission for Fighting Human Traficking - Sweden and and Mrs Radosveta Stamenkova (Executive Director of Bulgarian Family Planning Association) with   kind request by our Swedish colleagues to present the work of BulgarianHealth mediators. One representative from Bulgarian police also took part in the visit. Truly interesting were the meetings with local authorities in Gavle and the site-visits to villages where Bulgarian citizens from Roma origin are living.

On 18 September 2014 Georgi Nikolov - Health mediator in Samokov - returned from Rome, Italy. He presented Bulgarian experience in Health mediation within the Final Meeting of project “troVARSI” (Roma and Sinti Vaccinations in Italy), funded by Italian Ministry of Healthcare and implemented by National Institute of Health, Migration and Poverty, Italy. Among the representatives were participants from different countries like  France and Romania, as well as different experts from health care area, physicians, representatives from non-governmental organisations. Hygiene, vaccinations, health care access of vulnerable groups, migration were among the main issues discussed. The presentation of Georgi Nikolov was assessed as useful and provoked discussion. Right after that was presented the short video Profession “Health mediator”, shooted few months age in Bulgaria within the project EQUI HEALTH of International Organisation of Migration.

By the end of the year 4 more Health mediators will travel abroad for experiance exchange. Angel Mihaylov from Plovdiv will visit Germany. In the middle of November 2014 Katya Kirilova (Blagoevgrad), Antoaneta Eftimova (Blagoevgrad) and Sabire Ramadan (Septemvri Municipality) will go to Brussels (Belgium) and Lille (France) to learn more about French and Belgian experiance in work with vulnerable communities and migrants.