Association “Alternativi International” welcomed a group of volunteers in Blagoevgrad for a period of 40 days under the program European Solidarity Corps / ESC. “The Diversity Fest” project brought together young volunteers from Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Georgia and Turkey, who transformed the local environment with their presence. The focus of the project was to promote intercultural dialogue, diversity, tolerance and solidarity, raise awareness on human rights issues and hate speech and discrimination more specifically. The volunteers were working with local kids, organizing workshops for promoting peace, diversity and intercultural understanding and dialogue as well as activities for the leisure time of the youth from the local community.
During their stay in Bulgaria, the volunteers organized a number of workshops and initiatives for children and youth, participating in cooking and serving for disadvantaged people, cleaning the local park and restoring and renovating a kindergarten in a village.
The young volunteers organized the “Youth Caravan” campaign as well in Varna, Burgas, Plovdiv, Razlog and Blagoevgrad cities in Bulgaria. While meeting with hundreds of young people, they informed them about the programs for mobility, training and education for young people in Europe such as Erasmus+, ESC, Erasmus for young entrepreneurs.
As a result of the project, we have raised awareness about issues of human rights violations, informed thousands of youths about EU mobility programs; increased the visibility of ESC and Erasmus+ programs; promoted volunteering and increased the interest of local youth to volunteer.
