In July 2020, the Bulgarian Fund for Women, with the support of the Global Fund for Women, conducted an intensive training Feminist Boot Camp in which took part 17 participants aged between 16 and 35 from 12 different towns and villages. The course of lectures covered many topics on women’s rights and the history of women’s movements, feminism and protection against discrimination.
The Feminist Boot Camp format is part of the long-term program of the BFW for empowerment of young women and girls. The Camp was the first and theoretical stage of the initiative. After its completion, participants had the opportunity to put into practice what they have learned by developing their own project related with women empowerment and achievement of gender equality. The contestants were competing for a prize of up to BGN 3,000 to realize their ideas and initiatives.
Within the internal competition for Feminist Boot Camp 2020 project ideas, 9 applications were received. After careful evaluation and discussion, the team of the Bulgarian Fund for Women decided to finance 4 initiatives.
The decision was made on tha basis of the following criteria: definition of the problem; compliance of the idea with the feminist priorities of the competition; compliance of the proposed activities with the expected results; realistic budget; implementation capacity; impact and sustainability of proposed activities.
Here are the selected projects that will be financed by BFW:
Podcast PoliFem – Katerina Vasileva (Blagoevgrad). The project will create a podcast dedicated to women’s participation in politics in Bulgaria and around the world. It will consist of ten episodes and will tell the stories of women with a strong political presence in the past and today.
“RFZH Poprelki” – Neziha Huteva (Chepintsi). The project aims to create a women’s association to deal with various issues related to women. Trainings and campaigns will be organized, women will be encouraged to participate actively in civic activities. Women who are victims of any kind of violence or discrimination will be supported.
“Big Deal (Job)” – Rosena Ivanova (Sofia). The initiative connects artists and representatives of socially important work sectors. After a workshop with the participants, the artists will be able to produce materials under the motto “Big Deal (Job)”. Some of the professions with which the project will engage are: cleaning staff, nurses, seamstresses, caregivers, social workers, babysitters, housewives. Most of the above are classified as “staff employed in services for the population” and according to the National Statistical Institute are among the lowest paid classes of jobs, with an average gross wage of BGN 2.89 per hour, as well as the most disproportionately employed by women.
“Fighting Mother” – Steliyna Tonchevska-Marinova (Varna). The “Fighting Mother” project consists of identifying the problems of pregnant women in Bulgaria and informing the general public about how everyone can be an ally of pregnant women in their environment. This will happen in three stages, the first of which is a study on the problems encountered by pregnant women in Bulgaria. The second stage will be the preparation of information videos on the identified problems and how everyone can help to solve them. The third will be the involvement of local institutions on the issues of the pregnant women in the city of Varna.
