Bulgaria

Bulgarian Team, sport club "Gram v Raya" Svilengrad

Posters from Bulgarian Team 

Research in the area

We have made research about inclusive sport clubs in our region. Sadly there are no such clubs near us. Only inclusive clubs that we can find are concentrated in bigger cities, such as Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas and other. One of the club/organization we managed to get in touch online, was FAPA. https://fapabbs.eu/en/ 

FAPA stands for "Federation of Adapted Physical Activity Bulgaria". It is the first sport organization in Bulgaria, which creates conditions and lasting habits for sports and high sports achievements for young people with mental disabilities, through adapted methods and techniques. The sports organization was founded in 2015. From 2015 until now, FAPA annually organizes and holds the Integrated Children's Sport Festival " YOU ARE A PART OF US" with the emphasis always placed on the integration of children and youth with disabilities, children deprived of parental care, children with developmental delays from homes and normal children.

Of course, we did not give up on our home city and we dig deeper for any kind of clubs working with children who have any kind of disadvantages in sports. Even though, Chess is not considered as sport, in our city Svilengrad, we have a club for Chess. Chess club " Svilengrad 2013" was founded in 2013 by Manol Yanchev. We visited their club, sadly they were on a summer vacation, so we talked with Mr. Yanchev on the phone, just for some information. Mr. Yanchev shared with us that the club has 25 active children, boys and girls, divided in five age gaps. He also said it is really hard to find more enthusiasts for Chess, because for the youngsters it seems boring activity. Even with not that many children, they have managed to reach many golden trophies.

And one more club in our region, which for the past few years have started working in diversity direction. We would like to present you the Cheerleader dance club " Izida Unak". Founded in the far 2003, by Ivanka Mitkova and Petya Karagyozova, they have worked hard during the years to reach high results in their sphere. Both founders are working currently in our schools Vocal Highschool "Hristo Botev" and "Dr. Petar Beron" as physical education teachers. In the hours after school they are spending in preparing their cheerleaders for competitions and tournmanets. Since they have tried to take part in bulgarian national programs, they have involved inclusion in their activities. Mixing boys and girls in their performance. On the photos you will see some of our participants, who loved their activity so much, that they took part in an tournament and won first prize, being awarded by the President of Republic Bulgaria.

With so little opportunities we have reached our limit, sadly we, as nation, do not realize how important are the little souls, being born with any kind of disadvantages. We have opened our eyes more towards them.

And now we would like to share our activities before coming to Cyprus.

On this photo, we have gathered, so our leaders can present the project and every details about it.