Sport Club for Integration (S.C.I.) "Vitosha"

VIEWS – International network and took part in Liege, Belgium

Source: S.C.I. Vitosha

A group from SCI Vitosha took part in an international exchange between 6th – 16th July 2012. The exchange was organised within the VIEWS – international network and took part in Liege, Belgium. The group leadership was shared between Galina Krasteva and Nikola Bakalov. Viktoria Dimitrova and Stela Stefanova and Anita Nakova were participants. Aleksander Borisov was a volunteer. He successfully helped not only the Bulgarian group but contributed to the smooth operation of the whole exchange. Besides the hosts from Belgium and the Bulgarian group, there were also groups from Italy, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia.

The name of the project was “Learning to see again”. This topic included various activities, the aim of which was for the participants to express themselves and to share with the others their unique talents. The photography workshop was among the most popular activities. Victoria and Alexander made a very distinguishable contribution to this workshop as they not only took photographs, but also selected and arranged works for the exhibition. Anita, Stela and Galina were very active participants in the dance group. Nikola was a percussionist within the amateur music group. In the end the dance and the music group synchronised their creations into a common performance and from their harmonious work emerged various successful improvisations. Other activities included tandem-biking, massage, yoga, jewellery making workshop and a workshop dedicated to Hungarian folk and dance. Traditionally there were national presentations. An interesting detail however, was that instead of presenting their own country, each group had to present another country. The Bulgarians presented Belgiium by means of a game of free association and other games. Bulgaria was presented by Hungary with tasty tarator and an interesting quiz.

Our group contributed with two workshops. One was organised by Nikola and Galya using the model of Psychologist Carl Rogeers. The workshop’s aim was that participants discuss and share tips on how they communicate with non-visully - impaired friends without their disability mattering. The other workshop was prepared and delivered by Nikola and aimed at giving practical tips to participants on how to find a good job (interviewing skills, internships and CV preparation, etc.). Participants said were very interested in this and gave a very positive feedback about the way it was delivered.

Nikola Bakalov