
On June 25, in implementation of the 2021 Program of the Local Commission for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings (LCCTHB) - Pleven was held one-day training for Roma mediators - labor, health, educational and social, from the districts of Pleven and Lovech. The topic of training was "Trafficking in human beings: causes, identification and protection of victims".
It was an opportunity the Roma mediators to be acquainted with the secretary and members of the LCCTHB - Pleven and the activities of the newest of the ten local commissions to combat trafficking in human beings in the country to be promoted.
The program included information on the establishment of the Commission at the end of 2017 and the reasons for this, exporting statistics on trafficking in human beings in Pleven region, promoting the National Mechanism for targeting and assisting victims of trafficking, presented by the Secretary of the LCCTHB- Pleven, Ivanka Vaceva.
Lecturers were experts from the Bulgarian Association for Family Planning (BFPA) - Dr. Radosveta Stamenkova - Executive Director of BFPA, and Ognyan Kamenov, Teodora Nikolova and Yavor Lilov from the International Organization for Migration - Sofia.
36 people participated in the training. 25 of them are Roma mediators - 10 health, 12 education and two labour mediators. They were from the municipalities of Pleven, Gulyantsi, Cherven Bryag, Dolni Dabnik, Iskar, Letnitsa, Lovech, Lukovit, Troyan and Ugarchin. Experts from municipal administrations - from Dolni Dabnik and Gulyantsi, a psychologist from the Directorate "Labor Office" - Pleven, the member of LCCTHB - Pleven Yana Licheva, who is an expert in the REM (Regional Education Management) - Pleven, a psychologist and a social worker from the Complex for Social Services, Crisis Center for Women and Children Victims of Violence - Pleven also participated.
The regional team of BFPA - Dr. Krasimir Romanov and the midwife Borislava Ivanova briefly took part in the training and talked about the services they offer specifically to help Roma girls and women from Pleven and Lovech.
The training passed with great interest.
The speakers presented videos on the topic. As well as the new IOM project "Raising awareness of local communities in areas with a significant Roma population on asylum and migration issues".
Especially highly appreciated by the participants themselves was the gathering in one place of mediators with different profile. Unlike health mediators, which are organised in a network, educational mediators do not have their own structure, usually work for a shorter time on municipal projects and fail to achieve lasting results.
Specific cases of trafficking in human beings were shared and typical forms of trafficking in different regions were outlined. The situation in Lukovit and the municipality is very complicated, which explains the large number of Roma mediators there - 13, 11 of whom attended the training in Pleven.
Information materials - flyers and posters were given to all participants in the training.
The training was held in a provided municipal hall in the building "Genea Dimitrova" in compliance with all anti-epidemic measures.