Organizing for Disability Issues in Bulgaria

Our week in Bulgaria has been just busy, busy, busy and our last full day in Sofia was no exception. Kristen and I met Stoyan, Nersi, other school staff and the yellow resource bus on a corner of boulevard Vitosha, and drove over to the Sofia Center for Inclusive Education, where we would spent the next several hours doing an organizing training for the National Association of Resource Teachers (NARU).

Stoyan is the secretary for NARU, and Peter Lazarov is a board member (Peter is also an occupational therapist). The chair is Kaloyan Damyanov, who is the principal of the Sofia Center for Inclusive Education, and with whom I had had a very nice exchange earlier in the week. Stoyan, Peter, Kaloyan and their colleagues are taking NARU beyond the status of “professional organization” to an organizing effort with some real force.  This was the purpose of the day’s workshop.

Last month, NARU leaders had met to develop a national platform for reforms in educating children with disabilities.  They also elected key leaders from the six regions of Bulgaria to build NARU’s organizing capacity and to raise the visibility of disability education across Bulgaria. These people, and others such as the local union leader, were among the approximately 15 workshop attendees.

Not only is NARU organizing disability educators across Bulgaria, but as Peter explained, the goal is for NARU to form an international organizing coalition with groups in five other Eastern European countries. NARU focuses on educating children with disabilities, but the other represent a range of interests in the region. Together, the idea is to bolster European community organizing in the East.

These are big ideas, but they also come at a time with the Bulgarian government is requiring a shift in special education---teachers will be assigned to specific schools rather than being homed in Centers for Inclusive Education. Special schools are either being dissolved or administratively assigned to regular schools. Institutions for children with disabilities are being phased out and children are being moved to group homes or foster care. By 2025, the Bulgarian government intends to close ALL institutions for children with disabilities. 

The transformation of the educational and living environment for children with disabilities is naturally causing tension for school staff, who must grapple with new requirements and are concerned with possibly losing their jobs. Because of the transition to democracy in 1989 and evolution of the modern Bulgarian school system, the whole sector has evolved and continues to evolve, with all the anxieties that change involves.

NARU’s organizing offers a possibly stabilizing opportunity for teachers and staff interested in children with disabilities.  As we in Chicago have seen with our public schools budget crisis and the rise in the power of the Chicago Teachers’ Union, crisis can offer an opportunity to make previously invisible issues ones of public importance.  This can help protect and defend the sector, and collect public support.

NARU’s core team that planned the day’s workshop has a very good balance of vision and personality. This was very apparent to me as Stoyan led off the workshop by explaining the day’s topic of community organizing, and how his experience at Access Living helped him think about what NARU needed.  When speaking formally, Stoyan is informative and well spoken, but I think people know that he is also funny and warm, and I think people in the room see him as a leader (I am very proud of you Stoyan!).  Peter presented the broader vision of what regional organizing could do, and its relationship to the international coalition---he is very serious and knowledgeable about this and I could hear the quiet in the room as the people listened.

At this point, it was my turn to present, and Mitko Ivanchev stood with me to translate into Bulgarian.  Mitko, by the way, is an exceptional and curious translator, and I hugely enjoyed working with him---he had even been learning some ASL.

I present, with Mitko Ivanchev translating.

 Participants talk to each other one-on-one.

I provided a presentation on the use of multiple strategies in advocacy, explaining what Access Living does and my role. I discussed the “Pitchfork” strategy, which will be familiar to many in ADAPT, as well as more detailed considerations for relationship building, media, teamwork, and planning. Then, I led the group in an exercise called the “Shopping Game,” designed to test a group’s collaboration.

The Shopping Game uncovered a need for one-on-ones, because as it turned out, many attendees did not know each other.  So I then assigned the group to divide into pairs and spend ten minutes talking to each other. At the end of the ten minutes, people reported on what they learned about their partners.  This conversation stimulated a lot of positive connections and I could see the group relaxing. They are, after all, used to listening to children and analyzing possibilities.

We then asked the attendees to stand up and describe their own positive skills and attributes as organizers in their communities. This was a little uncomfortable for some as many people put the interests of others ahead of themselves.  However, the people who talked about themselves did a wonderful job explaining their passions and abilities. For organizers, it is important to own one’s skills and abilities in the face of those who question us.  It is also important to own one’s weaknesses, but for today the focus was on positives.

At this point we also asked the group to spend a few minutes writing down ideas for themselves as NARU organizers for the next six months. As it turned out, many had the same ideas: one-on-ones, connecting NGOs, collecting stories for media, increasing visibility on social media, and more.  Many were very energized and we the NARU leaders and I were excited to see the group develop with new information and challenges.

*Unfortunately Kaloyan Damyanov was unable to attend the workshop, but my meeting with him earlier in the week gave me an impression of a man with great energy and assertiveness---an excellent choice to have as the chair of any effort.

Afterwards, a group of us ate lunch at an Italian place around the corner, which served some really American-tasting pizza. Delicious. Sadly, it was at this point that we had to part with Stoyan, Peter and Mitko. I wish that we had been able to stay together for a longer time, at such an important period for NARU. But I am happy with the work that we did get accomplished, and I am very interested to see what will happen next! This is not goodbye, my friends.

In particular, I would like to say to Stoyan: I am so impressed with the work you are doing in Bulgaria, and your country needs more people like you. It is clear that you have helped many people wake up to their own potential, both children and adults alike. You made both Kristen and I feel at home in Bulgaria, and everyone you asked to help us treated us with warmth and great courtesy. In so many ways you are a great role model and collaborator. I have a lot of hope for you, and I am so honored you took so much time to show me your home town and “the real Bulgaria.” Remember: as an organizer, you can make the dead walk.

After Kristen and I arrived back at the hotel, I met with Antoaneta “Toni” Nenkova, who was another of the Bulgarian Professional Fellows who came to Chicago last fall.  Toni took me to a café called “Confetti” and treated me to ice cream and a cappuccino. She is a journalist and human rights investigator who has been focused on the issue of institutionalized children in Bulgaria for the last 15 years.

 With Toni Nenkova.

I asked Toni what she thought that the deinstitutionalization movement needed from the US. Toni pointed out that the Bulgarian government is making the closure of institutions for children a top priority, and that by 2025 all Bulgarian institutions for children will be closed. But, what is needed right now in Bulgaria is expertise on social inclusion and integration for both children and adults in Bulgaria.  To this end, she had spent the last week in Amsterdam looking at adult day programs in the Netherlands. The US also has a lot to offer in this area.

Once Toni returned me to the hotel, it was time to go out for a final dinner with the US cohort in Bulgaria: Regina, Leah, Joanna,  Mike, Anthony plus Kristen and I. We went to a traditional Bulgarian restaurant called Manastirska Magernitsa and tried different Bulgarian specialties. Everyone was a little tired from doing trainings, seeing sights, and for some, staying up very late at night. Given that we had been spread out across Bulgaria for he last few days, it was good to see each other.

 The menu cover for Manastirska Magernitsa

At the end of dinner, our Bulgaria Country Director Emil Metodiev gave everyone a framed photo of themselves that he had taken. I would really, really like to thank Emil and also CEGA staff Vladi Petkov for their efforts to make a wonderful experience in Bulgaria this week. It has been a completely unforgettable stay in a country that is full of amazing experiences.  Thank you both so much!

And now, on to Hungary….