This project aims to present the daily lives and struggles of the Syrian refugee population in Bulgaria by creating an online blog in Bulgarian and English, which is to be filled with pictures and stories from the refugee camps. The purpose is to get the Bulgarian public acquainted with their problems. The idea is to provide up to 10 people with smartphones to create picture and video content, which is then to be edited and translated from Arabic to Bulgarian and English and disseminated through social networks and other online tools.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Sofia and refugee camps in other towns
Describe the specific population with whom you will be working.
Since the summer of 2013 Europe has witnessed an increasing number of refugees from the Syrian conflict. More than 11000 people have arrived only in Bulgaria, creating a never seen before situation in the former closed Socialist country. The situation has created tensions and has fuelled the rise of far-right xenophobic groups. Moreover, the voices of the refugee community have not been heard, which has led to their marginalisation from society, making them unable to integrate. Furthermore, the lack of information about the refugees has led to lack of public pressure on the state authorities, which are in part responsible for the terrible living conditions and absent social support . The refugee community is familiar with internet and online media.
Who else will be on your team to help implement the project?
The main idea is to include up to 10 people from the refugee community itself, covering all the major refugee camps. A training will be held on how to produce better online content, which will further empower the target group on continuing the project after the initial phase.
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
The aim of the project is to prove that being a refugee is not much different than being an ordinary citizen. The members of the community have the same problems as the members of the majority living in a certain country – they study, work and play. Example stories include the struggle to continue one's education, how to find work when you don't speak the language and have no friends, and how does love look in a refugee camp.
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established or plan to establish that will contribute to the success of the project.
I have well established connections with the State Agency for Refugees, which is controlling the access to refugee camps, so getting in is not a problem. In addition to this, I have very good connections with different NGOs and volunteers, who are working with the refugee community. Finally, I have personal connections to people in different camps, who would help me identify the most suitable participants in this project.
How many participants do you think will be trained in your project?
I aim for 10 people, who would be trained in face to face visits to different refugee camps. They will be mostly young people, who can work well with smartphones. Their participation is to be sustained by enabling them to do something creative and important in their daily lives, which are currently uneventful.
Describe which technologies, tools, and media you will focus on when training participants.
Mobile smartphones are easily available, and most of all, they are very cheap. Additional training on how to frame a shot, and how to upload it with text will be held. This is the most appropriate technology for this project, because it will keep the participants in the community without distancing them from other fellow members.
Describe the facilities where you will hold the workshops.
All of the refugee camps have common rooms with internet, where the workshops can be held with permission from the camp authorities.
What is your current relationship with the community with whom you plan to work? What makes you the most appropriate individual or organization to implement this project?
I am a journalist with several years of experience, specialising in Arab affairs (I speak Arabic). After the refugee wave began in the summer of 2013, I have been closely involved with the community from a professional and volunteer perspective. In addition to this, I am the 2014 Fellow of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) for investigative journalism, with a focus on Syrian refugees. This means I will be following the issues in Bulgaria and elsewhere in Europe closely for the coming months.
What specific challenges do you expect to face when planning and implementing your project?
The main challenge is to convince the refugee community that they need more online coverage to tell their stories. In addition to this, the State Agency for Refugees could become suspicious, because the content could unearth some unpleasant stories of corruption, negligence and so on. But everything can be handled if presented well.
How will you measure and evaluate the project’s impact, specifically: your primary participants, the wider regional community, or the global digital community?
Success will be defined by the number of visitors to the online platform, which will host the stories and the comment section.
If your project were to be selected as a Rising Voices grantee, what would be the general timeline of project activities in 2014?
May-June – obtaining government permits and identifying participants
July – workshops and start of coverage
August – December – search engine optimisation and social network dissemination of the content
Detail a specific budget of up to $2,500 USD for operating costs.
1000$ – 10 smartphones
200$ – workshop organisation and travel costs
300$ – editing expenses (translation into Bulgarian/English and publishing it online)
Besides the microgrant funding, what other support can Rising Voices provide for your project to ensure its success?
Some Search Engine Optimisation tips would be very useful
Contact name
Krassimir Yankov
1 comment
Wonderful idea. BUT – only Syrians?! It is true that at the moment most asylum seekers are from Syria. But in previous years the most were from Afganistan, Iraq, etc. There are still lots of people coming from other war-thorn areas in the world and it is very, very dangerous to limit the attentions to Syrians only. This reenforces institutional effort to delegitimize the asylum claims of people from elsewhere, who are now being deported en masse and refused status. They share the same faith. Maybe even worse because now the humanitarian efforts are focused primarily on Syrians.