On November 15, 2019 a final meeting of the INTEGRA local stakeholder group was held to evaluate the achievements and to plan follow-up activities for the integration of third-country nationals (TCN) in Sofia. The meeting was attended by the participants in the local stakeholders integration group (SIG), the public mediator of Sofia Municipality, representatives of municipal committees, representatives of UNHCR, BCRM, IOM, non-governmental organizations. Sevdalina Voinova, SDA Project Coordinator, presented the creative tools developed by the project partners - they include videos, handouts for organizing debates and discussions, electronic and paper versions of a card game on migration, calendars, and…

In 2019, once again, Bulgaria commemorates November as the Refugee Month, to recognize the courage of these individuals escaping persecution, conflict, and desperate poverty, some of whom look for a chance to rebuild their lives in our community. By tradition, Sofia Development Association is a partner of the initiative Refugee Month. On November 14th, 2019, we hosted in SofiaLab a second INTEGRA day - a series of community celebration events. “Community Drum Circle” was organized by Creators Association in partnership with SDA and with the support of IOM. Over 50 people from various nationalities took turns to play drums and…

Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin, born on August 21, 1973 in Moscow, Russia, is an American computer scientist and entrepreneur who created, along with Larry Page, the online search engine Google, one of the most successful sites on the Internet. The Brin family lived in a three-room apartment in central Moscow. In 1977, after his father returned from a mathematics conference in Warsaw, Poland, Mikhail Brin announced that it was time for the family to emigrate. They formally applied for their exit visa in September 1978, and as a result his father was "promptly fired". For related reasons, his mother had to…

On November 9th , Sofia Development Association took part in the official establishment of the Association of Africans and Their Friends in Bulgaria (AAFB). At the event the current and the future activities of the newly set up association were presented. AAFB aims to provide mutual assistance of its members, to strengthen the relationships between them and the host society, and to support their full-right participation in the local life. The organization will be working on the integration of its members through different activities such as intercultural exchanges, concerts, travelling and cultural events. INTEGRA team welcomed the Association and presented…