The project sets out to provide minority women at risk from four regions in Bulgaria with a working self-representation mechanism by imparting the group of minority women with practical skills and knowledge granting them better access to the decision-making process at both local and national levels. Four Local Advocacy Groups and a National Women Network and a Task Force of trained representatives of the target group and experts from local and national NGOs and institutions were set up to serve as instruments for skills acquisition, increased participation in policy formation and better representation of the minority women’s agenda.

The project was carried out by the Institute for Integration Support in partnership with the Center of Women’s Studies and Policies. The project team gathered active women of different ethnic origin, social status, level of education and occupation in Krumovgrad, Breznitsa, Lom and Razgrad. They partners worked in close cooperation with the non-governmental organizations in the four pilot areas (NGO Center – Razgrad, Roma Foundation – Lom, NGO Center – Kurdjali and Business Incubator – Gotse Delchev), and with the local and regional authorities to develop strategies and mechanisms for improving the participation of women of minority origin in the decision making process.

One of the concrete results is the website www.gerdan.org which presents the 4 regions, the women and their lifestyle, as well as the results of the project. The project team wanted the genuine voice of the women to be heard and thus to present by themselves their regions, communities and the issues of concern.

The project ended with a final national meeting: National Empowerment Initiative for Women which was held in Princess Hotel, Sofia on 29-30 July 2004. It gathered all participants in the project, experts, NGOs, representatives of government institutions, national media, etc. The aim of the meeting was to share with the broader public the experience under the project and the women with different ethnic origin from the four locations to present their agenda. This agenda was summarized in a Charter worked out and passed by the participants in the meeting.

The project was implemented with the financial assistance of the European Community.

Phare Civil Society Development Programme 2001, Phare Project BG 0104.03