The Municipal Social Strategy project, which has been implemented by the Business Centre Peshtera, is a model for the development of a strategy for the disabled people within the municipality, which corresponds to the existing demands of the civil society. For the Municipality of Peshtera the elaboration of this Strategy was a necessity, since significant parts of the population of the municipality are disabled people.

The Municipality of Peshtera is famous for its mixed ethnic structure of the population; the largest ethnic groups are these of the Bulgarians, the Roma, the Turkish and the A rmuni. With the implementation of the Ethnic Culture Club project has been encouraged the active citizen participation and equal representation of minority ethnic groups within the local community. Through a series of meetings, debates, training seminars, on-site visits and study tours, and involvement in the process of development of a stable institutional framework for participation of all ethic groups in the decision-making, the local social capacity has been strengthened and the first initiatives for common actions of the informal leaders - stimulated.

The project team managed to mobilise the people from the village into a common initiative, in order to renovate an old and out-of-use room within the village library, which turned into the first and only for the village Communication Club, where young people find interesting ways to make a better use of their leisure time through access to computers and possibilities to take part in computer training courses. The Club provides new opportunities for the elderly people in the village as well they can get access to various administrative services and participated in a new type of social events. So far their favourite form of entertainment is watching Bulgarian movies, once a week at the Club.

The project was focused on these Roma children within the students of the Otsets Paisii high-school, who were most endangered from dropping out and whose integration in the community was most difficult. In addition to that the project was aiming at providing better possibilities for creative activities for the Roma children through regular after-classes activities based on their natural interest towards music, art, sports and theatre. The project succeeded in keeping the Roma children in the learning process, preventing a great number of children dropping out.

With the implementation of the project, the community centre in the village of Kapitan Dimitrievo managed to overcome the information isolation of the population from the village, ensuring Internet access and new communication and information channels. Many local organizations and institutions benefited from this new possibility: the local school, the mayoralty administration, the local health-care institution, the children-garden, many families, and also the school in the neighbouring village of Radilovo. Computer literacy has been introduced by the United Nations as one of the basic criteria for basic human skills, together with the writing and reading literacy. The lack of Internet access in the village leads to the information isolation and marginalisation of a whole population group. These two elements of the contemporary social policies were the grounds for the project idea and implementation.

The main project objective was to improve the living conditions and the quality of the care provided to the children within the home for mentally disabled children in the village of Gorna Koznitsa. In order to ensure long-tern sustainability for the implementation of this mission, an NGO has been registered as a part of the project activities. The main goal of the newly registered non-governmental organisation is to increase the awareness and change the attitudes towards the problems of the disabled children and raise the commitment and support on behalf of the local population, while at the same time opening the doors of the child facility for many people and children from the village. One of the rooms within the children s facility has been completely renovated and turned into a modern rehabilitation centre. Of great significance to the realisation of the project objectives was the employment of a new person within the child facility, a social assistant, who can help the daily work of the personnel, taking care of 57 children. A large variety of activities have been undertaken, which helped the more active integration of these children to the community: exhibitions, visits, concerts, charity campaigns initiated from the children from other schools within the municipality.

The main objective of the project was to achieve optimal and efficient results in combating the massive spread of parasites among domestic animals (sheep, goats) through coordinated activities among the population and the municipal administrations. As a result from the project activities the overall effectiveness of the actions combating the spread of parasites on the domestic animals has increased. These results were achieved through the joint utilisation of the available local resources the media and volunteers mostly young people, the institutions and local organisations. The effect from the implemented actions has been long-lasting engagement of the attention of the people and raising the awareness on the problem. Within the project implementation were mobilised all available resources to increase the healthcare culture of the population and its inclusion in the various activities.

For a period of 8 months disabled children were actively involved in free time initiatives and natural social inclusion into the community by means of an innovative approach, based on socialisation through arts and various communication techniques, fostering better life and professional realisation. These activities and work with the children also helped the raise of confidence of the youngsters and their integration in the society working with local craftsmen and getting to know better the local traditions and culture and using innovative ways of work.

For a first time ever in the village of Ilindentsi has been established a daily child centre I can do this! , which provided broad possibilities for the young people and pupils from the village to be involved in creative and entertainment activities. More than 40 children took part in the activities of the Centre. Among the main areas, in which several interest groups have been formed, were folklore, drawing, creative art and sports. The active involvement of the children and their high interest in after-school activities came to show that the Child Centre is a successful initiative creating good opportunities for the young people in the community and at the same time a new formula to encourage their social life.