2295 people live in the village of Vakarel. Due to the distance isolation of the village from the municipal centre, as well as lack of regular transport to the village, most of the people from Vakarel have to travel long-distances trips to the municipality centre town, in order to get access to information or electronic services, which took a lot of time and efforts. That also brings upon bigger financial costs, necessary for the timely access to information and services. For years now, the village has been suffering from access to timely information through the new technologies.
The project implementation started with the overall renovation and reconstruction of a room, in order to transform it into a suitable space for an office. These activities were accomplished with the active support and contribution of community centre s staff and young volunteers. The office was equipped with a computer, copying machine and printer, as well as furnished accordingly. This equipment allowed the provision of a basic range of administrative services to the citizens, such as copying and printing documents, filling application and administrative documents, etc. Another service, available within the office, was the access to Internet, through a regular subscription for Internet provision. The community centre registered its own e-mail address: [email protected].
In order to guarantee the long-term sustainability of the project, a user fee has been introduced, amounting on 0.06 lv./page for copying services and 0.10 lv./page for printing services. These services are free of charge for students and pensioners.
The project initiated an annual registration within the znam.bg the Bulgarian knowledge portal, in order to meet the particular needs for knowledge and information of the young people. The service has been frequently used by students in the process of graduation papers development. The access to the portal is also free of charge for the students.
Another project activity was the design and preparation of two information leaflets, together with a general presentation of the information centre through pro-active media campaign and distribution of materials to the citizens both in Vakarel and Ihtiman.
The project team established god working relations with the Social Care Directorate and as of 1 March 2006 the Information Centre were provided various types of forms and documents, which were most frequently used by the citizens for access to social r administrative services by the institutions (declarations for monthly child-care support, declaration for maternity leave social support, social care for single mothers, child-birth support, social integration declarations, requests for financial support for heating costs for socially weak people, etc.). All the different declarations, requests and administrative or social services documentation is available in the Information centre.
Each Tuesday the Centre hosts free of charge consultations and advice to disabled people (within the Disabled People Act); consultations in the field of social, health and minority issues, as well as providing information from relevant institutions, such as the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy ( Mobile Consultative Centre project).
A strong interest towards the Centre activities has been registered among the young people, who can easily find all the information they need from various Internet sources, on-line data-bases and search engines (www.znam.bg; www.dechica.bg). Of great value would be the forth-coming possibility related to the publication of the educational textbooks on-line this would further increase the learning process and facilitate the access to modern methods of learning.
Due to the project implementation, the population of the village of Vakarel got access to information in various fields: social care, health care; business information; agricultural information; employment opportunities; administrative services and submission of documents to the Social Care Directorate, the Labour Bureau Directorate; the National Social Security Institute.
The project results and achievements have been presented to the Mayor of the Municipality of Ihtiman and during regular sessions of the Municipal Council.
The total amount of the project was 3 000 lv., 82 % of which were provided by the Foundation for Local Government Reform through the Improvement of the Social Environment Programme, supported by Charles Steward Mott Foundation; 18 % of the project budget were provided by the Zarya community centre as own contribution.
The project results have been with great local value. 5 to 10 visits are registered daily in the Centre. Another aspect in the project implementation has been the fruitful cooperation with the Mayor of the Municipality, the Municipal Administration, and the Municipal Council. The project gained support and popularisation also through the FLGR information newsletter and this created new partnership contacts with other organisation, such as the ZORA 1899 community centre, village of Nikyup, Municipality of Veliko Turnovo.
The establishment of the Information Centre is an adequate response to the existing needs from actual and timely access to information from national or regional social institutions; the citizens of Vakarel had the possibility to obtain consultations and advice on their legal rights, to get familiar with various job opportunities; and access interesting information through Internet.
Contacts:
Manoela Zafirova
Secretary of the Zarya Community Centre,
Village of Vakarel
Municipality of Ihtiman
7 St. Patriarh str.
Tel./fax: (07143) 2773
[Nominate]
back