During 2006 the activities of the Foundation were focused on the stabilization of the organization itself and on the further qualification of its stuff. IRBF took active participation in the creation and development of the Bulgarian Platform for Official Development Aid. At the same time, it continued enhancing the network of partners, web hosting activities and trainings.

The Team

At the beginning of 2006 the team underwent a number of changes. IRBF has a new executive director , Tatyana Goranova, and since October, new five- member board of directors, Mathew Lutfi, Christina Haralalanova, Tatyana Goranova, Chris Bailey. The partners: GERT, Zaedno- Education for Support and Development, “Strategies” magazine and Blagodeyatel Foundation.

The projects

1. Free and Open Source Project for Voluntary and Community Sector in the East of England (November 2005- June 2006). The IRBF team organized trainings on local NGOs from East England, for using Linux and free software programs. During January – June 2006 The Legal Case Management Software Project, which is to use legal case management, was adapted for usage of local English NGOs.

2. The news portal Social Rights Bulgaria continued to be developed and by the end of the year the unique visits were no less than 1200. It was a regularly updated source of news and analyses, thus it turned out to be one of a kind media, oriented towards the citizens and the NGOs. The newsletter, issued monthly, is now received by over 150 people

3.The project ZamirZine Website Development( June- November 2006), as part of the project NGO- Bulgaria. The web site was directed towards the civil society and the civil political culture.

Activities

 March- December 2006 - participation in the establishment and the work of the Bulgarian Platform for Official Development Aid, meetings with representatives of MFA and MF and seminars, organized by TRIALOG and Grupa Zagranica

 02- 03 June - interaction with the representatives of the European Social Platform in Bulgaria

 24-29 July - „Study Visit in Poland“, organized by Grupa Zagranica- the Polish platform for official development aid

 11- 15 September – a number of meetings and exchange of know- how with Irish NGOs, conducted in Sofia

 09- 11 October – participation in Development Education Partnership Fair in Vienna and consequently writing a project proposal with NGOs from Greece, Latvia, Romania and Ireland

 January- December 2006 – media report and analyses of the activities, organized by NGOs and finished projects like “European Social Forum – Athens 2007”, the competition “Benefactor of 2006”, program” Thenapa”, program “E-ten”, project “E- Rider”, project “Scate- Socrates”, project ”Finding and Presenting Roma Talents in Municipality Botevgrad”, program “Safer Internet Plus” , round table GERT, etc.

During the past year, the team of FIRB was active in project- writing and in lobbying on local and international level with partners and friends. Also, we wrote publications for Linux Magazine, Social Rights Bulgaria and sent monthly newsletters, translated in Bulgarian, English and French. During the second half of the year, FIRB acquired coordinating status on the project WITT, starting in January 2007.

International Participations

- 22-25 February 2006 - training on the strategic use of communication and information technologies by women, Prague, Czech Republic;

- 04-07 May - participation and media coverage of “European Social Forum- Athens 2006”. The articles are available on the web site of Social Rights Bulgaria in Bulgarian and English;

 04-07 May 2006 - participation in international seminar Globalization, Sustainable Development and Trade Seminar, Prague, Czech Republic, and presentation, titled ”Exploitation of labour force in Bulgarian textile industry”;

 05-06 - training on “Writing Convincing Project Proposals under international programs”;

 21- 25 August 2006 - participation and presentation in international woman conference Know-How Conference 2006: Weaving the information society: A multicultural and gender perspective, Mexico;

 20-22- October 2006 “Training on Project Writing of European Programs”;

 13-15 November 2006 - ” Training on management and organizational development of NGOs”;

 04-06- December 2006 Training “Developing projects and filling–out annexes for application under EU calls”, Vilnius, Lithuania.

Support and Partnership

In 2006 FIRB supported many initiatives in the social, ecological and cultural sphere in Bulgaria. The most important of which FIRB was a media partner for:

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