For IRBF, 2004 was a milestone year, in which we have organised a number of events in Bulgaria, as well we took part in others, mainly abroad. A number of projects were started, and also great partnerships were established.

IRBF team

The IRBF team in 2004 has grown significally. Mathieu Lutfy has started actively enhancing the ICT network, providing technical solutions on how it will work more efficiently. Maria Velichkova, an Editor and journalist has joined the team, working mainly on the Social Rights contents, and organising local activities.

After the middle of the year, withing a couple of projects, IRBF has had more than 8 people staff, among which a web-designer and specialised software developers and translators.

Projects

1. NGO Bulgaria Project, self-funded by IRBF and aiming at providing server space to local organisations for hosting their websites. The project aims at educating the NGOs on work with Internet and in a network, as well as to answer some vital questions they ask with respect to their use of Internet and ICTs.
2. Organising and leading of a Training Exchange Event for women and technologies in Sofia, Bulgaria (December - March 2004)
3. Information portal for people with disabilities, with accordance to the level "A" of the accessibility principles and allowing the access to web-documents for people with disabilities. (february - April 2004). The portal was created by IRBF by request of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Bulgaria, through a Bulgarian NGO for people with disabilities called Consulting centre "Public mediator".
4. Legal Case Management Software Project, (August 2004 - June 2005) funded by the Information program of the Open Society Institute and aiming to be used by not-for-profit legal advice centres in order to make better follow-ups of their cases, including client consultations and court events.
5. IRBF has become the WITT Bulgaria Focal point for research and training of women in the use of ICTs and free software. (September 2004 - July 2005)
6. Social Rights Bulgaria project has evolved in a well maintained website, collecting information related to the social movements and the civil rights in Bulgaria. The project keeps growing despite of its voluntary context.

Activities

 January 31 - February 4, 2004, Training Exhcange Event for the use of Information and communication technologies (ICTs) by women from the Central and Eastern European region (CEE).

 April 19-23, 2004, Use of Free Software in a non-governmental context, a one week online training for international NGO and social movement representatives. The training was made in partnership with Virtual Activism, and it became possible with the voluntary help of both organisations.

 May 1, 2004, IRBF second anniversary.

 July 31 - August 2, 2004, Local training on the strategic use of ICTs by women from Bulgarian NGOs, held in Sofia and organised by IRBF team. Trainers: Christina Haralanova, Mathieu Lutfy.

 September 17-19, 2004, IRBF team participated in a training, held in Plovdiv about the Human rights protection with a session on the Cybercrime protection for children and young people.

 November 2004 - June 2005, within the WITT Bulgarian focal point, IRBF has performed a needs assessment research, related to the use of ICTs by women from Bulgarian NGOs. The results of the reseach has been printed in a brochure in June 2005.

International participation

April 16-18, 2004, Istanbul preparatory meeting for the next European Social Forum (ESF)

May 14-16, 2004, Christina Haralanova made a presentation about the work of IRBF and the women in the labour market in Bulgaria in an academic conference, organised by the Bolognia university, Italy. The topic of the conference was: Women at work in the net society.

June 18-20, 2004, Berlin preparatory meeting for the next European Social Forum (ESF)

September 21-27, 2004, Niamey, Niger - IRBF presentation about our work and the situation of the NGOs in Bulgaria. The event was about Human Rights and democracy. It had more than 60 participants from about 28 countries, mostly from Africa.

October 14-17, 2004, Maria Velichkova, Christina Haralanova and Mathieu Lutfy participated in the European Social Forum held in London. Maria and Christina took part of the team of 14 women, who made a media coverage of the event.