Young women from five countries will participate in educational research activities in Ruse. This innovative training is part of the international Virago project * /https://viragoproject.eu/, funded by the ERASMUS + program. It is organized by the Association “Parallel Silistra”, one of the Bulgarian partners in the project.
From Tuesday, May 17 to Friday, May 20, 2022, young women from Spain, Italy, Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria will learn how to actively participate in community life. They will develop skills for leadership, application of new technologies and entrepreneurship.
In the beginning, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the other Bulgarian partner, will greet the participants.
TRAINING METHODOLOGY
The program provides acquaintance with the principles of project planning, development of leadership skills and active citizenship. These are some of the priorities in the EU’s Youth Strategy. The training leader, international youth trainer Alexandra Lyutskanova will use interactive approaches for joint project initiatives. Through the “deep history” approach, participants will be involved in interactive research activities on sites of the cultural and historical heritage of the city and the park “Rusenski Lom”. Thus, they will “discover” landmarks for Ruse and study their historical ties with their own countries.
Using the STEM approach (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), young women will expand their knowledge of chemistry to analyze air pollution in Ruse. “What we breathe” is a topic, which is both historically significant for the city and part of the EU’s GO GREEN policy. And to enrich their entrepreneurial skills, the girls will visit the fashion company BTB Bulgaria. There they will talk to the administrative director Stella Lecheva.
Dr Diana Bebenova-Nikolova, a lecturer at the University of Ruse, Silistra branch and the marketing expert Lora Sargsyan developed the STEM approach research activities.
PROJECT PARTNERS
The leading partner in the Virago project is the Se Poate Association, Romania. The other partners are the Ministry of Youth and Sports and NGO “Parallel-Silistra” https://paralel-silistra.net, Bulgaria, the Municipality of Medina del Campo, Spain; the NGO “Mine Vaganti”, Italy and the University of Osmanie, Turkey.
*The word VIRAGO means a woman who demonstrates leadership qualities.