On July 30, 31 and August 1, a training of local labor mediators on the BRIGHT project was held in Montana. It was attended by 17 women, including health mediators from 5 municipalities in Montana region, youth mediators, representatives of the Montana District Administration - specialists in regional development and gender equality, representatives of the Local Commission for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, representatives of NGOs, the Municipal Council on Narcotic Substances and other institutions.
It turned out that some of them worked in agriculture abroad, others work with women who plan to travel or have already traveled for seasonal work. The training, led by Stanimira Hadjimitova - director of Center for Sustainable Communities Development and and Valentina Vasilyonova - Deputy Chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions in Agriculture, passed more than successfully and undoubtedly managed to influence all present women.
Topics covered included the economic empowerment of mobile workers, social protection mechanisms in the EU, labor and social rights, how to identify and avoid the pitfalls of human trafficking, which are the support institutions and organizations in Bulgaria and Italy, which are the dangers. and the pitfalls of mobile workers - handling information on the Internet and how to search for the right information.
At the end of the training, 6 plans for regional information meetings with women, mobile workers from all over the region were developed. They will be held in August.
The participants in the training shared their experience and that of the women they work with from first hand and were extremely active and curious. Much of the course was spent discussing and drawing up specific requests from the local mediators. At the end of the three-day meeting, certificates of participation were handed out, and local labor mediators shared that they feel informed and empowered to act actively from now on in their work with seasonal workers and encourage them to seek their rights and respect their work.