The Project

Volunteering in Europe for Social Inclusion project aims to promote volunteering in social integration of vulnerable groups: children without families, handicapped people, people discriminated for their origin, religion or other reasons. The 6 partner volunteer organizations from 4 EU countries: Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia and Italy gather together to exchange best practices in social inclusion and open a debate on possible partnerships with stakeholders to expand the existing networks and foster wider participation through volunteering.

 

The tradition of volunteering has been lost in the East European countries during the communist regime and was replaced by forced "volunteering". Today it is still very difficult to restore the culture of volunteering. Thousands of retired teachers, doctors, students and young people are willing to help those who are in need, but do not trust populist campaigns collecting funds. The best alternative for them is be to be directly engaged in volunteer activities to help children in the institutes grow in a normal social environment, help handicapped children and adults develop their abilities and independence, help elderly live in dignity. The VESI project is a project to exchange best practices and learn from the Italian experience but also to inspire and motivate those who fight every day with the negativism and bureaucracy in the new member states.

VESI is the project acronym, but Vesi is also the name of a handicapped imaginary girl who lived all her life in an institute. She knew only children like her and the institute employees. She did not know volunteers to help her grow and learn. This project is a voice to all people willing to help children like Vesi to have a normal life. The value of volunteering for the society as a whole in these cases is far beyond the present moment.

VESI project fosters an awareness raising campaign for social inclusion through volunteering reaching thousands of ordinary citizens.

 

 

Project partners

Comitato Regionale UISP Liguria develops sport for all in the region of Liguria, providing the possibility to children, elderly people, handicapped, women, immigrants to practice sport at amateur level. It offers to individuals of all ages the possibility to practice physical exercises with the aim of better health, quality of life and social participation. The Sport for all puts at first place the needs of citizens and not technical achievements.

 

UISP Liguria belongs to the Uisp (Unione Italiana Sport Per tutti) which interprets a new right of citizenship; it belongs to the life policies.

UISP Liguria promotes the social value of sport. Solidarity, inclusion and socialization through sport are encouraged in a number of projects for immigrants and handicapped people. UISP Liguria participates in initiatives involving towns and cities in Italy and abroad: Vivicittà, Giocagin, Bicincittà, Sport in piazza, and supported by Unicef, WWF, Legambiente, Aism and Amnesty International.

Other project partners:

Nagual Association from Slatina ,Romania

Romanian Judo Association

School for handicapped children from Bucharest, Romania

Estonian Judo Association

Bulgarian Judo Association

Day centers for handicapped people in Sofia and Plovdiv, Bulgaria

TV SAT Bulgaria

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VESI Workshop

Dates of workshop: 1-6 March 2011

Place of workshop: Cremona and Genoa, Italy

Participants: Psychologists working with handicapped people and other disadvantage groups

Judo trainers working or willing to work with handicapped people

Representatives of local TV companies

Representatives of NGOs for social inclusion

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Follow up

Two months after the VESI workshop Rositsa Georgieva, Director of Day Centre for Handicapped People “Saint George” in Plovdiv and judo trainer Peter Petrushev have launched Judo club for handicapped people at the premises of the centre. “Sport for handicapped people can be extremely useful and it needs to be promoted in Bulgaria” says Ms Georgieva. “Our people are really enjoying training judo and it has very positive effects on them. I hope this initiative can be further developed and more handicapped people can benefit from it.”

 

“VESI is the project that gave excellent results in a very short time - less than 3 months after the seminar in Italy two judo clubs for handicapped people have been established, one in Plovdiv and one in Sofia. The success of the project was due to the right selection of participants: psychologists and judo trainers from the same town and the great inspiration that Maestro Pino Tisini (UISP Liguria) and George Sozzi (UISP Cremona) have transferred to participants. VESI project is an excellent example of volunteering for social inclusion and how sport can be used for educating active European citizenship.“- Lucia Veleva, chairperson of Courage Foundation, promoter of VESI project.

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Media Review

Manlio Comotto reflected the meeting of Cremona Mayor Oreste Perri, Municipality councilor Luigi Amore, Project coordinator Lucia Veleva and VESI workshop participants: “It is a female name, and the acronym of an European project dedicated on volunteering for social inclusion…” Samurai magazine.

A documentary film has been produced by media partner TV SAT COM, Prodan Bozhinov – camera man (Alex Studio) and Eli Shopova – TV program director and journalist. A reportage from the workshop activities in Italy was broadcasted by TV SAT KOM in Bulgaria. Those who interested to have a copy of the film are invited to contact Courage Foundation in Plovdiv on tel. +359 32 630773 or Alex Studio at +359 899908286

 

 

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