The third edition of the Gruntvig Partnership project for adult development has taken place in Lom, Bulgaria during the period of 8-12. September.
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The community foundations operating in the rural areas of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Romania and Poland have discussed topics of community development during this session of the partnership program.
Our host was the Lom Community Foudnation, who has invited the mayor of Lom and several significant supporters of the foundation to the opening of the discussions, meant to illustrate the achievements of the last five years of operations. We’ve been told that more than half of the population is of roma ethnicity, living on social support. There is only a moderate amount of economic activity in the area, most of the active population works in the state administration, a lot of people have migrated in the hope of a better life, so a lot of social services, like kindergartens and public schools rely heavily on the support received from the Community Foundation.
On the morning of the first day all participants have shared their experiences regarding community building activities and programs as part of an open group discussion, which was followed by a visit to two of the local kindergartens supported by the Lom Community Foundation.
The Lom Community Foundation harbors a very constructive relationship with the local government, respectively with the mayor of the town, their work is publicly acknowledged by the community. The members of the foundation have told us with considerable pride, that their name is included on the list of partners on a plaque in front of the mayor’s office in Lom.
These meetings, discussions, and the time spent together give us the chance to extend our cross border relationships, share our ideas and use the to advance our own community even further via the experience of others. The next stop of the partnership program will be in Moravska Nova Ves, Czech Republic.
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The Let’s develop philanthropy for sustainable communities project has received European Commission funding in the form of a grant from GRUNDTVIG-action (2012-1-RO1-GRU06-22713) of the European Lifelong Learning Programme. All views expressed in this document are the sole responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.
