CENTRE FOR DEVELOPMENT OF NORTH-WEST BULGARIA FOUNDATION (CDNWB)
The Centre For Development Of North-West Bulgaria Foundation is situated in the mountainous Northern part of Bulgaria located right under the foot of Peak Kom (2116m) in the Balkan Mountains.
The goals and objectives of the Foundation are to aid the local community in the difficult period of transition from a communist to a democratic society, through helping to mitigate and eradicate the effects of this transition, such as: poverty, crime, high emigration rate, illiteracy, destruction of the natural habitat through illegal deforestation, with its consequences, such as water shortages, etc., the destruction of the traditional vocations and the of the flourishing agriculture - in a region where the largest employer today is the city hall.
The Foundation is supporting the needs and initiatives of the local inhabitants in the adjacent rural settlements for development in many diverse areas:
- strengthening the moral values, civil society, health, adult education, culture;
- encouraging the competitiveness of agriculture, environmental protection, improvement of life quality and diversification of economic activities outside of the agricultural sector;
- helping the disadvantaged population: poor children, minorities, retired, unemployed, and others;
- providing opportunities for employment and harmonious development of people, especially in villages and small settlements;
- promoting social integration and personal realization in order generate and implement new ideas by mobilizing the inhabitants’ own resources
- information exchange and support in cooperation among the state bodies, local authorities and local administration and the representatives of private business.
Role in the project
CDNWB is leading the partnership in the development of quality strategy and tools.
The Foundation also has an important role in the experimentation phase, and will organize the testing in the Berkovitsa municipality in Bulgaria, which, compared to the other testing areas, is characterized by severe economic and social problems, such as poverty, crime, high rate of emigration, illiteracy, broken connections between the generations, and destruction of the natural habitat of the region. Its participation and experience, in addition to the insights collected and solutions developed during the testing in Bulgaria, will enrich the Project’s intergenerational approach for interrupting socio-cultural marginality of the seniors citizens in the rural mountainous regions.