Program “PARTNERSHIP”
Total donated sum – 15 775 lv

		A project which the Foundation recently realized in partnership with the Secondary Professional-technical School for Machine-Building “A. Burov” – Rousse was financing the participation of children with mental disabilities involved in the cooking and mechanics classes at the SPTSM in the annual festivities of the school. It was carried out on 7th March 2000, the children participated in the holiday with their own cookery show and worked out products, by which they showed what they had learnt and demonstrated the acquired practical skills. They took part in the competitions for best essay, best picture, best martenitsa, as well as in quizzes and competitions “Best in the Profession”, football and table tennis. The “Bistra and Galina” Foundation provided the reward fund and the necessary materials and stuffs for the shows.
	Designing a plan to reconstruct and expand the currently available premises of SPTSM for the construction of a Day Center for labor therapy and rehabilitation for young people with mental disabilities.
		A coordination meeting was held on 6-9.07.2000, on the project of UNESCO associated schools from SouthEast Europe “Peace Alternatives to Conflicts through Education” (PACE). It is now starting and is dedicated to the International Year of Culture of Peace, the Year of Dialogue between Civilizations (2001) and the International Decade of Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010). The Rousse-seated organization SAGE is honored to realize the activities on the pilot phase of the project, which is a long-term one and will continue till 2003. For the next two years the meetings will be held at international summer camps in the participating countries of Southeastern Europe. Six schools from our town are involved in this UNESCO initiative – the English Language School, The Mathematics Secondary School, The European Languages Secondary School, “H. Botev” Secondary School, The Technical School of Electric Engineering and the German Language School. Two more schools from the capital are included in the list of participants for Bulgaria. Under the aegis of UNESCO – Paris, the National Committee of UNESCO for Bulgaria and the Ministry of Education, host of the meeting parties was the “Bistra and Galina” Foundation.
		On 8-10-12.2000 the project “Classrooms across borders” was started. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation finances it. It is the first project, financed by Switzerland under the Stability Pact. It was won by the team of SAGE headed by Mrs. Yordanka Nenova (member of the Managing Board of the “Bistra and Galina” Foundation, head-coordinator of the project. Representatives of 12 countries took part in the discussions – Albania, Rumania, Ukraine, Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldavia and Bulgaria, as well as the District of Kosovo. Each country was represented by two of its citizens, one of whom was a representative of an ethnical minority in the country. The requirements towards the participants were to be actively involved in linguistic problems or to be representatives of school, media or NGO organizations. The basic topics for discussion at the forum, hosted by “Bistra and Galina” Foundation, were languages and democratic citizenship; the language of tolerance and peace; cross-points of cultures and languages; distance language learning and adapting to the alien culture.

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