On the occasion of the International Volunteers Day, CVS-Bulgaria organised DOBROFEST – an event dedicated to the promotion of volunteering. On the 11th of December 2019 more than two hundred people visited the event, which took place in events hall “In the park” in Sofia, a luminous and cosy venue.

In this event, the visitors were able to learn about the activities of 33 different organisations, all of them working with volunteers in the topics of Human Rights, Ecology, Education, Culture, LGBTIQ+, Urban, Social work and Refugees.

Each organisation had a stand and representatives to talk about their projects, receive donations and organise small activities for the visitors.  They were also provided with a vegetarian lunch and a bag with presents from CVS – Bulgaria. As for the visitors, they were handed at the entrance with a volunteering passport which was aiming to motivate them to visit and find out short facts about each stand and organisation. Those who completed all the answers received gifts as mugs and totebags, but the most important gift they received was the interaction with the representatives and learning about the activities of many topics connected with raising awareness on peace.

In a parallel to the stands for two hours both visitors and organisations had the chance to participate in the 100 Workshops corner, where four workshops took place: “100 ways to include volunteers in our projects”, “100 values of volunteering”, “100 peace actions” and “100 ideas to volunteer”. The workshops were constructed in a way to show the versatility of volunteer work and to give construct on the values and motivation on people. To make them feel the personal connection and then the last two on what methods can be used and how to start their own idea.  In this corner DobroFest had the lovely presence of two very vibrant ladies from “500 markers” who made a visual recording poster of the event and the workshops.

Close to the bar visitors could find the Speed dating Corner, where eight CVS-Bulgaria volunteers from different backgrounds and with experiences in different projects at home and abroad could share practicalities, fears, expectations, life stories about volunteering with anyone who sat with them.

During the whole event people could also give live feedback of the event using the  “Mentimeter” application. They could write write up to 3 words to describe the event in their opinion and all was projected on a wall at the entrance of the venue.

Right next to it, there was a Photo Corner set up. In this space people could take pictures with their phones with the photo frame of the event and upload them to Instagram and Facebook using the hashtag #DobrofestBG.And if you think this was enough for a 6 hours festival, wait to hear more. After 8 pm in the program everyone could enjoy the screening of the documentary “Volunteering vs. Violence” – a video created during a project dedicated to the 100 anniversary of Service Civil International and after that to dance under the sounds of  an ethno latin jazz beats and the energetic performance of Echoo Balkan Samba Band.

Check out the full list of the 33 organisations in case you couldn’t visit the event and you want to learn more about them.

This event was part of the 100 Actions for Peace, campaign dedicated to the 100 anniversary of Service Civil International (SCI) and is organised under Volunteering Circles project 2018-2-BG01-KA125-048262, with the support of Erasmus+ programme of EU and Human Resource Development Center (HRDC).