Bulgaria "We need Bulgarian street workers to work with us in Thessaloniki!"

Project : MARIO 24 Nov 2009 | begging street activities fum integration

Thessaloniki, Greece: Valbona Hystuna, social worker at Arsis, confirms: “we face a lot of problems to exchange with the Bulgarian children. They are working in the streets exactly like the Albanians ten years ago, but we do not speak Bulgarian and the first contacts are extremely difficult.”

(…) “With this workshop, we have organised mixed street teams with Greek and Bulgarian social workers, and it worked out perfectly! Immediately, the children were happy to speak their language and a very good quality contact was made.” In two days only, we have made a lot of progress, and the Bulgarian minors start to come to our structure to know more about Arsis’ services!"

Valbona Hystuna has been employed for more than seven years by Arsis as a native Albanian social worker, to develop the activities of the Greek NGO with the Albanian young beggars in the streets of Thessaloniki. Today, the “children at work” are Bulgarian and Romanian, with still a good number of Albanians.

The dispatch of the nationalities seems to correspond to regular time schedules, geographic areas and types of “businesses”. Apparently, the Bulgarians move in groups and wash the cars’ windscreens at the main crossroads from morning till mid of afternoon. The Romanian beggars are placed one by one at the entrances of churches during the opening hours of the religious monuments. The Albanian children are selling red roses in the evening in all the taverns of the centre of the harbour: Only Albanian minors are doing this activity, they are here for several years now, most of them living with their families.

“Since the integration of Bulgaria and Romania in the EU, the population living in the Greek streets has drastically changed!” declares Nikos Gavalas, the director of Arsis. The *Bulgarian migrants are mainly present in Northern Greece, near by the border. You find them everywhere in the main cities. As for the Romanians, they are mostly in Athens and in the touristic islands".

“At Arsis, we are in contact daily with the foreign children in the streets. Even yesterday, the police referred to us four Bulgarian kids. We interviewed them with the help of one Bulgarian social worker who was participating at the workshop. Immediately we could categorise one of them as a presumed victim of child trafficking. And the three others are at high risk of exploitation!”

“Today, we are looking for funds to support a transnational axis between Bulgaria and Greece”, says Nikos Gavalas, “we want to develop operational partnerships with Bulgarian NGOs and authorities as we have done with Albania through TACT project. We need mixed street work teams with Greeks and Bulgarian social workers!”

In the framework of Mario project, a workshop for “investigative street observation” was organised in Thessaloniki by the regional team of Tdh. All the partners of Mario project were present, with a high presence of the Bulgarian participants. The methodology proposed exchanges of experience among street workers on service delivery to children in street situation to detect potential exploitation / trafficking schemes through the method of investigative street observation and mixed team street work. In this way, all participants could be involved concretely in street work and share their observations with peers.

The expected results of this workshop were to offer better insight into the general context of the transnational routes and managing cases between counties of origin and destination, in particular the exploitation schemes between Bulgaria and Greece. At the end of the exchanges the participants confirmed they understood the principles of mixed street work team, especially through the practice. The participants developed operational knowledge on exploitation / trafficking schemes of children in street situation and learn about techniques of street observation and activities (including case management tools, ID files, planning and reporting on transnational cases).

“I learned a lot about my own country here, says Lydia Zagorova, Head of ’Neglected Children Foundation”, the Bulgarian affiliate of ECPAT Europe, member of Mario project. I will look for partners in Russe and Sofia, as most of the children we met are from these cities. I hope we can develop activities towards Greece!" [VT]

*More information about Mario project here