Summer offers promises of happy vacation moments, carelessness, social media entertainment, sea, and romance. But before that, at the beginning of the Summer, 24 young people from 135 Secondary School “Jan Amos Komenski” visited one of our community centers in Fakulteta district within the framework of their professional practice. We offered them a lot of emotions and a reason for serious reflections about their future in the profession of social worker by showing them our activities in supporting early childhood development. We offered them an unforgettable experience – training in civic education “Living in democracy” (Module B of the DigiPAC program).

Our guests were a mixed group of Roma and Bulgarian children from the same school, located near the Roma neighborhood.

As part of the training, students exchanged knowledge and experience about specific activities and steps they could take regarding fake news or misinformation online, and shared ideas and knowledge with their peers. There was also a discussion about how much they can trust the news and which news feeds are reliable and which are not, which encouraged students to look more critically at sources of information.

Discussions on various issues allowed students to express their point of view. They were encouraged to defend sometimes opposite positions on the same issue.

We express our gratitude to the management of 135 Secondary School “Jan Amos Komenski” for the opportunity to work with these wonderful young people, especially to their teacher Mrs. Dimana Vetova for her dedication to the work, and the diligence with which she to turn diversity into a successful method of learning in the classroom.