
The Sofianer
The project puts Sofia on the world map by including it in a global visual initiative - creating a collection of covers of the imaginary magazine The Sofianer as a tribute to the iconic covers of The New Yorker magazine. The cities that have so far created their own visual interpretations are Paris, Tokyo, Montreal, Shanghai, Brussels and Milan. The project envisages involving the best artists in Bulgaria through an open invitation on how they see Sofia, presenting their work in an exhibition in physical and online environments and initiating a public debate on the past, present and future of the capital.
Open invitation for artists and illustrators (deadline: 10 July)
Timeline: February - December 2022 г.
Partners: Credo Bonum Foundation, Studio Komplekt, Association GID (City ideas and Design), Multi Kulti Collective
Funding: Sofia Municipality, Programme Culture and Bulgarian-American Credit Bank.
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Preventing Racism and Discrimination
The project Preventing Racism and Discrimination – Enabling the Effective Implementation of the EU Anti-Racist Legal Framework (PERSERVERE) is concerned with fighting intolerance, racism, xenophobia and discrimination against vulnerable ethnic and racial groups and, in particular, Roma, Jews, Muslims and people of African descent. Starting from the premise that any system tasked with protecting the vulnerable from discrimination must, first and foremost, rely on an effective legal framework, the project implements activities concerned with the better enforcement of the law. It undertakes research in 7 partner countries and develops educational material and tools that will be used to educate legal professionals (judges, lawyers, prosecutors) and frontline workers (legal officers in prisons, the police, social services, reception asylum centres and border control authorities etc) on how to use the nationally transposed European framework on anti-racism. Relying on desktop and fieldwork research, the project will produce a series of deliverables that meet this objective, including:
an e-book identifying any gaps in the law and legal practice in both the European level and national levels of the 7 partner countries;
a training toolkit that will be used to educate at least 210 legal professionals and 210 frontline workers, while also reach at least 70 trainers/educators in the 7 partner countries; and
a series of white papers recommending changes to the European and national laws and procedures to ensure that these are fit for the purpose of fighting racism and protecting members of victimised ethnic and racial groups.
News and project developments:
National report Transposition and implementation of the EU anti-racism legal framework in Bulgaria
All national reports (Cyprus, Italy, Malta, Greece, Netherlands)
Time frame: February 2022 - January 2024
Partners: Cooperativa Sociale San Saturnino Onlus (Italy) - leading partner, UClan Cyprus (Cyprus), Lai-Momo Societa' Cooperativa Sociale (Italy), Kentro Evropaikou Syntagmatikou Dikaio Idryma Themistokli Kai Dimitri Tsatsou (Greece), CSI Center For Social Innovation (Cyprus), The People for Change Foundation (Malta), Stichting Hogeschool Van Amsterdam (Netherlands), Multi Kulti Collective (Bulgaria)
Funding: European Commission, Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme (CERV)
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BISTRA IVANOVA
Bistra Ivanova is a migrant integration expert, cultural manager and social entrepreneur. She is co-founder and chairperson of Multi Kulti Collective (MKC). Bistra has solid experience in working on migrant/refugee integration, both on grassroot and policy level as a project manager, researcher and communication expert. She has been the country coordinator of the official EU portal on migrant integration EWSI since 2015. Since 2016, she has been the leading Bulgarian researcher in the biggest refugee integration EU project National Integration Evaluation Mechanism (NIEM). In addition, she is a project evaluator in the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria (Socially Engaged and Community Arts Programme) and Robert Bosch Foundation (European and Cultural Clusters) since 2018.
Bistra holds a BA in Communications (Sofia University), and has specialized in Migration Policy (Central European University), Research methods (Amsterdam University), European Union Law and Policy on Immigration and Asylum (ULB - Université libre de Bruxelles) and Cultural Management (Sofia University). At the moment, she is completing two Master degrees – Management of Migration Process (University of National and World Economy) and Financial Management and Marketing (University of Finance, Business and Entrepreneurship).
Bistra was awarded Volunteer of the Year (2011), Darik’s 40 under 40 (2014), WEF’s Global Shaper (2014), she was also a finalist in Grazia’s Woman of the Year (2016) and was featured in the book “30 People who Change Bulgaria” (2019).
KALOYAN YORDANOV
Kaloyan Yordanov is a founding member of Multi Kulti Collective, a member of its management board as of December 2013 and a deputy chair as of 2016.
He is attracted by the mission of the association to increase the public awareness of the foreign cultures and ethnic minorities in Bulgaria and to help their integration.
Kaloyan is a qualified lawyer with extensive professional experience, a member of the Sofia Bar Association and managing associate in Deloitte Legal Law Firm as of 2015. Between 2008 and 2015 he was a lawyer in the Bulgarian branch of CMS Cameron McKenna law firm, and between 2006 and 2018 a manager of the legal department of Bulgarian Home Loans.
Kaloyan holds a Master’s degree in Law from Sofia University and Master’s degree in Business Administration from New Bulgarian University.
ZVEZDA VANKOVA
Dr Zvezda Vankova is Multi Kulti Collective’s founder and first chairperson (until March 2016). She has been a member of the management board ever since. Dr Vankova holds a PhD in Law from the Maastricht University. She wrote her PhD dissertation on “Circular migration from the Eastern neighbourhood to the EU – the rights of migrant workers in Bulgaria and Poland”.
At present, Dr Zvezda Vankova has been awarded a two-year Rubicon grant by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) to conduct research at the Law faculty of Lund University (2019-2021). The topic she is currently working on is “Refugees as Migrant Workers. Labour Migration as Alternative for Refugee Protection in the EU Context?”.
Prior to joining the Law faculty of Lund University, Dr Vankova worked at the Department of European and International Law & Institute for Transnational and Euregional cross border cooperation and Mobility of Maastricht University. Dr Vankova was the Central Research Coordinator of the 2015 edition of the Migrant Integration Policy Index and worked as a Policy Analyst at the Migration Policy Group in Brussels. As a Researcher and Program Coordinator at the Law Programme of the Open Society Institute Sofia (2005-2013), Zvezda Vankova was an active participant in the development of Bulgarian immigration and integration policy through policy and legal analyses, advocacy work and capacity-building activities. Zvezda was selected by UNHCR Bulgaria to monitor the National Program for Integration of Refugees in Bulgaria as an independent expert in the period 2012-2014 and served as the Country Coordinator for the European Web Site on Integration (EWSI) for Bulgaria. She also conducted an independent monitoring report into immigration detention facilities in Bulgaria.

FUTURE OF EUROPE
The main objective of the project Youth Debating the Future of Europe is to encourage democratic and civic participation of young citizens and give them an opportunity to express their concerns and vision towards common challenges related to European identity, diversity and the future of Europe.
In the twenty-first century, Europe has reached a crisis point in the construction of European identity. The last years a number of events that took place across Europe have challenged the main idea and the founding values of the European Union: the Eurozone crisis, the migration crisis and Brexit have led to an increase of Euroscepticism. As a consequence of the harsh situations that Europe faces, it is time for European citizens and especially for younger ones who soon will have to face the consequences of today’s situation, to get actively involved in the process of strengthening the European consciousness regarding the European Union and its future and realize that only through cross-border cooperation achievements can be reached towards that direction.
The future of Europe and the assurance of the European societies’ well-being are highly connected with the development of common objective and stronger participation in the EU public sphere between the member-states. The first step towards this direction has been done by the European Commission which has launched an open debate with the White Paper on the Future of Europe in order to provide opportunities to the citizens to discuss their concerns and their views for the future of Europe. Following this initiative, the project tends to give voice to young people from nine different European countries and provide them with the opportunity to express their concerns to the public sphere, to exchange their ideas, to produce their own suggestions and to generate a multicultural community dialogue concerning the future of Europe.
News and project developments:
- Final publication (June 2022)
- Sofia workshop (June 2022)
- Newsletter #3 (June 2022)
- Newsletter #2 (November 2021)
- Newsletter #1 (May 2020)
Time frame: March 2020 – August 2022
Partners: Athens Network of Collaborating Experts (Greece) – leading partner), NOUS (Italy), Clube Intercultural Europeu (Portugal), Cross Cultural Bridges (Netherlands), Collegium for the Management and Design of Sustainable Development (KMGNE) (Germany), UNITED for Intercultural Action (Hungary), Young European Leadership (Belgium), Teleduca (Spain), Multi Kulti Collective (Bulgaria)
Funding: European Commission, Europe for Citizens Programme
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PANAYOT CHAFKAROV
Panayot Chafkarov has been part of the Multi Kulti Collective team since August 2014 as a researcher and project manager, playing a leading role in the development of the association's social enterprise. He has been a member of the Management Board since December 2019.
Prior joining Multi Kulti Collective, Panayot gained many years of experience as an entrepreneur and manager in the restaurant and IT industry. This allows him to expand our Multi Kulti network of migrant/refugee-owned restaurants in Sofia, with which he organizes catering, culinary courses and culinary team building.
As a student at the University of National and World Economy (then Higher Institute of Economics) Panayot was responsible for the numerous foreign students living in Studentski grad and supported their integration. Thus he developed strong intercultural skills and interest in the topic. Panayot has an impressive historical, geographical and ethnic knowledge, which he constantly develops through his work.