Applied theatre

Project number: BG05M9OP001-4.001-0010-C01

Supported by the EU and the ESF under call BG05M9OP001-4.001 „Transnational and Danube Partnerships for employment and growth“ under Operational programme “Human resources development” 2014-2020. 

Total amount of the project budget: 180251,00 BGN., of which 171 238,45 BGN European and 9 012,55 BGN national co-funding.

Implementation period: 16.10.2017 – 31.12.2018

The main objective of the project is to support the active inclusion, the encouragement of equal opportunities for active participation and employability of children and youth with impaired vision. 

Specific objectives, through which we want to guarantee the achievement of the main one, are:

– (SO1) introduction and sustainable application of a good innovative practice for using theatre approaches for development of the verbal and physical confidence of children and young people with impaired vision, as well as their confidence in communication for the purpose of improving their successful social inclusion and gaining equal opportunities for participation in all life aspects.

– (SO2) introduction and sustainable application of a good innovative practice for increasing the level of awareness about the needs and potential of children and young people with impaired vision, both among the specialists supporting their growth as well as among their parents.

The proposed project is based on the understanding that confidence and our ability to express ourselves are fundamentally connected with our skills to make decisions and to interact with the others without fear and concerns. In addition to that they are also connected with curiosity and being open to new opportunities and alternatives. It is connected with the feeling that we have the right to express our ideas, feelings and emotions and grow. These qualities and skills require considerable efforts from contemporary children and young people. Acquiring them is even more complex when we speak of visually impaired children and young people. The fragile confidence and the lack of faith in their own abilities, often leads these children and youths into isolation, which they often impose themselves, in order not to undertake risks and responsibilities, which they consider themselves unprepared for. All this, combined with low expectations on behalf of the parents and a society, which is inadequately informed about neither the specific limitations of a particular condition, nor the operative abilities of people with that condition, ultimately leads to more than 90% unemployment among v.i. people at working age.

In order to break the above depicted vicious circle and to change the attitudes, expectations, tempo of integration, adequacy of guaranteeing equal opportunities and finally – employability of people with impaired vision, we propose to adopt and make sustainable in Bulgaria the application of our Welsh’ partner experience:

– in organizing and conducting drama workshops for children and young people with impaired vision for the purpose of developing their verbal and physical expressive confidence

– and in increasing the so called visual awareness concerning the needs and possibilities of children and young people with impaired vision, both among the specialists caring about them and supporting the process of their development, as well as among parents.