The Third NGO Fair at AUBG: Connecting Students to Changemakers

On Nov. 6 the Career Center held their third annual NGO Fair, which took place on the third floor of the ABF Student Center. It gathered representatives from 18 Bulgarian organizations that work for the betterment of society. They engage people to strive for social development by raising awareness of important issues. This event gave AUBG students the opportunity to get acquainted with the activities of such organizations and consider the various internships and job opportunities they offer.

The event started with an opening speech by the AUBG President David Evans, who shared his appreciation of all of the organizations that decided to join the fair.

“Social dedication of various kinds is extremely important to our students, who are looking for opportunities to serve society,” Evans said.

During the event, members of all of the organizations presented their activities and shared what goals they want to achieve. Similarly to the Job Fair, the NGO Fair allows for a lot of networking, so students also had the chance to personally introduce themselves to the organizations they found intriguing. Some of those included Caritas Sofia, who provide assistance to the vulnerable members of society, and Teach for Bulgaria, whose mission includes finding and training motivated professionals to contribute to better education standards in Bulgaria.

The AUBG graduate Dimitar Tatarski was among the representatives of the social startup ACC&U, which helps both students and teachers in primary schools to develop character strengths, beneficial to their development in a social environment. He shared that this was their second NGO Fair at AUBG, and they have already worked with some students from the university.

“We know about the social responsibility of students from AUBG, who support various local initiatives,” Tatarski said.

Another organization that joined the fair was Pink Foundation. One of their representatives, Albena Krusheva, introduced the main activity of the organization, which is a free-of-charge afterschool program for children. Some of the trainings they offer include English clubs, computer clubs, cooking lessons, and jewelry making. The Bulgarian-English Speech Tournament Foundation (BEST) was also presented during the fair. One of their representatives was second-year AUBG student Mihaela Kafedzhiyska, who said that the organization will hold two competitions on the AUBG campus in spring.

The organizer of the event, Rumyana Hristova, shared that there is still a need for the NGO Fair to become more popular among organizations that could potentially participate.

“The good thing for this year is that we have ten new organizations that didn’t participate last year,” she said.

According to Hristova, the NGO Fair is planned to turn into a regular event that engages students with the social aspects of the community and gives them the opportunity to become future changemakers.