One Down, Others Follow: Two CIDC Initiatives Suspended

Alongside the Campus Correspondents Program, two more initiatives were suspended three weeks ago due to President Donald Trump’s ban on all foreign aid for the next three months. These are Platform for Youth Dialogue and Participation and You(TH) Participate: Innovating Civic Engagement in Bulgaria Through Deliberative Democracy.

 

Both programs were projects developed by the Center for Information, Democracy, and Citizenship (CIDC) at AUBG.

 

Platform for Youth Participation and Dialogue is a project between AUBG and Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski,” funded by the German Marshall Fund. The initiative aimed to train students from both universities to go and interact with high school students across the country. They would mentor them on how to create civic innovation tools, products, and campaigns that will motivate or inspire their peers to participate in civic processes.

 

The initiative You(TH) Participate: Innovating Civic Engagement in Bulgaria Through Deliberative Democracy aimed to empower university students across Bulgaria by enhancing their understanding of civil rights and democratic engagement. This initiative is funded by the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria. The project’s core objective was to cultivate a community of youth leaders, educating them on the principles and practices of deliberative democracy.

 

The executive director of CIDC, Dr. Jacob Jacob shared his feelings about the situation. “I'm obviously disappointed and sad about it because these are projects, we spent a lot of time creating,” he said. Dr. Jacob explained that a lot of time was spent working with various young people to make them feel like these projects belonged to them.

 

These projects were designed to inspire young people to be more interested in democratic processes and media literacy and to be more critical consumers of information.

 

Dr. Jacob explained that he is even more disappointed because the people who were already involved will not get the opportunity to experience the impacts of these initiatives. “Democracy thrives when there is informed consent. But when that consent is misinformed or uninformed, democracy falters,” he said.

 

Despite the situation, Dr. Jacob is feeling hopeful about the future of these programs. “The signs, I have to say, are not very positive. But we remain hopeful that these programs or these projects will be reinstated based on their merits and on what we've done so far.”

 

Dr. Jacob expressed his gratitude for the active position of AUBG and its administration on this issue. He explained that CIDC can fully rely on the support of the Board of Trustees in their future endeavors. “If there's a time to live out our vision, our mission as a center for information, democracy, and citizenship, it is now!”