Correlation-network Conference 'Social Inclusion and Health' , 27-29 September in Sofia (Bulgaria)

Correlation-Network conference in Sofia Bulgaria

Dear participants of the Correlation Conference in Sofia,

The conference in September is coming closer now and we would like to give you an update on the developments:

We may welcome around 200 participants with a wide spectrum of backgrounds and experiences. Due to co-funding and sponsoring we have the unique chance to provide a relevant number of scholarships for in particular community members and people from (South) East Europe.

Programme Update

We think we have managed to draw up a well-balanced and highly interesting programme with the most different contributions in regard to social inclusion and health. The programme consists of 3 plenary sessions, 6 major workshop sessions and sixteen workshops with more than 40 presentations.
More information on the programme and the various abstracts will be provided in a specific programme book, which you will receive at the beginning of the conference.
Till then, we would like to refer you to the programme on the website, but keep in mind that this version is still a draft, and we still except small changes here and there.

http://www.correlation-net.org/sofia_conference

We also want to ask you to check the programme carefully in advance, so you can register for the Friday workshops directly on Thursday afternoon.

Two satellite meetings will be organised on Saturday afternoon. One is targeting members of the International Network of People who use Drugs (INPUD), the other one will welcome members of the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE) and the Sex Workers’ Right Advocacy Network (SWAN).

Programme facilities

There will be an exhibition room, in which you can present posters or other kind of materials. Please bring relevant materials to share with the other conference participants.
If you have relevant video or film material, covering one of the issues of the conference (e.g. outreach, prevention, activism), please let us know. We organise a film program in the late afternoon of Friday.

All plenary sessions will be translated simultaneously into Russian and Bulgarian. Translators for workshop sessions are available.

Practical arrangements

Please book your flight as soon as possible and provide us with your flight schedule till latest 5 September in order to make sure that we book your hotel room accordingly to your arrival and departure and to organise the shuttle service on Thursday from the airport to the hotel as efficient as possible. If you have specific needs, please let us know.

The hotel is in the same venue than the conference:
Sofia Princess Hotel
131 "Maria Luisa" Blvd.
Sofia, Bulgaria 1202
+359 2 933 8888
+359 2 933 8777

We will inform you on further developments and the last practical arrangements
(e.g. shuttle service) in the next e-mail alert.

Presenters

Chairs and presenters will approached separately in the next few weeks in order to organise the session and the setting. Please send your presentation as fast as possible in case you need electronic equipment. Each meeting room will be equipped with a laptop and a beamer.
Furthermore, we would like to use your presentation for the conference documentation. Therefore, please provide us with a version of your presentation, which is suitable to the format of a reader: so preferably with a word rather than a ppp file.

We hope to have you informed sufficiently and advise you to check our website regularly for further updates.

Hoping to hear soon from you, we already look forward to meet you in Sofia in September.

Warm regards,

Correlation Team

c/o Foundation Regenboog/AMOC
Stadhouderskade 159
1074 BC Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Tel: 003120 6721192 / 5707827
Fax: 0031 20 6719694
e-mail:administration@correlation-net.org
web: www.correlation-net.org

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Milena Naydenova "this is my street"

For Milena, leaving her street

Milena Naydenova, Sofia, Bulgaria

A Street Others Are Afraid of,

Posted by maria dimitrova 21-04-2006

I live in Patriarch Evtimiy Boulevard, but if I have to talk about my street, I’ll choose Pirotska Street, formerly Zhdanov Street. I’ll choose it not so much because of the National Centre for Addictions where I go daily or the Green Café where I spend most of my time. I call Pirotska my street because it’s where most of my friends are. Most of the time they hang around in the stretch between Opulchenska Street and Odrin Street.

I’ve heard the so-called normal people warn their friends and relatives that this is a dangerous part of town, especially at night. It’s a strange feeling when I hear this. What other people consider a dangerous place is the only place where I feel safe and accepted; I am myself, without a sense of guilt or separation from society.

What more can I tell you about my part of my street? The buildings I usually notice are the St. Nikola Church, the National Centre for Addictions and the Green Café. But there are also the former Jewish school, with a pair of policemen always patrolling the area in front, and numerous smaller and bigger shops. Every now and then there is a luxurious empty space with a for-rent sign on the window. There are also dilapidated buildings whose owners can’t agree on their property rights for years and which my friends have turned into places for drug-injection. The backyards are used by the homeless even when the temperatures are below zero…

I know and love every square metre of this street and it’s sad that other people think of it as dangerous. It is not. Perhaps if, before rejecting us, others try to understand us first, they will be able to see it through my eyes.

To see Milena's picture's click here

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