
Ceremony “Educational Mediator of 2022” was held at the Ministry of Education on the eve of Vasilitsa
For the second year Amalipe Center and the Ministry of Education and Science held a ceremony to award the most outstanding educational mediators in 2022. The awards were presented by the Minister of Education and Science Prof. Sasho Penov at an official ceremony at the Ministry of Education and Science, which was held on the eve of the Roma New Year Vasilitsa on January 13.
“With their daily work, constant dialogue with parents, advising students and helping with study material, mediators make the magic of superheroes possible,” Minister Penov said in his address. He recalled that the team of the Ministry of Education and Science managed to extend the National
Programme, under which nearly 1000 mediators and social workers will continue their work.
In his welcoming remarks, Amalipe Center Chairman Deyan Kolev recalled that educational mediators have proven the necessity of this profession already during the Covid pandemic and continue to fight daily to keep all children in classrooms. He thanked the Ministry of Education for accepting a year ago (on January 13, 2022) the proposal for the establishment of a National Programme for the Support of Educational Mediators, through which the employment of mediators and social workers working under the Support for Success project was continued. “It was extremely important that the Ministry of Education responded to the insistence of Amalipe Centre and hundreds of schools in December 2022 to extend the Programme. It is very important that it is included in the list of new National Programmes for 2023. It is equally important that through the new project of the MES, which will continue “Support for Success”, additional pay will be secured for the mediators – so they will receive a higher salary, which they undoubtedly deserve,” Kolev continued.
Prof. Penov expressed confidence that an option will be found for the National Programme to continue after 30 June, and that through a combination of National and European funds a decent salary will be secured for educational mediators and social workers in education.
The grand prize “Educational mediator of the year” was won by Ekram Myumunov. “This award will always remind me of the difficult but wonderful moments of working together with students, parents and teachers from the Professional School of Fashion Design in Veliko Tarnovo, where I am a mediator. Now is the time, Minister Penov, to express our gratitude to all the Ministry of Education employees who assisted in the timely extension and imp,ementation of the National Support Programme for Educational Mediators,” said the winner. Because of the support, he presented the Minister with a special letter of thanks. A second letter of appreciation was presented to the Amalipe Centre for the continuous support provided to the mediators.
The prize for charity and advocacy was awarded to Stefan Trendafilov from the Vocational School of Mechanical Engineering in Sliven. Tashka Mutafova, a mediator at the school in the village of Kukorevo, Tundzha municipality, received an award for promoting Roma culture and tradition. Ivelina Kostova, mediator at the primary school “St. St. Kiril and Methodius” village of Ryahovo, Slivo Pole municipality, received the prize for “Empowering the Roma woman”, and Milka Angelova from “Vladimir Komarov” in Veliko Tarnovo – “Young
Awakener”. The award for field work and achieving dialogue went to Desislava Yankova, a mediator at the “Nikolai Katranov” Secondary School in Svishtov.
Deputy Minister of Education Maria Gaidarova awarded certificates to all 17 mediators nominated in the competition. Deyan Kolev presented a special award to the mediator from Batak Stefan Stefanov for “Longest serving mediator” at Amalipe Center.
Students from the school in Karadzhovo presented the ethno-cultural Roma celebration “Vasilitsa”. The school received the honorary sign of the Ministry of Education for its contribution to the education of students from different
ethnic groups.
The award-winning mediators were selected based on an online competition organized by the Amalipe Center for the second year in a row. In the first part of the competition, anyone could nominate a mediator via a special link. From the 17 nominees, a professional jury selected 6. The second part of the ranking continued, with Amalipe Center sharing in its post on the organization’s Facebook page the six nominated mediators who advanced in the competition. In the post itself, any user could comment and like the picture of the educational mediator who they think should win the prize.
Here are the final results:
• Ekram Nazifov Myumyunov with a total number of likes 2444 and 604 comments – Won the grand prize “Educational Mediator of the Year” for 2022.
• Stefan Georgiev Trendafilov with a total number of likes 1837 and 209 comments – won a special prize “Charity and Advocacy”
• Tashka Atanasova Mutafova with a total number of 454 likes and 98 comments – won a special prize “Development and popularization of Roma culture and tradition”
• Ivelina Sandeva Kostova with a total number of likes 380 and 167 comments – won a special prize “Empowerment of Roma women”
• Milka Elenova Angelova with a total number of likes 152 and 24 comments – wins a special prize “Young Awakener/inspirer”
• Desislava Dimitrova Yankova with a total number of likes 141 and 23 comments won a special prize “Field work and achieving dialogue”
The post (without using the Facebook ad option) was shown 177,105 times, reaching 132,481 unique users. 10,163 of them actively engaged, i.e. commented, liked, shared, etc.
The “Educational Mediator of 2022” ceremony was part of the national campaign “Let’s rebuild the bridges between us”, organized by the Amalipe Center, schools, mediators and youth groups for tolerance and civic participation on the occasion of the Vasilitsa holiday.
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