Earth Forever is a non-governmental, non-for-profit organisation.

Registration: September 1998 in the court of Stara Zagora, Bulgaria.

Our Mission:

We consider our mission to promote community sustainable development through proper environmental management, efficient economic practice, social justice.

Our Tools:

We design and implement initiatives involving citizens and youth to improve community environment. We raise civil awareness to insist on sustainable environmental decisions. We work closely with decision-makers to guaranty sustainable management.

Our Strengths:

* Professionalism
* Enthusiasm
* Realistic Approach

Our NGO Partners:

* International Secretariat for Water, Quebec, Canada
* Solidarity Water Europe, Strasbourg, France
* Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, Geneva

Our Managing Board:

Diana Iskreva,
Preliminary PhD Environmental management, control and health; MSc Geosystems; MSc Agroecology; MSc European Integration
Executive Director

Mariana Stoilova,
MSc Political science, MSc European Integration
Program Director

Stefka Nikolaeva,
Teacher Biology and Chemistry
Program Manager

Angel Ivanov,
University Student in Computer information
Program Director

Completed Projects:

* Campaign against the location of store for especially toxic waste (1998)
In its attempt to solve the problem with the especially toxic wastes produced on the area of the Municipality of Stara Zagora, the Municipal Administration proposed to build a facility for temporary storage of these substances. The location had been fixed violating a number of safety measures and legislative acts. NGO Earth Forever pointed out the gaps and insufficient data in the EIA Report to the Ministry of Environment and Waters; involved the media to support the efforts of the citizens to locate a more appropriate site for the facility; pointed out the lack of competence and carelessness of the authorised municipal officials; supported the citizens to defend their position in front of the decision-making authorities.

As a result of the campaign the municipality administration re-though their position and proposed a more appropriate and safer location for the facility.

* Global Water Vision (1999)
Earth Forever acted as a national co-ordinator of Vision 21 process in Bulgaria. Three local and one national consultations have been organised and facilitated, so that more than 100 citizens, youth, water experts, governmental officials discussed the water issues in Bulgaria. The statements of the participants had been summarised and used by the steering editorial team of World Water Council and Collaborative Council for Water Supply and Sanitation in the development of “Water for People”, Vision 21, Shared Vision for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene & a framework for future action which is going to be one of the major documents discussed during the Global Water Forum in the Hague, March 2000.

* Youth European Water Parliament, Espalion, France (1999 - 2000)
Four young volunteers of the NGO participated in the event (age 11-15). Miss Maria Jeleva was elected Youth President of the Parliament. Bulgarian youngsters together with other young parliamentarians from 15 countries from Europe, Mediterranean and Middle Asia actively participated in the preparation of the Declaration of Espalion. Representatives of the young parliamentarians are invited to visit the Council of Europe in May 2000 to deposit the Declaration and discuss the integrated water management and public participation in decision-making with the distinguished members of the Environmental Commission of the Council of Europe.

* Youth Municipal Water Council (2000 – 2001)
The Youth Municipal Water Council is a model project for educating young people in Stara Zagora in designing, organizing and conducting civil campaigns to promote youth participation in municipal decision-making. Three schools in Stara Zagora (Language School, Math School, and 4th School) as well as the Municipality of Stara Zagora are involved as partners in the project. The campaign begins with an information acquisition phase through which the youth representatives will obtain a greater understanding of regional environmental conditions. Following this will be an advocacy campaign, where the representatives create and implement projects designed to effectively disseminate the ideals of the Declaration of the First European Water Parliament (held July 12-18, 1999), in the Bulgarian context provided through the information acquisition phase. The recipients of this knowledge will be both students and administrators in the Stara Zagora region. Through the Youth Municipal Water Council, Bulgaria’s youth representatives from the Parliament are encouraged and supported in their endeavors to actively participate in international networking and idea exchange with peers and experts.

* Resource Environmental Center (2000 – 2001)
EfE opened to the public all information resources it has accumulated within the years of its existence, as well got as donation by members of its Board. These are printed, visual, software, periodical, etc. information materials on environment and nature in English, Bulgarian and other European languages. The center is the only specialized resource facility in environment in the region of Stara Zagora Oblast.

* Training In Democracy and Tolerance (2001)
A five-day seminar concerning theories and practices on tolerance and democracy with 20 youth participants from different parts of Bulgaria, mainly working or studying in the humanitarian field. It is concidered as a follow up of work-camp leadership training, organized by Service Civil International- Germany, Bad Birnbach 2000 - an implementation of the same methods, by the same lecturers onto Bulgarian ground with emphasis on tolerance and democracy. The training worked in the sphere of inter-personal relations, examining them from the point of view of mutual tolerance and eqaulity, including dealing with ethnic problems. Two follow-up workshops had been conducted by local participants.
The specific idea of the project was at provoking positive change in inter-personal relations between different representaitves of Bulgarian society. Interpersonal relations are the universal basis for democracy and pluralism. Changing certain aspects there would give a rise to global change within Bulgarian society.

* Green Hearts – Stara Zagora, You Are My City (2001)
The core of the project was a fund-raising campaign to meet a most pressing environmental community need of the citizens of Stara Zagora to improve the green spots in the town, following the Polish model adopted to local specificity. The campaign was launched with a sociological research to identify the most pressing environmental need of the community according to its citizens; as well as the need the community is most willing to invest their donated resources (cash, labor, etc.). The community media (TV, radio, newspapers) was actively involved to communicate the objectives and phases of the campaign, to keep an eye on the whole process, to ensure transparency and monitoring each step of the campaign from social research to final implementation. Community consensus of needs and expectations will be monitored at each phase of the implementation of the project.
Five mini-projects had been funded with the funds raised by the campaign to support voluntary labor of neighborhood groups to beautify their nearest living environment.

* Youth European Water Parliament, Barc, Hungary (2001)
Five youth volunteers of EfE, together with 21 other youth delegations from Europe and Asia, took part in the Parliament providing significant input to Parliament’s activities and discussions. Bulgarian group was awarded a special grant to implement one of its initiatives – cleaning of the river bed of the Bedechka River; and renovation of the park infrastructure near the Zagorka Lake.

* Get to Know Your Language and Culture (2001)
The project provided unique experience for young people of Roma descent from allover Bulgaria to get education and become familiar with the language and culture of their heritage and thus enhance their knowledge of and pride in their culture. The activities accomplished during the project duration enhanced the self-esteem within the Roma community by heightening the ethnic self-awareness of Roma youth through dialogues facilitated by professional and academic members of the Roma community.

The project helped to combat the general sense of apathy and despondency in the target group by encouraging the participants to disseminate the knowledge gained through the implementation of the project.

* NeighborhoodWoods (2001-cont.)
Earth Forever is a partner of the Danish Forest Landscape Research Institute, Hoersholm, Denmark, working in close collaboration with Human Ecology Department, Free University Brussels, Belgium on a research project Advancing the Quality of Life and the Environment of European Cities through Socially-inclusive Planning and Design of Urban Woodlands. The Ayazmoto Park near Stara Zagora serves as a case study to analyze contemporary urban woodland resources, their interaction with society, and planning, design and management of the selected case study areas.

In its second phase, the project will involve the population of Stara Zagora in discussions on the planning, design and management of the Ayazmoto Park.

* WASH – Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene for All (2002-cont.)
Earth Forever serves as a regional focal point of the WASH Campaign of Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council for Central and Eastern Europe and Newly Independent States. The campaign is a major tool to put water and sanitation on the top of political agenda, and will be one of the basic focuses of the Earth Summit in Johannesburg 2002.