Jointly with the Ministry of Youth and Sport in Bulgaria and the Youth Sport Trust of the United Kingdom, we work on a three-year project Dreams and Teams for the development of leadership potential of young people and inclusion of young people with disabilities through sport.

Dreams and Teams is a project developed by the British Council in many countries around the world, but in Bulgaria we have added something special. In addition to leadership training through sports, the Bulgarian participants have also been able to achieve inclusion of children with and without disabilities in the one and the same “team”, which in the end makes “the dream comes true” for all of them – not to distinguish between children on the basis of their physical or mental abilities, but to divide them according to their attitude: “I feel like playing – I don’t feel like playing”. In addition, in all three groups engaged in the project (trainers, leaders and festival participants) people with and without disabilities, of different ages and social status alike, take part – from members of governmental and non-profit organisations, through young people from various secondary schools to the youngest participants. Only in this way can we ensure that the approach taken will be the same at all levels.  

This is what one of the trained young leaders tells about our first festival, the 16-year-old Todor Velev:

“Karen from the British Youth Sport Trust visited Bulgaria to train five trainers and 16 young leaders aged 14 to 20 years. The young leaders were selected through special examination. Part of them were with different disabilities. It was a unique opportunity for the young leaders. They put on a wonderful festival for children with and without disabilities. Their aim was to smooth out the differences between the children and they start playing together as one team. The leaders created a great team and managed to accomplish their goal.

The first festival of young Bulgarian leaders took place at Universiada Hall – the largest sports hall in Bulgaria. It was under the patronage of the Minister of Youth and Sport Vassil Ivanov – Luciano and the British ambassador to Bulgaria, HM Jeremy Hill. The young leaders came up with new games adapted for all children taking part in the event. They were more than 100, some of them with different physical disabilities.

I am glad to have participated in that unique festival and had the chance to meet many new people regardless of their disabilities.”

Several festivals took place in Sofia and Varna over the last 2 years. Around 100 children (between the ages of 7 to 12 years) participated in sports games invented by a group of young leaders (15-22-year olds) as a part of their leadership training. We developed a film Dreams and Teams that tells the story about the project and our first festival.