On December 16th and 17th at the INTELCOOP hotel  in Plovdiv, we had our traditional annual gathering for the participants in the Land Source of Income programme.

Our partnering organizations within the project Roma Income Generation and Integration were also able to come and participate.  They have agreed to help distribute the Integrated Model for Small Business Support regionally.  This project is funded by the America for Bulgaria Foundation.

The first day of the event included presentation of last year’s achievements and the risks and opportunities for the next year.  Zhivko Milushev, the director of RDA/BIC – Velingrad, shared their experience with growing herbs of various types.

The second day of the meeting included agroconsultants of the foundation focusing on common problems and giving recommendations to the program participants about the agricultural practices all the year round.

During the discussion on achieving good vegetable productions Yasen Kehayov, a representitive of the company Bioset, was the presenter.

Participants in the Land Source of Income programme were given individual consultations concerning new opportunities for financial services offered by the foundation and for participation in the Rural Development Program.

On the second day we had a meeting with our partner organizations in the Roma Income Generation and Integration project to discuss the comments and recommendations we had for their quarterly reports and about specific local economic initiatives that they were exploring.