The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry hosted a job fair for women – migrants and refugees, organized in cooperation with the Chamber's partners from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Caritas Sofia, the #ForGood Foundation, “Humans in the Loop” Foundation, CATRO Bulgaria, and Sofia Development Association.
The event, part of the RIDE project, took place in a hybrid format. 14 employers from the sectors: veterinary medicine, textile industry, agriculture, metallurgy and services, took part in the fair. Over 60 women from Ukraine and Syria with interests in: medical services, hospitality and catering, translation services, trade and sales, finance and accounting, tailoring, IT and other sectors, participated online and in person at the fair.
The event was officially opened by Vasil Todorov, Secretary General of BCCI, who stated that the Chamber is already traditionally working with its partners to build a cooperation network on issues of labour integration of refugees and third-country nationals. He emphasized the Chamber’s experience in the implementation of a number of European projects supporting the labour integration of refugees and the trainings provided by the Chamber in Bulgarian language, entrepreneurship and digital skills.
After the informational part, the job fair continued with presentation of the employers’ profiles, a discussion between the participants and meetings.
BCCI develops the RIDE project of which the job fair was a part. The Chamber makes efforts and distributes the profiles of the ladies who are looking for jobs among its partner network - with the aim of providing employment.
The RIDE project will end with a final conference in Brussels in January 2023, at which the achieved results, conclusions and recommendations to the European institutions will be presented.