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The
project "Psycho-social adaptation of redundant military
officers into civil society” had been implemented by the NGO
Resource Center Foundation from February to July 2000 with the
financial support of the Democracy Commission at the Embassy of the
United States in Bulgaria.
Project
Justification
The
issue of the psycho-social adaptation of redundant military officers
to the civil society is especially topical at this stage because of
“Plan 2004” adopted by the Council of Ministers in September
1999. Under the Plan, a restructuring of the Bulgarian armed forces
will be carried out in the three years to come. It will be reduced
from 100 000 to 45 000 personnel meaning that upwards of 20 000
officers and sergeants will leave the armed forces.
Military
officers accept their dismissal from the army with difficulties
because they regard it as a farewell to the old way of living. They
are used to working within a system closed and to a great extent
isolated from the rest of society and for this reason do not have
the necessary knowledge, attitudes, practical habits and skills to
adapt to the civil society and take successful economic steps in the
condition of a market economy.
The
military officers’ integration in society is of prime importance
for the steady development of democratic processes in Bulgaria.
Undoubtedly, it is NGOs as basic social units that can play a
leading part in harmonising the interests of military officers and
the interests of the civil society.
Project
purposes
The
main aims of the Project were:
Ø
To support the
national efforts of consolidating the democratic institutions and
irreversibility of reform by assisting the creation of a new
system of values of redundant officers with priority given to
Euroatlantic standards in human rights and freedoms respect and
ethnic tolerance.
Ø
To create
conditions for surmounting the isolation of redundant military
officers from the rest of society by creating practical skills and
abilities for their full-fledged involvement in the altered
political and economic life and civil society.
Ø
To engage the
public’s attention with the problems of military officers
throughout the period of restructuring of the Bulgarian armed
forces and avert a conflict of the officers’ interests with the
interests of society.
Project
activities
The
main form used to achieve these goals were four seminars held in
Bankya, Smolyan, Bourgas and Varna. The seminars were attended by
officers about to leave or already out of the armed forces in the
wake of the structural reform and the cuts. These were people that
have already encountered or would encounter real problems concerning
their integration in civil society. They needed not only knowledge
of the advantages of democracy and market economics, of universal
human rights and the equality before the law, but also how to keep
their dignity, what they can do about society and society about
them.
For
this reason, the seminars shifted the stress from the theoretical
aspect, presented by speakers to the practical dimension of the
problem. Local celebrities were invited who left the armed forces
years ago and have successfully integrated in life as business
executives, employees in private and state companies or assistants
to NGOs. After discussions with them, the seminar participants,
divided into two groups under the guidance of experts and social
psychologists, had a practical discussion of the advantages of
democracy and market economics and the real opportunities they would
have after leaving the armed forces.
The
seminars were distinguished with the participation of the
officers’ families. The idea was to impact on officers’ wives as
well, fully affected by the psycho-social after effects of the
officers’ dismissal.
The
social adaptation and economic integration of redundant military
officers is a lengthy process which depends on a number of factors.
Consequently, all planed activities were aimed at getting
sustainable results and opportunities for development. This arrived
at both by transferring knowledge and experience on to the direct
participants in the Project and by drawing the attention and
potential of other institutions and organisations.
A
direct outcome of the Project implementation is the design and
release of a Psycho-Social Adaptation Training Manual for redundant
officers. It is practical and responds to the questions raised at
the seminars. The Manual could serve as a handbook to all military
officers about to leave the armed forces in the several years to
come in the wake of the on-going cuts.
The
team working on the implementation of the Project will consider its
goals achieved if the particicpants in the Project and readers of
the Training Manual begin to look for answers of the following
important for the psycho-social adaptation questions:
Ø
How to use
their professional army experience under the new conditions;
Ø
How to analyse
and learn productive ways of tackling the new problems;
Ø
How to seek
new life and professional perspectives;
Ø
How to create
efficient job finding strategies;
Ø
How to master
specific psychological skills of self-realisation in civil society
and market economy.
Eventually,
one must not consider the interrupting of his military career as an
accident. It is only an upcoming challenge and a possibility for a
new beginning.
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