History

The beginning.... spontaneous! But very enthusiastic! In the autumn of 2006 Stanislava Kotseva and Pavel Atanasov first decided to take care of the Erasmus students at Sofia University. They organized the first meetings, trips, started helping the integration of the Erasmus students. In 2006, the first signs of intense Erasmus life appeared in Sofia.
The Club does not stop its activities until February 2008, when the members increased and reached its current number. The activities became more common, and new ones appeared. The relations with Sofia University and with other universities in the capital were fastened (NBU, UACEG,UNWE, UCTM etc). The members established contacts with a large number of incoming international students and with outgoing Bulgarian students. The Club becomes an independent student association at Sofia University. The aim is to assist the integration of the Erasmus students as a non-profit organization. In July 2008 the Erasmus clubs united officially their efforts and founded a non-government organization: ERASMUS STUDENT NETWORK-BULGARIA!

The members are primarily students who returned from exchange programs that voluntarily decided to help the foreign students. They themselves have lived in similar situations in other countries and best know the problems that would appear, they know the needs the foreigners could have here, and last but not least – know how to take advantage of the opportunities such situations offer. The Clubs have the task to forward the experience gained from the Bulgarian to the foreign students.

In December 2008 the Erasmus club of Sofia Univeristy was accepted as official section of ESN International. A couple of months later the same happened with the Erasmus club of New Bulgarian University.

ESN-Bulgaria aims to expand the ESN network in whole Bulgaria.

Every exchange student in Sofia and Bulgaria can benefit from the activities of ESN-Bulgaria, to seek assistance from its members or to sign up to its mailing list (by sending a request to esn.sofia@gmail.com).
So far ESN-Bulgaria is the only legal student association, that is focused on the exchange students at the University and works in compliance with the Foreign Office and the university administration, as well as with the European standards for intercultural exchange.

ESN-Bulgaria is a non-profit one and relies on the voluntary work of its members.