On 21 October 2023, the FEPEDA General Assembly (GA), European Federation of Parents of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children, was held in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was preceded by a first Management Committee (MC) meeting on 20 October to prepare the GA and followed by a second MC meeting on 21 October to elect the Bureau.
The first Board meeting was attended by 17 participants from 14 European countries. In addition to FEPEDA members, members of the Bulgarian association also attended the GA meeting. The Bulgarian association provided an excellent welcome to the participants and the two days meeting were very well organised.
In addition to the usual items to be dealt with at a GA meeting, such as finances, the budget, the annual report and the action plan, discussions took place on various subjects presented by the country representatives:
• Exchanges in multidisciplinary approach experience in care: presented by Czech Republic member on MC meeting in Rome but not enough time to exchange between members.
• Educational assistance/support deaf/hard of hearing children (oral and sign language support) in mainstream schools and universities by Italy
• Programme of support to families by Spain (see presentation in English and video in Spanish with English subtitles). Link to the video: https://youtu.be/cF2qTWae2zg?ist=PLsuxCjQWSODxkABsxWFbHWhEfgkuLWT_q
• The members representing the following countries were elected: Finland, France, Romania, Spain and Sweden.
Discussions were held on the development of projects for families. FEPEDA members also discussed ways of communicating more effectively about FEPEDA’s activities and the impact they have on the day-to-day lives of deaf and hard-of-hearing children and young people and their families. Some ideas were pre-defined and will be developed in the Bureau and MC to be held in 2024.
At Bureau level, the two Vice-Presidents at the end of their term of office were re-elected and the Bulgarian representative was elected to the post of General Secretary.