site.btaBTA Signs Partnership Agreement with Lyon-based Ot Izvora Association

The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and the Ot Izvora Association in Lyon, France, signed a partnership agreement on May 15.

The document was signed by BTA Director General Kiril Valchev and Ot Izvora Association Director Anita Ekenova, who is also the initiator of the Expats Join Hands in Worldwide Dance travelling festival. The signing took place at the festival at BMW Park in Munich, Germany, following the opening of the eleventh edition of the event, hosted this year by Lazarka Ensemble, which operates in the Bavarian capital.

Valchev presented Ekenova with archived BTA reports about her association - including coverage from the national holiday in 2013 and from the first edition of the festival in 2015.

“It is a great honour and pleasure for us to be partners with the Bulgarian News Agency, because this gives us confidence that everything we do around the world reaches as many Bulgarians as possible - both in the homeland and beyond its borders,” she said.

The partnership agreement states that the Ot Izvora Association is “focused on preserving, promoting and transmitting Bulgarian folklore heritage among the Bulgarian community in France and to foreign audiences. Ot Izvora affirms Bulgarian identity through active cultural activities, including teaching folk dances and songs to children and adults, organising large-scale festivals and creative workshops, and building sustainable ties among Bulgarians abroad, while also supporting the integration of our compatriots through art and educational initiatives, thus becoming an important cultural ambassador of Bulgaria in the Lyon region and across Europe”.

The agreement envisages that the two sides will join efforts “under conditions of partnership and cooperation to encourage the development and promotion of various activities, initiatives and events”.

Under the agreement, BTA becomes a media partner of the Ot Izvora Association on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of its establishment and for the coverage of editions of the Expats Join Hands in Worldwide Dance travelling festival.

The agreement also states that BTA becomes a partner of the Ot Izvora Association for various activities, initiatives and events by disseminating information about them in text, image and sound. In turn, Ot Izvora is to provide, where possible, access for a BTA employee or team to events organised by the association or held in partnership for coverage purposes.