"We are cool and interesting and that is how we want to show politics.” Say editor of SmartiGraphs web educational portal Vladimir Vassilev and his team. The project started on April 1, 2013 with a team of two people. In an interview for Radio Bulgaria one of the founders Alexandra Topchieva told us about the beginning.

"Me and my friend and colleague Vladimir Vassilev discovered that a great number of people do not know basic facts about the structure of the state. I kept hearing calls for changing the constitution but when you ask why, most of the people admit they never actually read it. So we decided to launch this site with the idea to fill the gap of civic education. There is no way to build democracy and make it work better if citizens are not aware of their responsibilities and rights. We wanted to make policy more friendly and understandable. Through the site one can fill the gaps in their knowledge or get acquainted with new things in an interesting and attractive way. We are the ones who first decided to show policy in a visual and accessible way through infographics. It has been shown that through this method people easily memorize information. Few are those, who will start reading the volumes of Plato or Aristotle, and that is why we present the information in a more interesting way. Bismarck once said that politics is science and art and that is what we have been trying to do.”

Currently 12 people are part of the team and they organize major campaigns like the one dedicated to the parliamentary elections in 2013 and the European elections in 2014. On the site one can learn everything about the Bulgarian government. The structure of the national budget is presented in an accessible way. The sphere of energy is the latest challenge for the team of SmartiGraphs. So far the site contains 116 articles, which have been visited by over 100,000 people. The team has a motto: "Let's solve the puzzle of knowledge together." For Vladimir the combination of rules and the right mindset is of great importance while Alexandra says the role of politics is to provide perspectives and to lead people.

But have these young people ever thought of emigrating?

"Being at home is much better,” says Alexandra. “What keeps me in Bulgaria is the fact everything I love is here. I like traveling and meeting new people but I want to live here. I am not saying I can solve all the problems but I can be a part of this society and help it. The lack of civic education is a problem and we have been trying to solve it. The team of the site is includes people who want their children to feel good living in Bulgaria. Children's education begins with the education of their parents and this is where our responsibility lies.”

English: Alexander Markov

Photo: Iliana Raicheva