SMADE SMART Democracy

15/06/2026

🇧🇬✨ SMADE Partners Meet in Sofia, Bulgaria!

🤝On 9–10 June 2026, the partners of the SMADE – SMART Democracy: Digital Education and Critical Thinking for an Inclusive Society Erasmus+ project gathered in Sofia, Bulgaria, for the 2nd Transnational Project Meeting, kindly hosted by Fair Chance Association Bulgaria.

Over two inspiring and productive days, we reviewed the progress of the project, exchanged ideas and expertise and planned the next steps in the development of innovative educational resources aimed at empowering future Digital Navigators across Europe.

💡 The meeting provided an excellent opportunity to strengthen our collaboration, share experiences from our national contexts and reaffirm our common commitment to promoting digital literacy, critical thinking and inclusive adult education.

📚 Following the productive discussions in Sofia, partners are now working intensively on the development of the SMADE Course Content, which will equip future Digital Navigators with the knowledge and tools needed to support adults in navigating the digital world critically and confidently.

🇷🇴 We are also preparing for the upcoming Learning, Teaching and Training Activity (LTTA), which will take place in Buzău, Romania, in October 2026. During this international training event, participants from all partner countries will have the opportunity to test and further enrich the educational resources developed within the project.

🤝 We would like to extend our sincere thanks to our Bulgarian hosts for their warm hospitality and to all partners for their active participation, enthusiasm, and dedication to the SMADE vision.

🇪🇺 Together, we are building the foundations for a more informed, digitally resilient, and democratic society.

📲 Learn more about the project and follow our journey:
https://smade-erasmus.eu/

SMADE Proud Partners:
🔹 Asociatia Pro Democratia Buzau (Romania)
🔹 Innoviera (Greece)
🔹 Fair Chance Association Bulgaria (Bulgaria)
🔹 Innetica (Spain)
🔹 Fundacja dla Migrantów "DOBRY START" im. A G Farah (Poland)

13/06/2026

09/06/2026

29/05/2026

💼 "Easy work, great pay, no experience needed. Apply now!" 📲

Fatima almost fell for it. Maybe someone you know already has.
Fatima, 47, moved to Spain three years ago. She speaks basic Spanish, works part-time cleaning offices and dreams of finding something more stable. Her daughter showed her how to use Facebook, and she'd been browsing job groups for weeks.

Then she saw it: a post shared hundreds of times:
"🇪🇺 EU-funded programme hiring adults for remote data entry. €1,800/month. No experience needed. Register now: limited places! Send your full name, address, ID number and a €25 registration fee to secure your spot."

😳The post had a fake EU logo, five-star reviews in the comments, and a countdown timer. It looked legitimate. She sent her ID scan and paid the fee. There was no job. There was no programme. Her identity was stolen.

Fake job offers targeting migrants, low-income adults, and people with limited digital skills are among the most common and damaging forms of online fraud in Europe today. They don't just steal money ➡ they steal dignity and trust.

The project trains vulnerable adults across Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Greece and Spain to spot exactly these kinds of traps ➡ pressure tactics, fake urgency, requests for personal data and too-good-to-be-true promises.
⚠️ Red flags for fake job offers:
🔴 Asks for a fee to "register" or "secure your spot"
🔴 Requests your ID, passport or bank details upfront
🔴 Uses countdown timers or "limited places" pressure
🔴 No verifiable company name, address or contact
🤔If in doubt, don't click. Don't pay. Don't share.
👉 Tag someone who needs to see this.

📲Visit our website for more information: https://smade-erasmus.eu/

⚠️ Disclaimer: This is a fictional scenario created for educational purposes as part of the SMADE Erasmus+ project. All characters, names and situations are entirely invented. No real people, migrants, or individuals were used or referenced. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

SMADE is a European project that supports vulnerable adults in developing digital and media literacy skills, helping them understand online information, recognise disinformation, and participate safely and critically in today’s digital society.

25/05/2026

🚨 "Don't trust the European aid! It's a trap." 🚨

This is what Dmytro read on Telegram the night he arrived in Bulgaria.

🧔‍♂️Dmytro, 52, fled Ukraine with his wife and teenage son after their city was bombed. He spoke no Bulgarian, had no local contacts and relied entirely on his phone to understand what was happening, both back home and in his new country.

One evening, a message circulated in a Ukrainian-language Telegram group he had joined:
"⚠️ WARNING for Ukrainians in Europe: The EU registration process is a surveillance trap. Your data will be sold and you will be deported. Do NOT register with local authorities. A lawyer confirmed this."

😔Dmytro was terrified. He convinced three other refugee families not to register. They missed deadlines for housing support, healthcare and school enrolment for their children. The message was fabricated. Deliberately. To isolate and harm people like Dmytro.

➡This is hybrid warfare in action. Disinformation targeting Ukrainian refugees is real, widespread, and designed to cut people off from the support they urgently need.

At , we work directly with communities like Dmytro's, through our partner Chance Association in Bulgaria, providing digital literacy training that helps refugees identify manipulation, verify sources, and navigate the online world safely.

No one fleeing war should also have to fight fake news alone.
🔍 3 questions to ask before you trust a message:
✅ Who sent this, and why?
✅ Is there an official source I can check?
✅ Does this message want me to feel panic or urgency?

Visit SMADE website for more information: https://smade-erasmus.eu/


⚠️ Disclaimer: This is a fictional scenario created for educational purposes as part of the SMADE Erasmus+ project. All characters, names and situations are entirely invented. No real people, refugees, or individuals were used or referenced. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

SMADE is a European project that supports vulnerable adults in developing digital and media literacy skills, helping them understand online information, recognise disinformation, and participate safely and critically in today’s digital society.

22/05/2026

SMADE is a European project that supports vulnerable adults in developing digital and media literacy skills, helping them understand online information, recognise disinformation, and participate safely and critically in today’s digital society.

21/05/2026

📢 Can you spot the fake? 🕵️ Meet Maria

👩‍🦳Maria is 68 years old and lives alone in a small village in rural Greece. One morning, she receives a WhatsApp message from an unknown number. It reads:
"⚠️ URGENT! The government has confirmed that the new flu vaccine causes memory loss in people over 60. Doctors are hiding this! Share this message with everyone you love before it's too late!"

Maria is worried. She shares it with her daughter, her neighbour and her church group. Within hours, dozens of people in her community decide not to vaccinate.

🚫 But the message was completely FALSE.
It was designed to look urgent and credible ➡ no author, no source, just fear. And it worked!

Stories like Maria's happen every day across Europe. Vulnerable adults, the elderly, refugees, people with low digital literacy, are among the most targeted by fake news and online manipulation.

That's why SMADE SMART Democracy project exists. 🇪🇺

Through our Erasmus+ project, we train adults to become real Media Detectives ➡ people who can stop, question, and verify before they share.

🔍 Ask yourself: Who wrote this? When? What is their source?
If you can't answer these questions, think twice before hitting "forward."

👉 Follow our page to learn how to protect yourself and your loved ones from digital manipulation.
📲Visit SMADE website for more information: https://smade-erasmus.eu/

⚠️ Disclaimer: This is a fictional scenario created for educational purposes as part of the SMADE Erasmus+ project. All characters, names and situations are entirely invented. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

SMADE is a European project that supports vulnerable adults in developing digital and media literacy skills, helping them understand online information, recognise disinformation, and participate safely and critically in today’s digital society.

28/04/2026

🤔How do you know if a news story is real?

Here are 3 quick checks you can do right now:

1️⃣Check the source: Is the website well-known? Does it have an "About" page? Look it up on a search engine before you trust it.

2️⃣Search for it elsewhere: If something big really happened, more than one outlet will be covering it. If you only find it on one site, be cautious.

3️⃣ Check the date: Old stories often get reshared as if they are new. Always check when the article was published.

These are the kinds of skills we teach in the project. Simple habits that protect you, and the people around you, from misinformation.

✅Share this with someone who needs it today.

📲Visit our website to learn more tips: https://smade-erasmus.eu/

22/04/2026

🤔What if there was one place online where vulnerable adults could learn to fact-check news, verify sources, and protect themselves from digital manipulation, for free?

✅That's exactly what we're building.

The SMADE Digital Education Hub will host interactive courses, video tutorials, practical guides and tools, all available in multiple languages and adapted for people with limited digital experience.
Accessible, practical learning for everyone.

📲The Hub will be open to the public once launched.
😀Follow this page so you don't miss it!
🌐Visit our website for more information: https://smade-erasmus.eu/

SMADE is a European project that supports vulnerable adults in developing digital and media literacy skills, helping them understand online information, recognise disinformation, and participate safely and critically in today’s digital society.

15/04/2026

🤔Did you know that only 28% of adults in Romania and 36% in Bulgaria have basic digital skills? (Eurostat, 2023)

✅This is exactly why exists.

Within our project, we are recruiting and training 20 Digital Navigators, educators from our 5 partner countries who will learn to use AI tools and digital platforms to support the most vulnerable members of our communities.

🦸‍♂️Their mission? To pass on those skills to 200 adults who need them most: migrants, refugees, Roma communities, unemployed people, and residents of rural areas with limited digital access.

✅Knowledge multiplies when we share it.

📲Learn more on our website: https://smade-erasmus.eu/

SMADE is a European project that supports vulnerable adults in developing digital and media literacy skills, helping them understand online information, recognise disinformation, and participate safely and critically in today’s digital society.