Social Program

This year the Social Awareness Program started to work with a second home for children without parental care- The home “Katya Vancheva” in village Shiroka Laka. Shiroka Laka is a beautiful village in the Rhodope mountains, about 3 hours away from Sofia. As a first step, our team decided to invite the children to Sofia and to spend a weekend together. The trip was sponsored by the Bulgarian Students’ Organization in Mannheim, Germany – “Bai Ganyo“, which organizes annual charity campaigns supporting children without parental care in Bulgaria. Тази година Социалната Програма към Сдружение 365 започна да работи с втори дом за деца лишени от родителска грижа – дом “Катя Ванчева” в село Широка Лъка. Широка Лъка е едно китно селце в Родопите, на около три часа от София. Екипът ни реши да покани децата на гости в София и да прекараме един уикенд заедно. Екскурзията бе спонсорирана от българското студентско сдружение в Манхайм, Германия – “Бай Ганьо“, което организира ежегодни дарителски акции в подкрепа на деца лишени от родителски грижи […]

На 29-ти август в Пловдив организирахме специална обиколка, за специлна за нас организация. Нашите приятели от Спина Бифида и Хидроцефалия в България са сдружение, което работи за постигането следните цели: да направиживота на децата си по-щастлив и пълноценен; да подкрепи новите родители в битките, които им предстоят и да информира бъдещите майки за превенцията на  дефектите на невралната тръба. Летен лагер В края на август месец Сдружението организира летен лагер, в близост до град Пловдив, с дарения от кампанията си „Сбъдни желание-подари  движение“.  В рамките на летния си лагер Спина Бифида и Хидроцефалия имаха идея за обиколка на забележителностите на град Пловдив. Ние приехме предизвикателството да покажем Пловдив на родителите и децата от лагера и с общи усилия събитието се превърна в истинско удоволствие и за двете страни. Нашият гид – Цвета, успя да покаже потайностите на Пловдив на 7 малки сладура от лагера и техните родители.

In October on a sunny Saturday we decided to take our young friends from Doganovo to a short trip. All 45 children and their teachers took a specially arranged for them bus and traveled for an hour from Doganovo to Plovdiv – the second largest city in Bulgaria. Several of our volunteers from Sofia and Plovdiv greeted them in the city downtown and all headed to the cozy pizza restaurant Godzila to have lunch before going for a stroll in old town Plovdiv. The lunch menu included delicious parlenki (type of flat bread), baked potato casseroles, and pizzas – all children’s favorites! Moreover, everyone got very excited when the manager of the pizza place surprised us with a gift from the restaurant – a large piece of cake for everyone! Once everyone’s tummies were full, it was time to meet with the guides from Free Plovdiv Tour and learn more about the city’s rich history. The tour started from the Ancient Stadium and Dzhumaya Mosque. The group then headed to […]

Our readers may remember that our last visit to Doganovo was in early spring, when we crafted matrenitsas together with the kids. After the summer break, we understood that the kids need sports shoes for the start of the new school year. So we visited them again to bring the shoes, but we also decided to surprise them with something in addition to that. We invited our partner organization Jazztet Foundation to enlighten the kids a bit about this music genre, which is rather unpopular and unknown to them. Their mission is to make people of all ages aware of what is jazz music and its connections with other music genres. They have a very famous project called “Jazz for Kids”, where they involve children in their music performances and help them learn about jazz by playing together with them. The musicians played a lot of popular songs in jazz versions to which the kids reacted with a lot of enthusiasm. Besides, they had a magic suitcase full of treasures such as small […]

Martenitsa Workshop After the Christmas workshop we did with the children in Doganovo, now it was time to get ready for one of our favorite Bulgarian traditions – Baba Marta (Grandma March). So, on Saturday, 15 February, we went to Doganovo to make lots of pretty martenitsas. These red and white thread adornments in the shape of a bracelet, doll or amulet that people in Bulgaria give to each other on the first day of March. More about the tradition On the first day of March and for a few days afterwards, Bulgarians exchange and wear these white and red adornments. The most traditional form is a set of small dolls called Pizho and Penda. In Bulgarian folklore, the name Baba Marta (Grandma March) refers to a grumpy old lady whose mood swings rapidly. It is a personification of the month of March. The common belief is that by wearing the red and white colors of the martenitsa people ask Baba Marta for mercy. They hope that it will make […]

After the great Green Day we organized for the kids from Doganovo, our Social Program decided to make the meetings with them more regular. So, in December we spent an afternoon in the Home crafting various traditional souvenirs and decorations typical for Christian countries around the globe to better their knowledge and spike their curiosity about the big round world. We showed them some pictures and taught them some stories about how people in Bulgaria, Germany, Australia, Argentina and the Philippines celebrate Christmas. We started with Christmas stockings… … and continued with angels 🙂 For the decoration of advent wreaths we had planned to use some typical German styles but the kids turned out to be far more creative combining everything we brought to make amazing new types of wreaths. We even came up with some ideas for decorating typical Philippine wreaths! The traditional Bulgarian thing that we made was Survachka.  Survachka is a small decorated branch that Bulgarian children use pat their relatives lightly on the back to wish them health […]

It has already been 25 months since we did our first charity Free Sofia Tour – on August 6th 2011. Since then, we have collected over 5000 BGN (Bulgarian lev) for charity purposes and were able to develop a whole new branch within our Association called the Social Program. The main focus of the Social Program is to organize and support various initiatives for the kids from the Home for Children without Parental Care in Doganovo – a small village near Sofia. Here are some of the projects we did for or together with them: Sports equipment (2011) Christmas theater (2011) Participation in the ANIMA Festival (2012) Support for the project El Paso (2012) Christmas presents at their Christmas show in Sofia (2012) School supplies for the start of the new school year (2013) Our project with the children has become so popular that it constantly inspires our guests: On behalf of our group I just transferred an amount of 400 EUR to the bank account of your Association, to spend it on activities […]

Last year we started to work with the Social workshop Dreams Unlimited. The workshop involves boys and girls from Bulgarian minorities and from socially disadvantaged families. The mutual objective of our Association and the coordinator of the workshop is to broaden the children’s horizons as well as to motivate them to learn foreign languages. After their first visit to Sofia center with one of our guides, they got so enthusiastic that started to prepare presents for the guests of the tour. In April this year the kids came to one of our charity tours and distributed their hand-made presents to a huge group from Turkey. This time the girls and boys from the workshop Dreams Unlimited decided to create tailored postcards for the guests of the tour. They came one sunny Saturday in late September to distribute the cards… …and brought smiles and admiration among our guests 🙂 Next month we are inviting our young friends to visit us in our office and to share ideas about Christmas decoration – […]