After more than 20 years of working with children and young people to help them find their pathway and/or to overcome a difficult stage they are going through, we have now focused our efforts:
- we have set our sights on creating a Green Education Centre in Styrgel, where we can continue to encourage children in their growth by implementing our "School Makes Sense" and "Exploring the World of Others" programs.
- to work with children from vulnerable groups and refugee children in our Sofia office, where we provide them with educational support.
- to fundraise and run outreach camps where children from different ethnic groups and nationalities learn about themselves and overcome their prejudices against others through play and working together, without lecturing and nagging.
We therefore greatly appreciate the financial support of
Enery and their willingness to be part of the overall work of the organization.
In June, we received a donation for the educational classroom in our office, where we have been working since April with children and families leaving Ukraine after the war. With this donation, in addition to supporting the activities of the classroom, we were able to co-fund the participation of children from Ukraine and their teachers during our annual "Exploring the World of Others" seaside camp (the rest of the donation is from the BCause Foundation). The children were very happy to get out of the house and be among many children for whom the main topics are not the war and when we will go home. Attending their camp was also very beneficial for the other students from Gorna Malina, Slashchen and Medkovets who had different perceptions and attitudes towards Ukrainians from the media and their families, but had no personal experience and understanding of them. In the end they were all unanimously pleasantly surprised and concluded that "they are children like us too". During the camp,
Enery challenged all participants to fill out a survey related to sustainable consumption, and the most interesting answers received prizes.
Parallel to the classroom,
Enery will help us by building a solar system at the Green Centre in the village of Styrgel to provide the electricity needs for the activities in the workshop. The workshop will be one of the most interesting places in the complex with its three working rooms. One room is intended to be a cooking studio where children can experiment from frying eggs to molecular cooking. The second room, an applied-technical room, where children will be able to learn basic skills for everyday activities as well as be "tinkerers" and carry out their inventions. The third space is dedicated to old crafts and will have looms, sewing machines and a potter's wheel. The workshop has a secured flat roof which will have a demonstration beehive with an apitherapy bench, demonstration solar panels and a telescope.
...and in the meantime, the work in the classroom daycare continues, adapting constantly to the different needs of the children and families.
Thank you to
Enery for the flexibility that is part of their business philosophy and applying it as donors too!
