This section is under development. We will soon describe here our current projects in Stara Zagora, Petrovo, Troyan, Lom and other places in Bulgaria. Here are a few of our recent and ongoing projects.

Recycled Christmas cards

Several parishes in Northamptonshire have voluntarily donated the proceeds of the sale of recycled Christmas cards to FoB for charitable causes in Bulgaria consistently over the past ten years or so - the funds increase each year as the number of recycling groups has increased and as their work now runs throughout the year, recycling not just Christmas cards but the range of greeting cards: birthday cards, Get Well, Good Luck and special anniversaries.

Social worker placements

Alerted that a social worker from Star of Hope was seeking work experience in England, FoB identified a charity able to host the placement of a foreign social worker and put in touch with YMCA, Northampton.

Last November 2007, Friends of Bulgaria was able to help Eli, a social worker with Star of Hope in Sofia find a placement of a week's experience with the YMCA in Northampton. Both charities are concerned with addressing the problems adolescents face leaving care and adapting to adult life. The time Eli spent familiarising herself with the programmes of the YMCA have been an inspiration to improved the work of Star of Hope enabling them to develop their approaches which they presented formally to the Social Ministry. Furthermore, the placement has led to an ongoing co-operation and Peter Storey, the CEO of the YMCA in Northampton is visiting Star of Hope in Bulgaria in April, with Emilia, the Director of Star of Hope making a reciprocal visit to the YMCA in Northampton in June.

Cooking courses

In January 2008 Friends of Bulgaria directed funds for courses on Domestic Science and Cooking organised in March by Star of Hope for adolescents in the Special Needs School in Roman. The funds were raised over the course of last year by the sale of seasonal greetings cards made by groups of volunteers in neighbouring parishes in Northamptonshire meeting together to re-cycle used cards by remounting the images onto fresh cardpaper.

Please have a look at some of our other past projects HERE.