October 2010 Update re the Bulgarian Orphanage Silistra
Hi Guys
We have now made our delivery for this year 2010 to the Dimcho and 2 other orphanages, the Home for the Elderly and unexpectedly the Disability Day Centre. Also to the local doctors surgery where we brought two walking frames, a wheelchair and some medical provisions along with some latex gloves, which believe me were all greatly appreciated – Doctor Theodor could not thanks us enough for the walking frames in particular, they will be a great help to the elderly. We will see if we can obtain some more for them next year 2011.Below is one of our new establishments we have taken on for 2011
This is the Disability Day centre and some of the children see pictures below
There are 48 children from age 3 to 18 who are residents in this Centre plus they also have daily visitors. I am awaiting the information to be translated to English which will be done in due course. When we visited the centre, we were welcomed by the director Yavanka, she showed us around and although items we old they appeared to functioned well. On first impressions, the place looks nice clean and bright, everything has its place neat and tidy. Some of the children were sitting around empty tables. There was nothing to keep them occupied, no games or any form of recreation or activities were to be found. I wonder what they do all day. We asked what it was that they needed most and Yavanka said furniture, tables and chairs, towels, sheets, clothing, shoes, toiletries etc. We are awaiting a list of items.
Good news from our visit:
Firstly the funds raised at the Garden Party will now go towards building a large wooden building for recreations etc at the Dimcho. Building was due to start in mid Oct but the weather has change now and is very cold in Bulgaria so that will be put on hold until the spring.
A group of 12 teenagers and 2 teachers from a college in London have visited Silistra and have carried out some work such as painting of the fences and various planting of fruit trees and gardening. This I understand is something organised by a Bulgarian tutor who works in the college in London. This is something they undertake in Bulgaria every year. Wonderful thanks a million.
We now have
2 American Peace Core teachers Caran &
Mike Ross who volunteered to go to the Dimcho every Saturday to teach the children English. This is indeed a fantastic offer and we and the director are overwhelmed at their generosity. Thanks a million times over to Caran &
Mike you are doing a fantastic job.
We have good contacts now in Bulgaria with Trust Radio Europe and Anglo-Info and Quest magazine that are more than happy to help us where they can. I have asked them all to help us with our new project, which is to get the Bulgarians helping each other. Details are further on in the updated.
We also had Bryan &
Sheila Talbot from Banbury who organised a ‘Bulgarian Theme Night’ at the Horse &
Groom in Milcombe on 8th October. The Landlord Richard &
Rachel Argile were more than happy to stage the event and they all agreed that a donation would be made to the Silistra Orphanage. They raised a massive £100 which is a really good start to our transport costs for 2011. Thank you all so much and especially Bryan you are a little gem!
We need to catch up with David Kennedy Financial Management in Spain as he was the winner of the weekend at Pelican’s Guest House we will keep you up to date hopefully we can arranged for David to visit the Dimcho when he visits Bulgaria, or you never know we might be there at the same time ourselves.
Cindy from Angelo-Info contacted me and said that Barbara Heaven had donated back the 50lev of food vouchers for British Lion Foods in Dobrich to us for the Orphanage. This is fantastic news and we are delighted. Thank you Barbara and Cindy for thinking of us, this will make a big difference to the Orphanage we have in mind for this food. I will update you all next month. I will be contacting George at British Lion Foods to select goods for the children but knowing George, I am sure he will give a lot more than the vouchers value. Thanks again to everyone for your support, we really do appreciate it very much indeed.
Elly our volunteer has organised a winter project knitting hats, scarves, gloves for the children. People have been donating wool which she is making good use of. She is a star!!. Elly has recruited a few more lovely ladies Denise and Vicky to help us they are doing a fantastic job so far, see some pictures below. We also have Tina and Dorothy and friend who knitted those lovely blankets we took over in Sept. They have continued the knitting and have several more for us already. Thanks a million guys the children just loved them. Also the cardigans below have come all the way from Australia Sheila my friend knitted them and posted them in July and we rec’d them end of Oct. I have now sent them and some more goods with a friend to the Priateli orphanage in another part of Bulgaria.
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Our New Project to start in Nov 2010 in Bulgaria.‘Berni &
Dougie’s Chrismas Boxes "
Коледно кутии, Берни и Дъги"
This is a splendidly simple idea that everyone can help with and we can start immediately. We are asking businesses, schools, colleges, hospitals and homes, in fact everyone all over Bulgaria, if they can have a box in their establishments and houses for all their staff members, clients, students, families and friends to donate one or two new items towards. The donors can nominate an establishment in their area that they want to collect the items for, their local orphanage, a home for the elderly, a disability centre or some other worthy cause.
Things like toiletries, gloves, hats, scarves, socks, slippers, toys, books, CD’s, DVD’s, hair accessories, make up, games etc.
Maybe you could collect non-perishable food items to fill the boxes? Think how well a nice tasty treat will go down at this time of year.
Once the boxes are full they can be delivered to the selected establishments in time for Christmas. It would be rewarding for everyone involved and just think of how happy you could make those who usually go without.
It can be difficult to get people to make a positive move and commit to a cause, something else always gets in the way and good intentions sometimes come to nothing, but with this simple and super idea everyone can gain, the people who donate can be very proud they have helped those who are less fortunate then themselves and obviously all the establishments receiving gift boxes will benefit too. Hopefully you can help them have a wonderful happy Christmas for a change.
Whoever participates in this project will be mentioned via our media supporters, Trust Radio, Anglo-Info and Quest magazine therefore, we will need to have your name and company or establishment’s information, more details will follow when we start advertising in Bulgaria soon.Contact:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].uk
Thanks you for help us to help those who needs a little extra care this Christmas.
The Dimcho is looking so much better from when we first started and although we have not donated cash before, only goods such as clothing, shoes, toiletries, blankets toys, books shoeboxes etc, what they saved in their small budge allowance for these items, they put towards the renovations and with the help from the EU which, I understand funding was given to all the Bulgarian establishments, they managed to complete the new windows and internal doors, new laminated floors and two shower rooms as well as painting the bedrooms. This is indeed a great achievement and the Director Stilian is very proud of the work to date. The building still needs a lot of work doing including a new heating and insulating system. I am sure this will happen in due course, but for now small steps at a time. The best thing of all is peace of mind and knowing that the orphanage is improving and the children will have a nice cosy home for this winter.
Finally: Special thanks to Bill and Sue who are our volunteers in Bulgaria. Bill has been fantastic he has spent many hours re vamping our website and what a fantastic job he has done. He even surprised me by putting on a language tool, which is brilliant, thanks a million Bill you are a star! Thanks also to Sue who runs a book club in Spasovo. You are both fantastic! Thanks a million. Once again on behalf of Dougie and myself Berni and everyone else a huge big ‘thank you’ for all your various donation and ongoing support and goods wishes, we really do appreciate it very much and of course we cannot do this without your help.
Berni &
Dougie
Silistra Orphanage