First topic message reminder :



Hi Guys

Feb has been a very slow month, not much happened really, see below.

Storage
We have all our goods ready and waiting to be stored unfortunately the TA cannot help us with storage this year, which is a shame as they have been brilliant. I have rang everyone from council to military services to self storage companies but we cannot get help. So, if you know of anyone who can help with donated storage until Sept , please do get in touch. We really appreciate it very much indeed.

Book sale
We have had confirmation that my place of work will allow us to hold a book sale to raise the funds towards the transport and the various renovations needed at the Orphanage. We have agreed the book sale will be held on 1st April. It is only open to staff so we will see how it goes. We have been donated lots of books and CD from Freegle and friends, which hopefully will sell, but if not ,we will take them to Bulgaria and ask for donations from the expats at our Garden Party. So fingers crossed all goes well.

Easter Chicks
Margaret our very good friend and avid supporter, again comes from Freegle has been knitting little chicks and putting a little cream egg inside. She raise a total of £35.50 when she took them to friends - This is a fantastic amount, well done Margaret!! You are a star! Myself and my friend Maureen have been knitting them too and we will bring them to the book sale on 1st April hopefully people will make donations - Oh they are so cute.

The wool project
We have a large box of wool now, but for the project we really need lots more. We have written to all the wool companies but so far only one company has replied and that is Simplywool.com in Scotland. The have been fantastic and send us a bag of wool and Christine also said she would start collecting and send what she can before the load is transported to Bulgaria. Thank you Christine, you have been wonderful! We will keep trying various other companies and of course we have the Freegle members, who have already given us some wool and needles. So if you can help please do get in touch.

People can also knit square for us and the ladies in the home can sew them together and make blankets - We also need lots and lots of good quality clean single blankets, which I will put an appeal our for in due course. We have such a long way to go yet with the wool. Again if you can help or know of anyone who can please do contact us. Special thanks to Elly who is always there to help out and support us. You are a little treasure! thanks.

Donations
A company called Great Gizmos in Crawley kindly send us a box of items for our shoeboxes, this is just fantastic - various items like moulding/bead kits, small board games, novelty handbag notebooks little cup cakes trinket cups and such. They are just lovely and the children will adore them - So thanks a million to Emma and Great Gizmos for helping us out Your donation will make so many children happy.

Also Hush Puppies donated 3 boxes of shoes to us they are mostly for the younger children and another box for the teenage girls although there was also some for the boys too. They are just fantastic so thanks to Sarah and the MD at Leicester for you wonderful donations. And of course a very special thanks to Bruce Dunn our very good friend from Scotland who offered to pick the shoes up on his way down to P'Boro from Scotland - Bruce you are wonderful and truly our guardian angel. Thanks a million time over.

Take a Break Magazine
Well I am sure you have all seen the story in Take a Break magazine - If not it is on the website under the photo gallery. It appears to be based around us, so you have an insight as to how things started and of course our plans for this year. The fee they will give for the article will go directly to the Orphanage fund for the transport and we will have various other fund raising events throughout the coming months and hopefully we will try to raise the transport costs. Although not sure there will be much, if anything left over for the renovations needed - but we will see how it goes. God is good.

The Garden Party
We have finally been given a date for the Garden Party at the Orphanage which is on Saturday Sept 25th from 1pm we do hope we get a lot more British &
Scottish there this year. We had fantastic support from 18 couples last year. Also a friend William and his wife Jo from Shuman came and brought their local mayor and friends too. They were very impressed at what we were doing. A few weeks later William send me an email to say that, his visit had a spin off effect with the Mayor as he came to William house saying he had some good for the children in the Shuman Orphanage. He asked William &
Jo to visit the Orphanage with him. This again, was fantastic new - The children were delighted with the gifts, even though they were feeling poorly at the time. William and Jo said it was fantastic to be able to help a very worthy cause. Well done guys! You did great. Dougie and I hope to have a few boxes we can donate to them this year too.

So you see, the word is spreading and people are beginning to help various other organizations, which is exactly what we set out to achieve. We will also check if we can organize with the various companies and Rotary club etc in Silsitra, if they can contact the local companies to see if they would fill a box of goods and send to the poor in the villagers and various other organizations. I hope to be visiting the local schools to speak with the directors about the children helping too..

Well that is if for now - We will just keep trying to find storage and hope someone will help us. I will keep you updated. Thanks again to all you lovely people who have helped and continue to help us, You are just fantastic and we could not do this without you.

Berni &
Dougie
Dimcho Debelianov

Sorry guys cannot upload the PDF version so no pictures only the text

Hi Guys

Happy New Year 2017

Thank you all once again for your continual support over the years, as you will read below things have improved greately since we started 8 years ago and it is all thanks to you guys. Now the children are settled in new home they don't need much so until further notice we will continue to stop donations and collections and see how it all goes now Social Services have taken control. We are very positive things will work out well.

Please find the 2016 Winter Newsletter attached

Thank a million for everything you have all been just amazing!.
Berni & Dougie xx

The Bulgarian Orphanage Appeal
Winter Newsletter 2016

We have had a very quiet year this year and this is due to the big orphanages closing down and small homes opening. We have not had much contact with the 5 new homes this year as they are now governed by Social Services and they don’t need our help although we still visit now and then, and if they need help we are happy to oblige.
We have 5 small homes in Silistra now and they are all well equipped with all they need. We only brought 4 pallets of goods this year to Bulgaria in April as they did not need much. The load was mostly for the disability centre in Aydimir. However, when the goods arrived here they only wanted some of it, so we had to enlist the help of Social Services and the Municipality Councillor Maria Stoicheva and Demi Mihaylova to help us find homes for the items.
Knit for Peace sent us 27 sacks of knitted items, hats, scarves, gloves and blankets but as we no longer have the baby orphanages or small children we could not distribute so social services instructed us where they should go and this was to the village of Yordanavo. The Mayor came and picked up over 80 boxes/bags that were left over after the distribution to our own homes in Silistra. We also have a few boxes of good second hand Christmas items i.e. soft toys and stocking fillers left over so Yvanka, Ginka and I wrapped them up for the village children in various villages Yordanavo, Kozach, and Iscar and whatever was left we sent to the people of Hitrino Crisis at Shuman where people lost everything when disaster struck their village.

Malak Preslavets orphanages new washing machine
A new washing machine was donated to the children of Malak Preslavetz, with a combination of funds donated from St James Chruch Hull and British Bulgarian Society. We went with Jill & Steve Webb and the Director to purchase the washing machine and a safety mat. The director Daniela selected both items herself. Thank you to Annie Kay and the British Bulgarian Society and also to all the members of St James Church Hull. You all did great!!

Christmas 2016
It was a very quite Christmas and 2016 for us this year regarding the orphanages and homes, we did not do the usual i.e. go to the orphanages and fill the stockings, in fact we did not get the opportunity to go to the homes for any events this year therefore, Yvanka, Ginka and I filled stocking and wrapped presents in our community hall. I assume with all the recent changes they no longer need help therefore we did the work and delivered to them.
Tenesay and the small home children
There was a large box of goods for Christmas for both homes. The directors/staff will fill the stockings.
White Dove Disability home for children/adults with disabilities
We filled 15 Christmas stockings in our community hall for the children/young adults in this home and we delivered them on 23rd. The children we very excited
.
Malak Preslavetz
There were two boxes of toys for the children as there are 15 children there also David Woollie and his club members collected a whole box of fantastic items including pens, crayons, colouring books, small toys, jewellery note pads various stationery sets and lots more to help us fill the Christmas stockings. The childrens stockings were overflowing this year. Our own Orton Community donated small soft toys etc ,Jean Marriott from Newark also collected lots of items and as always knitted lots of items too. Janet Beilsten and her crafting group sent us a box of stocking filler items lovely small hand knitted teddies, bags, pencil cases and lots more. You guys are all just fantastic. Thank you so much.

Finally: From us.
As Social Services are now coordinating all the homes here in Silistra, we find that we are not called upon or needed as before, therefore, and as they are doing a great job we will only visit when they need our help with something. It is now time for us to move on with our own lives, now the children are all sorted and settled. We have truly loved being part of their lives for 8 years and seeing the big changes for the better over the years. We are truly blessed.
Once again we have had yet another wonderful year and have achieved so much. We will be purchasing winter shoes via Nominal Accounting Ltd Burgas who donated funds earlier in the year. Thank you again Borislav for your continual support. Christine and Lester Griffin donated funds direct to the director Stilian Stoichev earlier in the summer so the children in the ‘Tenasee home’ children can have a holiday in 2017. Thanks to all our wonderful friends, supporters, donors, sponsors, special thanks to PC Howard Ltd, Tee Kay Packaging, Nominal Accounting Ltd Burgas, Chris, Bill, Margaret. All you guys are just AMAZING!! Thank you all for your continual support throughout the years. We could not do this without you.......
Berni & Dougie

Hi Berni
Should be attached?

Bill

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] as always a real

Thanks for the update will have a read later

Been two months now since Christmas and we have not heard a word from any of the new homes, not even a phone call to come and have coffee.  So I guess they are all nicely settled now and don't need us anymore  Or maybe Social Services have put their foot down firmly. We will pop in and see them when the weather gets a little better.