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

You must get really fedup of us all saying "
Well done etc"
but there isn't any words for us to express how well we think you are doing and the respect that we have for you and all your helpers. So here we go:

[align=center:2h56rujd][size=200:2h56rujd] A BIG WELL DONE [/align:2h56rujd]

All great new from you once again Berni I'm sure that one day you will look back on this and think "
How did I do all that"
and that's exactly what I'm asking now but somehow you seem to always surpass all expectations and make a huge change the the lives of so many

[size=150:3e3s5qow]Thank you ALL for your lovely comments really appreciate them very much indeed

Berni

Little late but here is April's monthly update

April Monthly Update 2011 re Bulgarian Orphanage Silistra

Here we are in April and our Easter projects booksale/ knitting went very well indeed. We raised a massive £161 at the booksale at my place of work on Friday 15th Which is just fantastic!!!! Thanks to Rick and Joy for helping us out. It was great to have you both there with me. Thanks to all our volunteers/knitters for the novelty eggs and cupcakes that they knitted and also for the lovely hand made cards. You all did wonderful

The Dimcho

Two of the computers are already set up at the Orphanage and a local company have agreed to set the other 8 up free of charge which is brilliant Thank you to the company in advance, once I have their information I will put it on the website,

Donations

Now for some wonderful news from our very special supporter Borislav! at Nominal Accounting Ltd Bulgaria


He is just a gem! Each year he donates to the Silistra Orphanage, back in 2009 he pledged to give 10% of all tax returns his company does to the Silistra Orphanage. Needless to say Borislav has kept his promise yet again and donated a massive £350 this year. This is an amazing amount and we will buy something worthwhile to mark this occasion. Thank you very much indeed Borislav, you are just wonderful and we bless the day our paths crossed. Well done!

We have very little collections or donated items this month, Steve W still shops on Ebay and send the items direct to us, so thanks a million Steve you are doing a fab job. I am getting a little concerned now as we only have one box of knitting wool for the ladies at the Home for the Elderly, This will only last them all of one day. Getting wool seems to prove difficult these days, so if you know of any establishment I can contact please let me know. I will keep plodding on.

ForwardPlanning
We spent Easter in Bulgaria and had a lovely time. We visited the Dimcho and the Baby Orphanage in Silistra. They are all looking forward to the Garden Party on Sat 1st Oct at the Dimcho Silistra. Plans are coming together now. Trust Radio will be there with their road show bus and broadcasting live so that should be wonderful. Also Angloinfo will be there and possibly Quest magazine, Channel 1 TV and the local media in Silistra, so plenty of media coverage. We will be on the lookout for a volunteer photographer again this year. We will be having the book stall, tombola, raffle, guess the cake/sweets weight and the BBQ and soft drinks, hopefully will get help from the local companies in Silistra this time, but we will see how that goes. We may even have all the way for Sliven the Selimin ski Silhouettes performing one or two routines. We will be holding an auction for the 5 special addition porcelain dolls We hope to have the 3 musicians again along with a few other entertainment groups I will update you all soon. If you would like to help in any way again please let us know or contact We hope to see many of you at the Garden Party on Sat Ist Oct again this year.
Anyone that would like to stay overnight in Silistra, we have a few guesthouses as well as the new Venna hotel, who will give us discounts. You can contact us or Mike or Jerry Black. Actually this would be an ideal opportunity to make a weekend of it and visit the Serbarna Birding Lake [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] or take a leisurely trip down the Danube on the Sunday
Thank you all once again for your continual support, as you all know, we cannot do this without your help. If you have any ideas how to help please do get in touch.

Berni &
Dougie

This is all such wonderful news and the people who are helping must all be so caring I will try and see what I can find out about wool but if you have already tried I'm not so sure I will have any luck but who know ? I will do my best.

Daisy would appreciate that. Wool is very had to come by we really don't have much at all this year. I have even tried the Bulgarian companies but with no success yet. But I will keep plodding on and on.

Here is the monthly update for May I have copied and pasted but no pictures however, click the link below to see the pictures

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... tenews.htm

May Monthly update re Bulgarian Orphanage Silistra 2011

After our visit to Bulgaria in April we have lots to do like find outdoor toys for the children in the Baby Orphanage ie, little trikes, bikes, dolls prams and small trampolines. We have an 8ft trampoline but we need an 8ft safety netting, then we and can donate this to the Disability Centre. No stopping Emma our volunteer, she has been busy shopping on Ebay for all sorts of goodies and donated them to us. She has been waiting patiently for us to say when to start on the outdoor items. Bless her, she is fantastic! Thank you so much Emma you are a real star!! Thanks also to Jennifer and her sister Linda who have been brilliant in donating all sort of toys, bikes etc see below. Rick continues to support us with collections and is involved in helping with a lot more activities now. He is a gem!. Thanks a million times over. We have 2 bag packing sessions this year so far but as always, we need volunteers therefore, if you are free to help for an hour or two, please let me know, we would be very grateful indeed.
Fundraising Events the planning: John Silkstone has approached us and offered to publish a book or two to help raised funds for the 'Dimcho Debelianov' Silistra Orphanage but in order for him to do this he does need the material so any budding writers out there that wish to participated, please read on and contact him direct, but please keep us updated on the forum. Thanks a million. We look forward to reading all your stories and poetry.

Dear Berni,

I am hopping to publish two books, one for poetry and one for short stories. I’m asking people to contact me at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].uk and I will send them the following submission guidelines.

Submission Guidelines for Poetry and Short stories
DEADLINE: Friday, 26th August 11:59pm GMT 2011
By submitting poetry the authors grant Longford Writers’ non-exclusive rights to publish their poem/s in print, digital and audio on behalf of the Dimcho Debelianov
Orphanage in Silistra Bulgaria. Copyright of all poem/s remain with the author.
Please submit to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].uk all correspondence is by email to keep cost to a minimum.

Guidelines
1. We are accepting poetry in ANY form.
2. No more than three poems per submission.
3. Short stories of no more than 2000 words.
4. Previous published work accepted. (Please state where first published)
5. After publication, the books will be on sale at a cost of £9. 99 and that include P&
P for UK only. A small extra P&
P donation may be charge for overseas buyers.

There are no fees and all profits made from the books are going towards the Silistra orphanage. No-one is being paid for their services.

For information about the orphanage, please visit the following site where you can make a donation if you don’t wish to take part in the anthologies. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
This is very good of John to think about us and he is doing all this himself. All he is asking for is if people can send him short stories or poetry. We are looking forward to the final results later this year. Thank a million John you are a star. Thanks also for the 40 calculators and the pens and pencils etc you sent to us they are just great.
Mike Black Pelican Guesthouse Serberna Silistra

Mike contacted me and this is what he has planned:

I am trying to organising a fundraiser for the Silistra Orphanages on behalf of Bernie and Dougie. It would be a 'Champagne Cruise' on the River Danube. A couple of hours up and down the river on a lovely boat on a nice summer afternoon with champagne and cake, soft drinks for designated drivers of course.

Champagne Cruise on the River Danube in aid of the Dimcho Debelianov Orphanage in Silistra.
On the 23rd of July on the Polaris 8 a really nice boat.

Meeting at 13:30 in the park to board the boat at 14:00 for meet and greet.
Departing for 'Cruise' at 14:15 with Free Champagne, Cake and Fruit Juice served until 15:45.
Then on board raffle prizes will be drawn with Bar open until 17:00.
You can pay either through Paypal or at your bank.

If you are interested please email: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] for payment details.

Only 40 places are available so book early to avoid disappointment.
Tickets are 25 Leva per person. ...thanks.. Mike.

Thanks a million for that Mike – keeping our fingers crossed you will get fully booked.
Donations for May
Special thanks to Jennifer, Linda and her family who donated this mountain of goods to us recently. This is a fantastic selection for the Baby Orphanage. The children will be overwhelmed. This year we will be there ourselves distributing the gifts. They would like to have a small party themselves. So there will be lots of photos etc.

We will keep plodding on. Special thanks to Margaret our friend and accountant who has been with us for a number of years and always continues to help were she can even thought she travel the continent she still finds time to help us. You are truly a star! Thanks for everything.
Booksale: Here is Dougie and Rick at the booksale in the restaurant at my place of work thanks you so much to Paul Baker for allowing us the space. We still have lots of books left, but these will be packed up ready to go to Bulgaria to go into the booksale at our annual Garden Party in October. Paul has agreed for us to hold another booksale in June.

We are in great need of wool for the ladies at the Home for the Elderly so they can knit goods for the other organisations and the poor, when they will be donated Christmas Eve. This project was a great success last year, as it not only helped the organisations but also helped the ladies in the Home and gave them something to look forward to and feel part of the community. If you can help with wool please can you contact us at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].uk . Thank you so much.
We also had contact from Gabriela Gerinska a Bulgarian girl at the Miami Beach Senior High School USA. Gabriela wrote: We are organizing primary school students which will draw and write unique picture books. I wanted to incorporate this program and help my country by donating some of those books to your orphanages. I will be able to translate the books in Bulgarian so that the Bulgarian children will be able to understand them.
Here is Gabriela and some of the pages which will be batched to books and will be taken to Bulgaria in June by Garbriela’s mother. Thank you so much Gabriela, they look fantastic and I am sure the children will just love them. They are very excited about getting them.

Here are the goods ready to go to PC Howard Ltd for storage as normal. Tee Kay Packaging supplied us with the boxes, which are big enough to accommodate the bikes ect. Both these companies have been amazing and we are so very lucky and grateful for their continual help and support. Thanks a million times over.
Here are a the pallets ready to go to PC Howard Ltd

Once again thank you all for your continual support please continue to help us with good clean clothes, toys, toiletries, stationery, new shoes/underwear, towels. Linen, blankets outdoor toys for the baby orphanages etc plus anything you think might be suitable to help us fill around 200 shoeboxes. Thanks a million
Thank you to an amazing young 11 year boy Zachary Simpson for his Xbox &
games donation. We did bag packing and raised a small amount of funds for the Bulgarian Orphanage. The funds went to good use as we bought a good secondhand Xbox and 8 games however, we needed more games so I asked our friends on Freegle if they could help. We were totally blown away when Jill came back to say she showed her 11 year old grandson, Zachary our email and he decided there and then that he would donated his Xbox and 26 game with steering wheel and 3 controls. We were just amazed! What a fantastic young boy Zachary is! He is a credit to his parents and grandparents. Well done and thank you so much for your wonderful gift, the children at the Dimcho will be overwhelmed. Zachary you really are a little star!. We now have two Xboxs, one for the little children and one for the older children. Thanks to Rick, Kevin, Peter and Amanda for their donated games. Here is Zachary giving us his donation.

This is 11 year old Zachary Simpson donating his Xbox and 26 games
Below are the 2 Xboxs and the games we have so far.
We will continue to collect the games for the original xbox from now until the end of the summer so any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated. I am sure the games will be difficult to get in Bulgaria. The more games we take over the better for the children.

Additional Donation: You remember Bryan Talbot who organised a Bulgarian night in Oxford earlier in the year, well he had another idea to ran a competition on ourbulgarianforum.co, re ‘Advertising Bulgaria’ He offered £10 as an incentive to the winner and also he would donated £25 himself to the Silistra Orphanage. The winner was Starlite and she also offered the £10 to the Silistra Orphanage, thank you Starlite that was very good of you. Bryan has now sent a cheque for £35. So once again, we say a missive ‘thank you’ to our friend and long time supporter Bryan for all your efforts and support over the last few years – You are a wonderful kind man and we are so glad you are always there for us.
This has been a fantastic month – we have managed to raise hopefully, enough for the transport costs now, but of course that will depend on the load and the high cost of fuel, anything left over will go towards new shoes for the children in the Dimcho. Special thanks to Gap and Next provided us with the clothing early in the year, now we need shoes/trainers. Thank you all so much for your continual support – without you guys we could not do this. You are all stars!!!!!
Finally: Happy Birthday to this fantastic lady my ‘Mum’ Angela who was 85 years young Sunday. Mum is the most generous, kind hearted, unselfish and caring person I know and I am truly blessed to have been one of the 12 children born to such a lovely lady. She truly is an amazing lady and we all love you lots and lots Mum xx

Finally: Happy Birthday to this fantastic lady my ‘Mum’ Angela who was 85 years young Sunday. Mum is the most generous, kind hearted, unselfish and caring person I know and I am truly blessed to have been one of the 12 children born to such a lovely lady. She truly is an amazing lady and we all love you lots and lots Mum xx
Berni &
Dougie

Berni, I just have to say the following, LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER or CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK comes to mind
well done to you all, :Clap:and if the other eleven brothers and sisters are anything like you, your Mum must be a real

Well done again Bernie and Dougie ... brilliant work!

Hope you Mum had a brilliant birthday too

:Waving:It is little old me again I have finally found the time to update the June &
July monthly updates. So sorry for delay Some of the photos are not on the website yet but Bill is working on that

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... tenews.htm

or here:
June &
July Monthly Update 2011 re Bulgarian Orphanage Silistra

Donations

Below are the lovely hats, mittens that Bett our lovely 85 year old lady knitted for the children she also knitted 100 squares for the ladies in the Home for the Elderly so they can sew together and make blankets etc for the poor to fill ready for their Christmas box. Bett you did fantastic! Thank you so much. Also below is a photo of the item for the Baby Orphanage. Focus donated us some vouchers last year so we thought we would put them to good use in their sale and this is what we bought for the Children in the Baby orphanage. They will love this!

Here is Dorothy our wonderful lady who supplies the materials knit and sew and coordinates all the knitting of these fantastic blankets. Dorothy and here lovely ladies have been knitting for us now for just over a year and so far they have knitted a massive 47 beautiful blankets. Dorothy says they want to keep going until every child has a blanket of their own. Dorothy and Kate even delivered the blankets and the massive amount of items Kate has been collecting for us. What wonderful people we have supporting us. We are so very lucky you found us. The orphanage is ray of colour now thanks to you lovely ladies and the children just love the blankets. You all do a fantastic job. Thank you all so much.

2 pics blankets 1- 2

Shoeboxes

We are now doing shoeboxes for the Dobrich Orphanage with a little help from friends, colleagues special thanks to Sharon, Emma, Paul Y, Paul B as they have all helped in their own special way. Also a massive thanks Maureen’s girls from the Orton 1st Rainbows, Brownies Guides and Rangers who filled 30 boxes last year, they have now sent us enough stuff to fill another 25 to 30 boxes this year – Thank you girls you did fantastic again this year – We are very proud of you all Well done!! We believe there are 90 children age 2 to 10 years at the Dobrich Orphanage.

Here is little old me covering the boxes ready for filling

pic berni at table

These are the items sent to us from Orton 1st Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers for the shoeboxes

2 pics shoe boxes 1 -2

We have filled over 30 boxes so far from the items the Orton 1st Groups donated which is just fantastic! So, once again well done girls!! you all did fantastic!!! Here are some boxes ready to go. Also some shoeboxes from my colleagues at work . Tomaz and his family filled an amazing 9 shoeboxes themselves. People help in their own way ie crafting, books, items etc. Special thanks to everyone, the restaurant managers and the staff are just fantastic and they support us in everything we do including the booksale. You are all just wonderful, a very big thank you from Dougie and myself for your continual support.

craft books pic

Bag Packing: Thanks to Rainbow store for fitting us in and thanks to Tracy, her Mum, David it went very well. As you can imagine our biggest cost is the transport and thank God that has now been raised yepeee!!!!! It’s such a great relief to get that out of the way.

Booksale Thanks to Paul Baker who helps us when he can by allowing us to do the book sales at my work place. The funds raised buys items for shoeboxes. The books that are left over will go to Bulgaria for the booksale at the Garden Party on 1st Oct, so far we have 7 boxes to go.

Our friend Yolla has been shopping again – last year she suggested doing a shop on line with Asda and send the good direct to us. This year she wanted to do the same and asked what we wanted. Told her loads of treats for the children, stores own products as they will go a long way and look what they will be getting. PARTY TIME!!!: fantastic Yolla, thank you so much you are a star!!

shopping pic

The Garden Party at the Dimcho Debelianov 3 Albana St Silistra

Sat 1st October 2011 11.00m till finish

Garden Party: We will be holding our annual fundraising Garden Party on Sat 1st Oct at the Dimcho Debelianov Orphanage Silistra. Plans are coming together now.

Rosie and the Guys from Trust Global Radio will be there with their road show bus and musicians as well as broadcasting live all day, really looking forward to that. Anglo-info and Quest magazine will be there to support us as well as Alex and his team of reporters and channel 1 BG tv. Also National Bulgarian Television has asked if they can come along too. Details to be confirmed.

The Dimcho children will be performing their talents by singing and dancing.

The Selimin ski Silhouettes will be travelling from Sliven all 12 children to perform a routine or two so if anyone can help them out with transport or accommodation we would be really grateful

We hope to have the 3 musicians from Sofia Geoff, Krasi and Mike from Silistra

Johathan Taylor has also email to say he will be attending and will happily do a song or two. Here

is his website [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

He will also be bring Valdi Totev (The Crickets) one of Bulgaria's most famous performers and his partner Dimmi (Violinist Russe Philamonic) they will be happy to perform for us. How wonderful is that. I am awaiting contact from Valdi. Everyone is so excited and can’t wait to meet them. Thanks a million guys you are great!!. Valdi Totev - Fiesta - Zlatna prolet (2011) ...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Cliff Norton has offered to donate this wonderful piece for raffle or auction. Thanks Cliff, well done! We all appreciate that very much indeed. We look forward to seeing you there
Playfull Goldfinches in morning snow this sign fine art print on watercolour paper is to help raise funds at the garden Party. Photo By Cliff Norton

bird pic

Michelle Warner of Bulgarian lifestyle has offered to donated one of her special cakes for ‘the guess the weight’ plus she may even bring along some cakes to sell as well.

doll pic

TrustGlobal Radio will be will be auctioning these 5 special addition porcelain dolls donated from Irene &
Dave last year, but we did not have enough time to auction them.

Mike &
Jerry Black owners of Pelican Guest House in Silistra has donated a weekend at their guesthouse...:-) ([You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]) this prize will either be auctioned or raffled.

There will be the normal raffle, tombola, book stall, guess how many sweets in a jar and guess the cake weight. I have knitted some mini Christmas stocking for sale, they are so cute. Raffle prizes are always welcome should you wish to donate please contact us

There will be a BBQ &
soft drinks (all food &
Soft drinks donations would be greatly appreciated)

We may need a volunteer photographer again this year so if you think you can help that would be fantastic or perhaps you are good at organising games etc please let us know.

Best of all, we will be distributing the goods we brought from the UK to the children sheer joy.

I would expect the city Mayor will make an appearance this year

If anyone would like to stay overnight in Silistra, we have a few guesthouses who will give a discount plus there is a new hotel nearby, they are happy to give us a discount but need to know how many are staying and how long etc therefore, please can you email our friend Jerry with your info here [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and just quote Dimcho Garden Party or as some of you said they would prefer to book the hotel direct, here is their website contact Violeta quote the same [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... tions.html

We will be meeting up at our friends restaurant down by the Danube for a meal the night before on the 30th It will give us a chance to meet everyone before the Garden Party and I might even put you all to work helping prepare for next day hahah (so no backing out)!

Actually this would be an ideal opportunity to make a weekend of it and visit the Serbarna Birding Lake [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] or take a leisurely trip down the Danube on the Sunday.

Our 1st Bulgarian company Nominal Accounting Limited has been with us for 3 years now and the donation Borislav made this year will go towards new shoes for all the children. Our friend Joanne and ourselves usually buy two 50lts boxes of sweets for the children, but this year Borislav at Nominal Ltd personally donated separate funds to buy the sweets and treats, how wonderful is that. Thank you Borislav you are a fantastic person

Our friend Nets Sneead from VT– is to donate a painting – details to follow in due course

Fundraising Events the planning: John Silkstone offered to publish a book or two to help raised funds for the 'Dimcho Debelianov' Silistra Orphanage but in order for him to do this he does need the material so any budding writers out there that wish to participated with stories and poetry, please John direct [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].uk There are no fees and all profits made from the books are going towards the Silistra orphanage. No-one is being paid for their services. See terms and conditions on the May Monthly update on our website below. Thanks a million John and all who take part..

The Pelican Guesthouse Serberna Silistra

Mike &
Jerry Organised an afternoon out for 40 people on the ‘The Danube Champagne Cruise’ on 23 July. They raised a massive 1140 lev. Mike and Jerry wish to donate 340 to the Dimcho and the remaining 800 lev will go to Malek Preslavetz orphanage, which is just outside of Silsitra town, They will buy new school uniforms for the 13 children there. Thanks a million for your donation to the Dimcho guys, you did fantastic!! Also thanks to everyone who helped with your fundraising event, you did great. Everyone really enjoyed the day and can’t wait to do another one next year.

danube pic

The translated Bulgarian books from the Bulgarian student Gabriela in the USA are still on their way, so when they arrive at the Dimcho I will updated you . Thank you so much Gabriela, they look fantastic and I am sure the children will just love them. They are very excited about receiving them.

books pic

We have 2 more pallets of goods to go to PC Howard Ltd in Kingscliffe ready for storing. They organize the collection and storing of the goods for us until we are ready to send to Bulgaria. They are just wonderful. We also have Tee Kay Packaging who supply all our boxes, which are big enough to accommodate the toddlers larger toys this year like good second hand trikes/bikes ect. Both these companies have been amazing and we are so very lucky and grateful for their continual help and support. Thanks a million times over guys without your support we could not do this.

This has been a fantastic few months – we have managed to raise hopefully, enough for the transport costs now, but of course that will depend on the load and the high cost of fuel, anything left over will go towards new shoes for the children in the Dimcho. Special thanks to Gap and Next who provided us with the clothing early in the year, all we need now are shoes/trainers. Thank you all so much for your continual support – without all you guys, we would be struggling. You are all stars!!!!!

The donated swimming pool:

Well now this is the swimming pool we purchased with the funds donated from Michaela, Corroda and family from Italy. What do you think? Was this a good idea? We think so!! looking at the children’s faces – To see a child smile or to hear their laughter is the most satisfaction reward anyone can every experience in life and the pictures below say it all. Thanks again Michaela

pool fill,kid in pool, loads in pool

Thank you all and we look forward to seeing you at the Garden Party 1St Oct

My goodness you have been busy I don't know how you do it or where you get the energy from but I guess its the look on the faces of the children and the difference you make to their lives, well do Bernie and all those who are helping and all the best at the garden p[arty too. Sorry I can't make it.

Thank you for you lovely comments really appreciate it very much indeed

There will be one more monthly updated this year - that will be after the Garden Party than I will do a quarterly update. See the website for the photos
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... tenews.htm

Aug &
Sept Monthly Update 2011 re Bulgarian Orphanage Silistra

Donations
Our lovely Kate arrived on Monday with another car load of goods she has been collecting herself and from friends. Kate is amazing and has rallied around all her friends to help. Kate, Dorothy and their ladies who do the knitting for us have been with us now for 2 years and they are all smitten. They just love being involved and knowing that all the fantastic work they do is greatly appreciated and the children just adore the blankets and goods They provided all the materials and knit, sew and pack the blankets themselves. To date they have now knitted 50 beautiful coloured blankets for the Dimcho which is absolutely marvellous and we thank all our wonderful ladies for their continual help and support to the children of the Dimcho. All our knitters do a wonderful job. Also thanks to their lovely ladies at the Belsmeslthorpe group, Ann Y, Annie, Liz, Jan’s mum for, items/toys etc and Kate herself brought a TV and bedding and not forgetting the big bag of sweets
Our family:
Here we have the man himself Dougie, our son Lee daughter-in-law Clair grandchildren Rhys and Grace wrapping up the lucky dips for the garden party on 1st Oct at the orphanage. They came for a visit and ended up working. Thanks guys you did a fab job special thanks to our star Claire for all your support and goods donated throughout the year, you have been great!!. Also special thanks to Catherine Rob and Gracy for this fantastic two room playhouse and the mountain of toys and beautiful clothes they donated. The children will just love the house and everything else too. We plan to have a little tea party at the baby orphanage 8th Oct where we will be setting up the bigger toys and distribute the goods to the children. We can’t wait to see their little faces.
Thanks Celia, Hilary, Amanda, Sharon, Elly, Rick, Emma, my work colleagues and everyone else who has donated the goods to us again this year. We are overwhelmed at your generosity. You have all been just magnificent and totally amazing. Thanks to all of you we have helped so many organisations with your continual support. Hilary has filled 15 huge boxes with fantastic goods donated on behalf of her mother as well as a sewing machine and everything that is required to get the ladies in the Home for the Elderly started in our new project. As well as the ongoing knitting project I will introduce a new sewing project making quilt, sheet, toys etc. We will provide the materials and the ladies will make the items and distribute to the poor in Silistra It would be really good to get a company in Bulgarian to help with fabric. Our new Orphange Malek Preslavetz
We have also done some shoeboxes for the new orphanage Malek just outside of Silistra as well as several large boxes of toys and clothes. We will visit them ourselves in October and take them the goods. Hopefully should get some photographs too.

Here are some of the pallets ready for collection for storage by PC Howard Ltd

We are getting really excited now just had notification that our entertainer friend Jonathan Taylor and his friends well know singer Valdi Totev and Daniel Delev along with Mike Black will be donating their time to us at the Garden Party. Thanks you are all stars!! Look forward to meeting you all

Valdi Totev

see website for photos

Here are some of the 100 mini Christmas stocking I have knitted ready for the Garden Party 1st Oct
Booksale Thanks to Paul &
Nick who allowed us to do the book sale at my work place. The funds raised went toward buying plastic cups, plates etc as well as good second hand kettles and a coffee maker for the Garden Party.
The Garden Party at the Dimcho Debelianov 3 Albana St Silistra Bulgaria 7500
Sat 1st October 2011 11.00am till finish. See the website for the programme
If anyone would like to stay overnight in Silistra, in one of the guesthouses contact Jerry [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] or those that wish to stay in the hotel you can book direct quote the Dimcho Garden Party [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... tions.html
Our plan is to set up everything at the orphanage on Friday 30th and when we have finished we will meet up at our friend’s restaurant down by the Danube for a meal, no doubt Jonathan and Mike will be giving us a song or two.
All our goods are on the way now they left yesterday see article in the Evening Telegraph : Visit top link on links page -
Special thanks to everyone at PC Howard Ltd in Kingscliffe for supporting us with storing. They organize for all the collections and store all the goods for us until we are ready to send to Bulgaria. They are just amazing. Also thanks to everyone at Tee Kay Packaging who supply all our boxes, again this company is fantastic and without both these companies we would be struggling, so a massive thanks to you both – you do so much to help our children and we are all truly grateful;

Delamode Transport has also been wonderful. Not only did they give us free space to take over the computers earlier in the year, they will keep the costs of transport as low as possible for us this year, despite the fuel increase. Price can range between £1200 to £1500 depending on the load This is indeed a great deal of money for us to obtain and even thought we have supporters on ourbulgarianforum.com and Nominal supporting us, without their help we would struggle. We still have to do bag packing and book sales to meet the target.
Special thanks to all our sponsors for the goods and help along the way. Thank you to Bryan, Margaret and our friends for all your help. Thanks also to Bill our web designer, who works quietly behind the scenes and always there to help. Thanks also to Ashley and Chris for their support on ourbulgarianfourm.com. Thank you all so much for your continual support, each one of you play a part in our success and you should all be very proud. You are all stars!!!!!
Here is the load we shipped out on Friday 16th Sept

Thank you all and we look forward to seeing you at the Garden Party 1St Oct.

Bernie &
Dougie

Quarterly updated Dec 2011

Here we are at the end of the year and what a year this has been, so much has happened it’s hard to believe how quickly we have grown. I will, from now on, be doing a quarterly update, so here is the last update for 2011. Thank you all for your ongoing support. We are truly grateful to you and the children in all our orphanages/establishments have a better quality in life thanks to your generosity. Well done to everyone you did great!

Below are the companies who sponsor us in various ways on ourbulgariaforum.com Admin has added 3 new sponsors Beer.BG, B.I.B Building Services Ltd and Lowcostcarhirebulgaria . Welcome and thank you so much for your support and also thanks a million to our existing sponsors. You are all just wonderful. We really appreciate your support.

Our friends Sue &
Dave organised a Karaoke &
Auction to raise funds for the Silistra Orphanage Sue, Dave, Max and Ruth and friends raised a whopping!!!!! 870lev and donated it direct to the Director at the Dimcho orphanage
** photos on the website under Events Report

Also thanks to Christine for the wonderful knitted Santa’s and snowmen she knitted, which all sold out at the Karaoke night. Special thanks to all the friends who attended and offered prizes for the auction, you all did great thanks a million. The funds will go toward the holiday we hope to send the children on in the summer holidays.
Thank you: What star you are to help by raising the funds and then to go out of your way to make the donation personally. Thank you a million times over. It is fantastic to have such wonderful support from our friends. Sue, Dave, Max &
Ruth and all their helpers in Bulgaria. You all did a fantastic job!! Berni &
Dougie xx

Fund raising event
Thanks to the Co Op for allowing us to bag pack and special thanks to our little angels Chloe and Keeve 13 year old twins who were fantastic and did the bag packing to raised funds for our transport next year. You were both amazing thanks you so much.
******photo is on the website under Monthly updates

As well as our two main orphanages and other establishments, we have now taken on a new orphanage Malek Preslavetz just outside of Silistra. There are 16 children there at present all aged between 3 and 10 years. This year we took them 15 large boxes of goods i.e. clothes, toys, sweets, biscuits etc (See the photos on the website under Malek Preslavetz) We also filled 16 shoeboxes and left a large box of goods just in case any more children are put in emergency shelter for Christmas. Photos will follow and will be put on the website.

We have already started the project to help them for 2012 – we have one of our long terms helpers (she does not wish to be named so we will call her Mrs S). She has offered to buy all the new underwear and socks for 20 children. She has also been collecting coats, good/new shoes, winter clothes and soft toys along with the mountain of other items she has stored since September. Thank you so much, you have been just wonderful.

Dorothy, Kate and the ladies who knitting the 50 blankets for the Dimcho has now decided they will knit for the Malek Orphanage too. They will knit 16 blankets in total and will continue knitting 50 or more for the baby/medical orphanage throughout the year. Just want to say we are really grateful to our wonderful helpers. They supply all the materials as well as knit the blankets. Once they blankets are finished Kate delivers them to us. Kate has also been collecting goods and has delivered 12 bags of baby clothes for the Baby Orphanage already. Emma has also been collecting toys and clothes so we are off to a good start.

For now, we will concentrate on the Malek Preslavetz until we have enough coats, and winter clothing and soft toys. Then we will start on the shoeboxes for the Dimcho and Malek and large boxes of toys for the baby orphanage/medical centre. Thanks you all for your ongoing support.

I also have support from our friends Christine and Sue in Bulgaria who will help with the new knitting project. I asked for knitters to help with scarves, hats and gloves for Malek orphanage and so far we have 6 knitters who have agreed to help throughout the winter months. They will bring them to us at the Garden Party in Sept or Oct 2012. So once again, thank you to all you wonderful people for your support – you are just amazing.

Project 1: Our new project for 2012 for the Dimcho
This is a major task for us but we will do our best to achieve it. We will be relying on kind sponsors to come forward to help us.
Our idea is to send the children and carers from the Dimcho on an activity holiday within Bulgaria during school holidays. As you can imagine this would only be a dream for the children, but we would love to make it reality. I will be contacting all the activity holiday parks in Bulgaria. If you know of one near you or you know someone who can help us, please can you forward the necessary details to me at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].uk Thank you so much.

Project 2: The DMSGD Baby Orphanage/Medical Centre
In this Centre there are 90 children and they are in need of additional space. They need a new building to accommodate the children with medical conditions and allow those that have parents/family to visit and care for the children themselves. The plans have been agreed for a new building but there are no funds available for builders or materials. Therefore, the Director has asked if we could help them in any way. This is a huge project and way too big for us, but there is no reason why we cannot try to obtain the donated materials they need for this project and perhaps later find the labour and support. Again if you have any ideas on how you or your friends can help, please do get in touch. You never know what you can do unless you try.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and may we wish you all a very :M3:. Thanks again for your help and support to our cause and if you can help in the coming year please do contact us . We hope to start collecting goods again in Feb 2012.

Berni &
Dougie
Bulgarian Orphanages Silistra

This is all great news so well done to you and all the supporters/donors You have got yourself a tall order for 2012 but knowing you and your undying perseverance you will get there. Good luck for 2012

One thing is for sure you will never forget the word thanks! Joking aside you have done a great job over the many years with the orphanage and it seems you will be working even harder from here on, I wish you every success but I'm sure the gods will be with you.