This May we visited an orphanage in Parvomai which is 5 miles from Petrich in the South West of Bulgaria.
The home is for children aged 7-14.
It is a large ex-communist building, clean, tidy, light and airy. The few staff that we met were dedicated and caring.
The childrens bedrooms were tidy and clean but basic. The dining room was clean and tidy but again basic. The home was not very homely. I think the staff have tried to create a good environment by putting drawings up on the walls and trophy cupboards in the corridor. There is a piano in the dining room which someone comes to play to the children sometimes. There are 45 children but we only saw about 10. They were mostly playing outside and in the street. The children were lovely and were dressed reasonably well. They played happily with each other. Some of the children lingered around us, probably out of curiosity and maybe hope.
I find it very sad that these children have spent so long in the orphanage and that they will most likely spend the rest of their childhood there without the love and care of parents. Adoption is rare, I think because of their ages and because it is a long and difficult procedure. We spoke for quite a while with the Director who told us the biggest problem is that once the children leave the orphanage if they cannot find work they have no family to support them. They are very much in need of a lot of things. They have a website which lists some of these. They also need clothes and shoes which I did not see on the list. We feel the children would benefit greatly if they had more books, reading and writing materials, musical instruments and ideally computers ( for classroom use only) They have only one very old computer.
Our hope is that by using this website we can raise money which we will use to buy what is needed and deliver these items personally.
If you would like to donate to 'Future for Petrich' and help us to raise funds for the Parvomai orphanage you can do so by clicking on the above 'Donate' link.
If you are interested in doing your own fundraising activity for the 'Parvomai Orphanage' please contact us for literature.
Keep watching for future updates.
Eve Bogdantsalieva - Trustee
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