September 2008 Convoy to Bulgaria Orphanages,
Schools & Hospitals to be Helped

The two organisations we are working with are One Life for Bulgaria (www.onelifebulgaria.org) and Lora’s Foundation (http://lorafoundation.co.za/)

Earlier this year, after the showing on television a programme titled ‘The Forgotten Children of Bulgaria’ depicting some of the harrowing images of life in a Bulgarian orphanage/institution, it was considered that it may be time to think of Bulgaria as an alternative destination for a future convoy. With this in mind contact was made with the Bulgarian embassy in London seeking the identity of any British NGO’s working within Bulgaria. The embassy responded with 4 NGO’s, all of whom were contacted by the national organiser but only 2 replied expressing an interest in having further information about our charity. After several communications with both organisations it was decided that we would need to visit the orphanages/institutions identified by them to see first hand if there was an actual need. Below is a brief report on each of the 3 venues visited together with a recommendation from us on any future involvement?

Razdavitza
This was a village housing an orphanage caring for 73 children with an age range of 5-15 years. The majority of these children were from the nearby Roma (gypsy) area, all of the children attended the school in the village and return to the orphanage for lunch before returning to school for the afternoon session. Many of the girls, when they reach the age of 14-15, are forced into marriage within the Roma community, many becoming young mothers themselves within a short period, thus the cycle continues. More...