Archive for Events
Magic Tricks for the Kids
Magic Tricks were entertaining about 50 children from the Roma District of Stara Zagora and about 15 more from the service Small Group Houses. Both of the events happened on 28-th December. The 18-years old illusionist from Sofia – Andrey Mihov – often entertains in the capital for profit, but now it was voluntary, as our animator. “I love seeing people smile during the tricks” – he says. After the show he played with the kids and showed them the secrets of some easy tricks.
The house that we used was also given voluntary for this event by the private owner.
Cooperation with the School in the Roma District
This month we officially established our cooperation with the school in the Roma district. Most of our children go there. With the kind help from the director, we implemented special certificates.
One of our main goals is to prevent students to be dropped out of school. Although we succeeded to make our kids more concerned about their education, still it happens that some of them are absent from classes, even for whole days. As we have mentioned, our main tool for motivation and punishment is our point system. The students receive points from their participation in the study-room, the workshops etc. In case of bad behavior, we take away some of their points, according to the situation. These points are also kind of credits for “buying” some privileges Among the most desired ones are 2/3 discount of the prize for our winter and summer camps, and also fully paid excursions. For two years we have seen that this point system works perfectly. From now on points will be received only with certificate, signed by a teacher from the school that shows if some of the classes were skipped by the students. The certificates are very simplified and need only signature. The teachers wishfully do it for us.
Two New Workshops
Two new workshops are already available for our children – tailing and playing the synthesizer. They are leaded by the two volunteers from the Czech Republic – Monika and Marketa, who are here from the European program “Youth in Action”. Both of the initiatives were welcomed with enthusiasm from the students. We are confident that these are good skills, which will build up the kids and will increase their wish for development.
Tour to Plovdiv
A one-day tour to Plovdiv was organized for our Roma kids. We were 19 people who went in 27-th of November in this “ancient and eternal” city. The main goal was the Natural History Museum. We were lucky to encounter an exhibition of life exotic reptiles that made the students very excited. Most of them were lucky to touch some of the lizards and haflmles snakes (wathed by the owner of the animals).
After organized lunch, there was a walk to the ancient part and some of the city hills.
About 15 New Kids
For three months about 15 new children have joint us. With a great enthusiasm they have been visiting out study room and workshops. Most of the newcomers are in the elementary school and we are glad that we will have the possibility to help their education from an early age. Some of the older students have eagerly begun helping us in leading the workshops and the games. Thus the kids are now more, but the discipline is good. The valuable help of the two Czech volunteers from the European program “Youth in Action” makes our work better and easier.
Here are some pictures of the kids.
Marketa - one of the Czech volunteers
Monika (in the middle) - the other Czech volunteer ... Or rather part of her 
Corse for Animators B3
From 22-th to 24-th of October we had our third course for animators from B group. With this course, we have officially finished our first year.
The talks were made very interesting by Petr Cvrkal, Jaroslav Fogl and two animators from A group – Viktor and Georgi. As every time, games played an important role in the program. They were connected with the talks and we had to apply what we had learned. We were also watching at the second part of the movie “Don Bosco’s life”, which has revealed us some interesting moments. At the end, after the nice weekend spent together, we had to split until the next course.
Tanya,
Animator.
Young, Fresh, Enthusiastic
Volunteers from Czech Republic
Monika and Marketa – volunteers from Czech Republic. They joined us on 1 October. Though they are still studying Bulgarian, they succeed to participate actively in our center. They are here for a year form the European program “Youth in Action. We are just introducing you them and will continue telling you about them.
„Different Sight“ – With Rattan Baskets
Street art and culture were smelling from the annual art festival “Different Sight” – 18 September 2010, Stara Zagora. Through rattan basket weaving, we applied the idea of the festival for rapprochement and informal communication. The weaving was leaded by two ladies from our workers and two boys from our center for chirldren and youts in the Roma quarter. One of the lady simultaneously cared for the music as DJ Miss Marcolina.
With Children from Small Group Houses
Together members of our foundation and animators, we were gathered in the center for children and youths „Oasis“ in the city of Kazanlak to meet group of children form small group houses in Stara Zagora. They came in the morning – 14 kids and 3 supervisors.
The whole day was full of games and other entertainments for the kids. The topic was “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and therefore we projected a part of the movie. After the movie, immediately in the room came two Snow Whites and split the kids into two teams of seven dwarfs. They had to find a hidden treasure. Every kid received a badge with a dwarf name from the fairytale and used it as own during the whole day.
To find the treasure, the teams had to pass different obstacles and each time they earned a golden stone. The obstacles were games – jumping rope, drawing with pencils, passing on bricks, joining pictures and many others. When the two teams passed all of the obstacles, they joined to find the treasure chest. They were looking for a while and when finally found it, they seemed really happy. After a lunch, there was the ceremonial opening of the chest. It contained many sweet things and presents for every kid.
Margarita Petrova,
Animator
Camp for Roma Boys ″Become Famous Forever!″
At the end of July our foundaton organized a five days summer camp for boys from the Roma quarter in Stara Zagora. It was in the middle of the beutiful mountine Stara Planina.
The topic was „Become Famous Forever!“. The aim – to help the boys to adobt some spiritual and moral values.
The slogan is in fact paraphrized words from the catholic saint Domenico Savio: „Become Saint Forever!“. When Domenico met Don Bosco, he became highly impressed by him. Later Don Bosco told him how to reach the sky (to become a saint), following just three universal rules: to be cheerfull, to help his neighbors and to fullfill his obligations eagerly.
These three rules we tried to keep during the whole camp. It happened through the stage game, which introduced us to the life of the young priest.
The main goal of the boys, divided to teams, was to reach the sky with ladder. Every day they earned rungs through the stage game.
Besides the stage game, our days were filled with other different games, time for rest and lessons, performed by our leaders and animators.
At the end of the days, after we baked unleavened bread on fire, made different wooden things, the boys succeed to earn all of the rungs of the ladder to the sky.
At the last day, through the ladder, we found a hidden treasure and learned about the real treasure, that is prepared for us in the sky. In the chest with the treasure, there were many sweet things and a book for the life of Domenico Savio.
In the late afternoon at the last day, the boys visited the Salesian youth center in Kazanlak for a lunch and took their way to Stara Zagora. We are all thankful to the organizers for the preacious time.
Andrey Mihov,
Animator
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