g+

Friday 10 October 2014

Helping Those in Need in Bulgaria- A guest post from Bernadette Leggett

Hi as promised a guest post from Bernie from Silistra Orphanage Appeal and many other worthy causes !.

The Bulgarian Orphanage Appeal None profit Organization Hi we are Bernadette & Douglas Leggett, we are from Peterborough in the UK. We are just two ordinary people trying to make a difference to the lives of those children and young adults and elderly who are less fortunate than ourselves. We have for the past 7 years dedicated our time and skills to helping 21 organisations here all over Bulgaria. Now we mainly focus on Silistra as this is where we have a house. We set up a small none profit charitable organisation in the UK The Bulgarian Orphanage Appeal. The Dimcho Debelainov Orphanage will always be our main priority. We also have the Baby Orphanage, the Disability Day Centre, The home for the Elderly, the new SFTH Disability Centre for young children and adults, also Malek Preslavez orphanage and now our newest project is The Teenage Disability Centre in Glavinitiza


We bring donated items of clothing, shoes, toys, tools computers, machines, materials, toiletries Christmas shoe-boxes etc form the UK and one year from Belgium for the orphanages, disability centres hospital and home for the elderly in Silistra Malek Preslavetz orphanage as well as sending good to Plovdiv, Vidin, Dobrich, Karlovo and other areas. Our aim is to give these children/adults a better quality in life with the necessities and if possible a little more. Our latest project is The Teenage Disability Centre in Glavinitiza - We have visited this home and are appalled at the conditions they live in. This centre is in a very bad condition and is in need of a big refurbishment however, we cannot afford to do that ourselves therefore, we are asking help from the local Municipality and the community and anyone else that feel they can help us. We do NOT want MONEY, what we need please are donated items of materials to renovate the properties, or if you cannot help with them, than there are other items such as new beds, settees, dining room tables and chairs, fridges freezers, cookers curtains to rugs, toiletries, laminated flooring, paint, showers, toilets, hand basins basically anything you feel you as a company or an individual can donate, all items will be made good use of. Thank you in advance..

If we do manage to get the buildings repaired they will need monitoring and maintaining, perhaps your company can donate a contract for general upkeep checks etc. We are doing what we can to help. The youngsters living there have nothing or very little, they lack the necessities like toiletries, clothing, shoes, food and much more. We brought them a huge lorry load of goods from the UK and our sponsors Bon Marine Shipping Agency in Varna also send a truck load of goods including a pallet of food. The youngsters were over the moon and they all received something - Nasuf, Nasuf Governor of Silistra and Vjara Deputy Governor were very supportive to our cause - They found us storage to store our 40ft container load when it came to Bulgaria and also found sponsors Stefvano Ltd in Silistra to supply us with transporting the goods from storage to Glavinitza. As you can imagine this was indeed a great help to us as we are only too people struggling to do everything ourselves and also try to raise transport cost from UK to Bulgaria. This year we were very lucky our followers and supporters raised the transport costs for us.

Our cause is NOT about money, we fund raise all year to reach the transport costs from UK to Bulgaria - we are very lucky we have fantastic supporters in UK and Bulgaria Belgium and Italy. We have sponsors here in Bulgaria too Nominal Accounting Ltd in Burgas, Bon Marine Shipping in Varna, NZT Transport in Sofia, SewAge Solution in Sofia, Pescott's Foods in Yambol and Pelican Guesthouse Serberna and lots of wonderful Ex pats who rally round when we need help. We hold an Annual Garden Party at the Dimcho Silistra to raise funds to go towards items needed. Over the years, we have bought 40 new bunk beds, 46 bikes, swimming pool, marquee, trainers and more. The funds raised last year will go towards a holiday for the children in August this year...


These are the conditions the youngsters live in at Gavinitisa so as you can see, we are in great need of help with this project. These youngsters are based out of the town away from everyone and everything. They needs so much it is very hard to know where to start, the main priority is to ensure they have sufficient food and the buildings are habitable - The shower rooms and toilets are disgraceful as is the kitchen/dining room and broken furniture. They make the best of what they have by adding paint here and there for colour. You can see many photos on the Facebook below as well as on our website.

You can contact us direct on our website or Facebook below or tel no 0888 487394 or contact the Mayor of Glavinitza or Vyara Deputy Governor of Silistra.  Please feel free to browse the website and the Facebook. Thank you so much for your support, with your help we can all ensure these youngsters have a safe and more comfortable home.


Berni & Dougie



No comments:

Post a Comment