An AUBG student helping tutoring one of the orphans in the “St. Nikolay Mirlikiyski” orphanage in Blagoevgrad.
Photos from archive by Polina Hristova and from www.sxc.hu

Students from the Better Community Club (BCC) have resumed their work at the "St. Nikolay Mirlikiyski" orphanage in Blagoevgrad. In addition, sophomore Yavor Kiryakov is organizing a Christmas performance with the children, rehearsals for which have already started.

About 15 volunteers visit the children on Fridays and Saturdays in order to entertain and teach them. This project gained popularity in town after Kiryakov appeared on the local TV station "Oko" at the beginning of October. The main goal of our initiative is to communicate with the children, entertain them, and help them develop an interest in learning, president of BCC, sophomore Biliyana Vacheva, said.

The idea of a children's performance was born last semester when the students from BCC started teaching the kids songs, poems, and dances. Kiryakov said that after they saw that the children enjoyed the activities, they decided to engage them with a performance show. "The primary goal of this initiative is to cultivate the senses of self-respect and responsibility in the children." Members of the club are planning on promoting the event not only at AUBG but also in town. "It would be nice if people could see what these children are capable of," Kiryakov said.

The orphanage is housing about 60 children at the age of seven to 18. All of them attend school. However, the lack of constant guidance from a guardian and the unstable environment they are growing up in are contributing to the development of their communication issues and misconduct, Kiryakov said. "They need attention."

Although the work at the orphanage is continuing for a third semester now, the students still face some obstacles when communicating with the children. "Some kids are problematic, but if you try and talk to them, they will respect you," Vacheva said. Sophomore Tatiana Gladkikh, who is taking part in the project for the first time this semester, said she also had troubles dealing with the bad behavior of some kids when she first visited the orphanage. Some of them smoke, yell, and beat each other, she said. "We try to explain them that this is wrong."

Students say that they are hoping for better results this year since they are familiar with the situation in the orphanage. "Now that they [the children] know us, they listen to us more carefully," Kiryakov said. "We've built a relationship with them."

BCC hasn't applied for funding for the project from the SG. Kiryakov said that the initial idea was to develop a project that doesn't require a lot of financing. "We'll see how it turns out."

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Maybe a good start would be a donation of a collection of books!!!

Wednesday 04 November 2009, 18:52

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