ZOV UK Newsletter 2, February 2006

Happy New Year from ZOV UK and welcome to our biannual newsletter! Looking back to 2005 we are very happy to reflect upon the success of the education centre that opened in Veliko Tarnovo and offer our sincere thanks to all who have continued to support our work by donating their time and funds. 2006 looks set to be an exciting year as we have a number of new projects planned in addition to the education centre, which you can read about below.

News

Friends of Bulgaria Christmas Party

A number of ZOV UK committee members went along to the Friends of Bulgaria Christmas party in December to help with the organisation on the night. The party was kindly hosted by the Bulgarian Embassy, in Queen's Gate, and proved to be, as ever, a highly charged event! There was wonderful music by Peter Lamb's jazz quartet, great singing by Milena and The London Bulgarian Choir led by Dessislava Stefanova, and dancing, with full audience participation from Tanetz: it was exhausting just watching this! The party also provided a great opportunity to touch base with some of the other charitable organisations which are working in Bulgaria, such as Friends of Bulgaria and Karin Dom; we'd like to congratulate Julian Popov and the Friends of Bulgaria for putting on such a successful event: a total of almost £6000 was raised for a range of charitable causes.

ZOV UK Committee

There have been a number of changes to the ZOV UK committee. Josefa Henry Bochan and Krasimir Vasilev have stepped down as committee Presidents, and are to be replaced by our secretary Lucy Rosenstein and our treasurer Oliver Deacon. Josefa and Krassi will continue to work with ZOV UK and we would like to extend our thanks to both for all of their dedication and hard work in getting the charity off the ground. Establishing a new charity is by no means an easy task and ZOV UK owes a great deal to their enthusiasm and commitment. We would also like to welcome on board Charlotte Healey, who will coordinate our fundraising, and Lazar Krastev and Dotchka Krasteva.

Projects

Education Centre

The new education centre opened its doors to children from Penyo and Maria orphanage, who studied English and Computer Studies. After its first year of operation, it is clear that the centre has a very positive effect on the children's achievements at school and on their general quality of life. It is not only a place of learning, but also a new and different space for the children to socialise and have fun in. Due to the bitterly cold weather, with temperatures dropping to -20˚C we were unable to run the education centre during some of the winter months and there was a subsequent dip in revenue from the internet cafe. The centre will reopen in March and in the mean time we are working hard to secure external trust funding and appoint a new project coordinator and English teacher to work full-time. The education centre is a vital aspect of our work and we are passionate about securing its long term future.

Minibus

St. Hugh's College, Oxford has very generously donated a minibus to the education centre in Veliko Tǔrnovo. This is wonderful news as it will enable us to bring more children from the surrounding area to the centre. Although the majority of children who use the centre are from Penyo and Maria orphanage, we are very aware that many more encounter financial and social difficulties and lack support for their learning at home. Therefore, the minibus will help us reach our aim of assisting the education of all children in need. We hope to drive the minibus out to Bulgaria in the summer.

Music Project

ZOV UK committee members Katie Burningham and Charlotte Healey are very excited about running a music project at Penyo and Maria orphanage in the summer. The aim is to set up a choir at the orphanage and perform a concert, open to all, at the end of a two-week rehearsal period. We hope to inspire and build confidence in the children through the joy of music and also help with their integration into the local community, by encouraging them to advertise their concert in town and invite local musicians along to participate. We also hope to produce and sell a CD of the concert, so as to raise funds for the education centre. This project has been made possible by the generous support of the Friends of Bulgaria, and we would like to offer our most sincere thanks to them.

Fundraising

The committee have been working hard to raise funds by organising a number of London Underground and street collections. On the whole, such collections are received very positively by the general public. Not only have these collections raised £704.58, but they also provide a crucial opportunity for us to tell people about ZOV UK's work and drum up further interest and support. We are very grateful to Atanas Christev and the Bulgarian City Club for giving publicity to our collections on their website, and to Lazar Krastev, Dochka Krasteva, Andrey Pokrass and Iskra Djanabetska for enthusiastically participating in our collections. We are always looking for people to help take part in street collections, so if you are able to offer any time (perhaps just an hour or two) we would be very happy to hear to you. For further information about fundraising via LU and street collections, please email lucy@zovuk.org.uk.

Contact Details

You can contact us at info@zovuk.org.uk; donations are welcome from members of the public. Alternatively you can use our postal address: