Bulgarian Child, Inc.
Love and
Loaves to Those in Need
7522 Campbell Rd. - St. 113 - 172 - Dallas, TX
June 2003 Trip
Brestovitsa
Brestovitsa is (like so many of these homes)
at the end of a very long, winding road. It's a home and
school for lightly mentally retarded children from ages 8 thru
18.
These kids are absolutely terrific! - full of
life and obviously genuinely liked by the staff that we met.
The rooms inside are crowded but are kept
clean. Everything was neat and tidy.
The beds seems to be in decent shape and the bathrooms are
fine except for some broken fawcetts.
A boiler is needed for the kitchen (1000 ltr)
as the current one leaks and is always in need of repair.
The TV room had a tiny TV (yes, it IS in the picture) and the
furniture consisted of some chairs and benches.
Food seemed plentiful. This storage
area (below) had some inventory but it certainly wasn't
packed. The Director indicated that they struggled to
purchase enough food on the 40 cents a day that was provided
them by the Ministry.
The Director told us that they need 5000 LV ($3,000) monthly
to feed these children and that they receive 3000 LV ($1,800)
from the Ministry and 500 LV ($300) from the Police
Department. The rest they must make up with donations or
by soliciting local businesses.
Their telephone service had
been discontinued because they had chosen to purchase food
rather than pay the telephone bill. Interesting isn't it that
a government run agency has its telephone service cut off?
The laundry facility consisted of these units (washer,
centrifuge and dryer) - all of which are extremely old but
still working.
The school for these kids is just down the road a bit.
It was the school director's birthday and many of the kids
brought her cards and spontaneously wished her a Happy
Birthday.
The classrooms were fairly typical with almost no supplies and
maps that are extremely outdated.
They tell us that they buy school supplies on credit but that
most course materials simply can't be purchased.
There is a lovely gym facility that obviously gets TONs of
use. It's in pretty good shape.
Our most pleasant surprise was the extremely
creative craft program that is in operation here at this
school.
This cat was hand-crafted by some of
these kids along with other neat looking dolls and
hand-crafts.
These dolls and needlepoint were also
made by these children.
It is our hope to develop a market for these
items in the United States and we will be pursuing this within
the next few months not only with items from this home but
from some of the others as well.
This home is in need of lots of supplies as
well as some significant remodeling but there is a good spirit
here and obvious caring on the part of the Director whom we
found most personable.
Needs
Shoes
Mattresses (badly needed)
Beds are almost all broken
School supplies
Coloring books - crayons - markers
Books with big pictures
Music with cassette player
Craft supplies
Chalk boards for the school
1000 Ltr Boiler for kitchen
Puzzles with large pieces
Logic selection games/puzzles
We definitely want to encourage the
hand-crafts here at this home as it may indeed be a way for
these kids to become productive and self-sufficient.
