Bulgarian Child, Inc.
Love and
Loaves to Those in Need
7522 Campbell Rd. - St. 113 - 172 - Dallas, TX
June 2003 Trip
Straldja
We visited Straldja really to meet Rel Davis (Peace Corps) and
see the craft shop and center that he had setup in the town
Business Center.
The orphanage has some neat projects that
he has also helped with arranging - a wood working shop and a
kitchen/cooking school.
The building is not typical of orphanages and
there is lots of room - very un-crowded facilities. The
beds are the standard metal beds with metal "springs" that
often rust through.
All rooms have just 4 children to a room - a
real luxury that is atypical for this type of school (not that
it shouldn't be that way!)
Unlike other homes, Straldja has a shower on each floor of the
"dorm" building.
There have been leaks though and we were
told that they had recently had a "flood".
The cafeteria is long and narrow and feeds
128 kids (60 in the summer months).
The classrooms are the same as we see in
many other homes including the broken chairs. Note the
blackboard that is a piece of wood, painted black and so worn
that it no longer really cleans up.
There is a well-equipped wood-working shop that has
some of the young men working to produce crafts for sale in the
crafts shop.
Unfortunately, all of the money from such a venture
goes directly to the Ministry of Education for use in the general
fund.
There is an obvious need for clothing - especially shoes.
One of the kids had shoes where the uppers weren't really
connected to the soles but he deferred having his picture
taken.
A large gym gives the kids good indoor
all-weather play space. Interestingly the Director said
that even when they had balls to use the balls got destroyed
very quickly. This was quite a contrast to those homes
where equipment is taken care of and valued.
Despite having a very large grassy play area
the Director said that there was not any possibility of having
a vegetable garden - ostensibly because there isn't space for
it. I wish she could see the wonderful garden at Shumen
in 1/4 of the space that they have at Straldja.
We were told that they have a computer
teacher if they just had the computer equipment.
Many thanks to Rel Davis for our tour and
making the arrangements for us to see this place.
