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Dear Friends,
Time flies by so quickly and it’s been three months since our last report, so I’m in a hurry to share with you the updates on our project.
In May I told you about our new initiative with children and youths living in care in Gabrovo, called “Movie Perspective”. I told you about the projection of specially selected movies and the discussions and the “acting”, but you still don not know about the next step and challenge that children and youths faced.
It was planned that after the 4-th projection the participants will be presented the opportunity to write their own scenario and shoot a short film such as real actors. Do you want to know what happened? – The children and youths were overwhelmed by the idea! And they realized this project really successfully.
Supported by our volunteer-director, the group wrote a scenario. They were given the opportunity to choose some of the Bulgarian famous actors (friends and colleagues to our volunteer) whom to be invited to take part in the movie. Well, this was really a hard task – the group members had different preferences and reaching a consensus at a certain point seemed like being impossible. There were long discussions and argumentations. Finally decision was made and the process continued.
After having the scenario, roles had to be allocated. There were several rehearsals and when the group felt sure about their performance, the day of shooting the movie was selected. A whole professional team was engaged in this – camera man, stage-manager, make-up artist, sound director (all of them doing it pro-bono) and of course the most important were the actors – our children and youths.
They were all very happy and pleased by themselves. And it was not without reason. Last month was the “premiere” of the movie and children and youths could see the product of their efforts and they loved the movie!
We, as professionals, love the “hidden” product of this activity which for us is priceless – and these are the skills that our children and youths managed to acquire while having fun. During the process there were many situations that they had to present ideas (thoughts) and to give argumentation. Constantly they had to communicate with others and to work as a team. Each of them had certain responsibilities that had to be carried out. We also notices a change in the microclimate of the group – up to this moment there were two main sub-groups: the children form the Institution and the youths from the Protected House (two types of social services). The two groups did not mix and often straining at a gnat. After shooting the movie together, we noticed starting friendships between representatives of the different groups and changed attitudes.
We strongly believe that this experience will be very helpful for the children and youths when they leave care and start living independent life. The abilities to communicate effectively with different people, to take responsibilities and to be a team-work player are among the main life-skills.
Thank you for making this possible by supporting our project and cause!
Please do not hesitate to tell your friends and colleagues about what we do and why you chose to make a donation. We believe that children and youths living in care deserve a better chance and only your support can help us provide it!
Sincerely yours,
Step for Bulgaria team
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