Teach life skills to children without parents

Dear Friends,

Inspired by our new volunteers we started new initiative with our youths in Gabrovo, called “Movie Perspective”. The idea of this initiative is to enable underprivileged youths to look at the world through the example of heroes, characters and stories of the national and international movies.

Movies are unique in this that through them in a synthesised way a story of the life of different personages is presented just in an hour and a half, but affects perceptions of the one who watches for a long time. Through the power of personal example, youths can be "pushed" to change their behaviour in a good direction.  

In three months (once per week) the young people will be projected specially selected movies by professional director – one of Step for Bulgaria volunteers. The topics of the movies were selected after a long consideration and carefully arranged. In each of the movies present youth as the main hero, to which youths can compare. The stories shown in the movies are connected with the problems which young underprivileged people confront during teenage. In this way, the stories and characters are closer to the reality of the youths, which excites their interest and helps attract and hold their attention.

After each projection, the youths are led into a discussion on what they’ve seen – different role models, whether something impressed or inspired them. After that they “play” a scene they liked the most putting themselves in the shoes of real actors, guided and instructed by the director. This “acting” is not only the funniest part but also quite useful as the youths learn how to work as a team, take a responsibility for their actions, lead other people in a concrete task. It also improves their social skills and their self-esteem – especially when they get a big applause from the audience (e.g. the other youths in the group).

We will keep you informed on the updates and results of this initiative. Thank you all for making this possible!

Sincerely yours,

The Step for Bulgaria team

Dear Friends,

I’m happy to announce that our Foundation officially became Center for Work with Volunteers. We took this step as we believe that one of our biggest strengths is our volunteers. At the end of 2013 we purposefully started to recruit volunteers who want to work with disadvantaged children and youths and help them acquire knowledge and skills for their independent living.

In December 2013 we trained the first group of 20 volunteers who already started their individual work with underprivileged children. Currently there are 13 children and youth from Sofia that receive support by the volunteers.

Before being introduced to a volunteer we make individual assessment of the necessities of the child and we define the field in which support is needed. Together with the volunteer we make personalized program based on the needs of the child.

Most often the volunteers help the children to increase their self-esteem and the trust in their own abilities. Children and youths also receive support in how to improve their communication skills.

None of this would be possible without your support! Thank you for being with us!

Sincerely yours,

The Step for Bulgaria team