Train 20 Vulnerable Bulgarians in Entrepreneurship

Dear friends and supporters,

The summer has just gone. It is a 'dead season' for many businesses especially those in the area of education. One of these businesses is a small family run After school Care center in the town of Plovdiv, South Bulgaria. The head of the company is Mary, she is 33 years old. Her widow mother also works in the company, she is 52. Sometimes the younger sister (23 years) helps. The company has been functioning for about 7 years.

The idea for launching the business came when the mother was looking for an after school care center for one of her younger sons and she couldn’t find what she wanted. She started dreaming about a place where children would feel loved, will learn new things, will start believing in themselves, and will achieve more. When the mother and the eldest daughter started the business none of them had a teaching experience. Subsequently, both the mother (yes, when she was close to 50) and Mary enrolled at a University and completed their degree in pedagogic.

The after school care has two main streams - activities during the school year (September 15th till June 15th) for children 2nd to 7th grade and summer activities during the school break. There anywhere between 38 and 45 children enrolled each year. As we said summer is a 'dead season' for this business as there aren't that many children and the income significantly drops. So we used this dry season to encourage the family by donating to them small equipments which they needed for the business. With your help we were able to give them a video projector which they started using to show movies with educational content to the children, documentaries and presentations. One of their main goals was to present to the children some inspirational short films about respect, relationship between people, faith, pursuit of dreams, and violence at school. They wanted the children to see in an influential way how our actions and words affect other people, and on the good side that nothing is impossible. For the purpose one of the halls was transformed as a reading and movie room. Cornerstone foundation provided carpet for the room and one of our sponsors donated a vacuum cleaner to clean the carpet. What a wonderful supply!

The activities with the children in the summer are diverse and different every day. Short lessons in school subjects, walks, games, craft activities, book reading and discussions. There are theme days and weeks, such as Week of the Universe, Week of Knights of Honor, Water Battles, Sweet Workshop, Volcanoes and others. The theme programs are tied to fun, laughter, new knowledge and creativity. Children learn to work in teams, develop their skills and fantasy, and learn to be creative. Now, with the video projector and the setting of the room (carper and a vacuum cleaner), the business is a step ahead of their competitors as not many offer movies and especially with moral and ethical content. We at Cornerstone are grateful to YOU that we have helped the only after school care center in Plovdiv that not only enriches the mental knowledge of the children, but changes their worldview, their character and personality in a positive way. These children spend more time in the after school care than with their parents and this is a unique opportunity to teach them school materials, but also ethics, empathy, moral, responsibility and faith. Just think about the many Bulgarian families that are impacted by you and through your help. I believe there will be a lot of fruit in the future as these children grow and become better members of the society, better parents, better teachers, better doctors, better people... All because of you! Thank you!