trusselltrust's TravelStream™ — Recent TravelPod.com entries TravelStream™ news feed for member trusselltrust on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/trusselltrust en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:18:09 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com That's that then... — Lipnitsa, Sofiya, Bulgaria http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1261087012/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1261087012/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1261087012/tpod.html Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:18:09 -0500 To Bulgaria with love...
Lipnitsa, Sofiya, Bulgaria

Today was perhaps the day most of the team were looking forward to with the greatest anticipation. Lipnitsa residential school has been supported by the Trust for over 12 years now and it is always special to visit the school and the children who live and learn there.

As ever we started the day in a tussle with Sofia's seething traffic as we made our way to collect all the Christmas boxes from the warehouse. Fully loaded once again we made our way to the village of Novachene where we delivered some boxes to the kindergarten before making our way up the icy road to Lipnitsa, high up in the mountains. The village looked fantastic covered in snow and as we drove into the school yard the children came rushing out to greet us. It was really good to see Gregor, Radi, Krassi, Danni, Toshko, Netka and all the others that we had spent time with during summer camp. They were really pleased to see us as were the staff and especially the school director, our friend Mr Petkov. The school in Lipnitsa is an unofficial orphanage; until recently Botevgrad municipality provided funds for the school to provide food and accommodation for some of the very poorest and most vulnerable kids in the area. Sadly the local authorities have decided to discontinue this vital support so now Mr Petkov has to find alternative sources of funding in order to keep the children warm, protected, fed and in education. The Trussell Trust has been supporting the school but we have yet to find a long term solution to the problem. Just this week we have been able to confirm the 2009 winter camp as being able to take place. This is fantastic news and means that 22 highly vulnerable kids will be kept warm and well fed over the Christmas holiday. We want to say a huge thank you to all those who have donated to this camp in the last few weeks- you will make a huge difference for these kids this winter.

The children performed a show for us containing traditional Bulgarian songs and dancing before it was time for us to give out the Christmas shoeboxes. This is such a special time for the kids and we consider ourselves privileged to be able to distribute the presents here to our friends. The staff, who in common with all state paid workers in institutions like these are very low paid, all received boxes for themselves and their families too. After spending more time with the kids and having some lunch it was time for us to leave. This is always a very protracted process as various children surround us to give us hugs and try to prevent the van from leaving. Eventually we managed to extract ourselves from the mini mob and waved our goodbyes for another year.

The afternoon was finished at the House of Joshua with the young residents and staff. We gave out presents to Tsetsi, Iva, Danni and Marten as well as Taniya, the house parent. The young people were especially thrilled to receive some computer games systems donated by a generous supporter. We had an enjoyable time together and it is around this time of the year when you can really see how the HoJ provides a family atmosphere that is so helpful for the residents there. These young people have grown up in orphanages so for them times like this afternoon are a taste of waht families are all about. We hope that as they achieve independence through the HoJ programme they will remember what they have experienced and be able to pass it on to their own kids who will have a much better start to life than their parents endured.

All too soon we had to leave and make our way back to Sofia and the warehouse for a final clear up. We have distributed 3,400 boxes over the last 10 days, leaving less than 500 in the warehouse. Tedy and Mimi will see that the remaining boxes are distributed to other children and families in need over the next couple of weeks but for the UK team the job is done and it is a time of quiet reflection in the near empty space that just last week was packed full of cases containing all those lovingly prepared gifts. Or time for some more daft photo’s.

This is our last blog entry for this years’ Christmas Box appeal distribution trip. We hope that we have been able to give you flavour of what has taken place here in the last couple of weeks. The whole team want to express our thanks for your support, prayers and interest for this project. The appeal started way back in May and the distribution trip is the culmination of a lot of effort by a lot of people: schools, churches, businesses, community groups, families and individuals have all contributed their time, money or effort to preparing presents for this trip. You are all stars.

We have seen so many smiles from those who received boxes and been thanked by so many others and it is humbling to think about how grateful the recipients of these boxes are and then compare this to our reactions to receiving, say, a pair of socks at Christmas!

I want to say thank you to Tedy, Mimi and Valya; we could not have done this without you all and you are a real joy to work with. Thanks also to Lizzie who is always calm and collected and ready with a smile to brighten the day and a special thanks to Sophia who has endured the last few months working with me: you have been a great help and I am so glad to have had your support.

Thanks again everybody. See you next year!

Rich Parsons

Bulgaria Operations Manager

The Trussell Trust
]]> Told you we'd do nothing. — Sofia, Oblast Sofiya-Grad, Bulgaria http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260914623/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260914623/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260914623/tpod.html Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:57:24 -0500 To Bulgaria with love...
Sofia, Oblast Sofiya-Grad, Bulgaria

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.....
]]> Enough of the Tr thing. So, roads, rentals an Roma — Sofia, Oblast Sofiya-Grad, Bulgaria http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260737500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260737500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260737500/tpod.html Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:50:24 -0500 To Bulgaria with love...
Sofia, Oblast Sofiya-Grad, Bulgaria

By this time on a trip like this I've usually lost all track of what day it actually is so in truth Friday is really my best guess.

Anyway, this morning the team visited Moderno Predgradie, a suburb of Sofia. Tedy has contacts with three churches in this Roma dominated community that we first visited last year to distribute boxes to the residents living in the surrounding localities. Moderno really is a very strange place. Large quite neat houses with orchards side by side with run down shacks and old crumbling houses and every where the signs of poverty and neglect. Our first stop was to a tiny room perched on the top of a pastors house. The members of this church have been feeding the children of their community for years, providing a vital service that helps to keep children healthy and families together. So many children are put into state care in Bulgaria each year because their parents cannot afford to feed them. By feeding these children this small church is helping to prevent youngsters from being condemned to a life of state care and all the hurt and damage that goes with it.

After a brief chat with the pastor’s wife the team delivered to a second church on the other side of the community that also has been feeding local children. The van was unloaded by some very enthusiastic kids and we were duly invited inside the church to listen to some songs led by some impressively voiced kids and to distribute boxes. Here the church is also running support groups for local women who just as in Stara Zagora, have many children and suffer from a very high rate of STD’s. This group meets to help women who are suffering from diseases and from the long term effects of working on the streets to bring in an income due to the massive levels of unemployment amongst Roma men. This is the background against which we arrived to give out Christmas boxes and the kids were very excited to receive the presents. The same questions still remain, how do communities like these even function as they do? How can the cycle of poverty be broken here so that future generations are not subject to the kind of degradation that afflicts the current one? Despite the overwhelming nature of the problems we left feeling hopeful about the people in these communities dedicated to protecting the vulnerable and counselling those who suffer daily.

After this it was a quick drive across the city to drop off the big van and then head out to our first orphanage visit of the trip, Dogonovo. Haha. There was nothing quick about this drive and we eventually arrived rather late for a party that had been arranged for the children living at the orphanage by some of Tedy’s friends. It was rather more than a party; they were having a full on Dogonovo’s Got Talent event complete with dancing and singing and it was clear that this orphanage at least was enjoying a happy day with all the kids joining in, even the older, cooler teenagers sat, as ever, at the back. After giving presents we just spent time with the kids and enjoyed their company. For many this place will be the nearest thing they experience to a family. Some of the older residents are in their last few months at the orphanage and when they reach the age of 18 they will have to leave this place and with no state assistance make their own way in Bulgarian society. These young people are completely unprepared for the world outside and are easy prey for drug dealers and sex traffickers. The House of Joshua exists purely to try and tackle this issue and over the next few years we hope to open more and start to show how this project can make a real difference to the lives of these young state care leavers. Perhaps we may be able to help a few of these guys over the coming months but all over Bulgaria there are young people who at best, are returning to the kinds of communities that we have seen in Stara Zagora and Moderno and who at worst will disappear onto the streets of Sofia or Varna and find themselves in the hands of those who would only exploit them for personal gain or gratification.

The team are now relocating to Sofia for the rest of the trip and are looking forward to a day off on Sunday. We have racked up a lot of km/s and Mimi and Rich, our drivers, are frankly fearless heroes, neither of whom are involved in the writing of this blog in any way. Much.

Sadly the team will not now be joined by Pete Cole, who was due to fly out today and join us. Pete and his wife Maggie were part of our summer camp team this year and the staff of Lipnitza residential school were so impressed with his juggling and storytelling skills that they invited him back this December. The plan was for him to come with us to other orphanages and the Sofia prison party too but unfortunately Pete has seriously hurt his back and cannot make the trip. Please pray for Pete, he is very sad that he can’t make it and we will miss him here.
]]> Girls in jail... — Sofia, Oblast Sofiya-Grad, Bulgaria http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260997732/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260997732/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260997732/tpod.html Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:32:08 -0500 To Bulgaria with love...
Sofia, Oblast Sofiya-Grad, Bulgaria

Tuesday saw the team split to do different jobs after an initial delivery of boxes to Animus, a Bulgarian NGO that houses women who have been trafficked or have suffered domestic abuse. The director told us that they assist between two and three hundred women a year plus any children they may have. Animus are funded by grant making bodies and receive no government or municipal help despite trafficking being such a big problem in Bulgaria and one of the core reasons The Trussell Trust is so eager to build a network of projects like the House of Joshua. We want to be able to prevent young state care leavers finding themselves at the mercy of traffickers and learning vital life skills and gaining employment are the keys to this. At the present Bulgarian society simply has to pick up the pieces of wrecked lives but this is still not a priority as many of the victims are Roma or very poor Bulgarians and as such are not valued. What is one more ruined life for a society that has so long ignored the issues? There are many Bulgarians working hard to change this attitude and part of our job is to help and support them as they make the case for a fairer and more inclusive Bulgaria where young people especially are valued and helped whatever their background. The director told us how impressed her staff were with the quality of the Christmas boxes that we donated to them last year and how happily the women and children received them. She too wants to say a big thank you to all our donors.

Then it was time to split the team with Mimi, Lizzie and Sophia going to prison for the afternoon! A team from Tedy's church had organised a party for some of the children whose dad’s are in Sofia prison. These dad’s are part of a reform group and we gladly gave some boxes so that these guys would have something to give their children at the party. The event was sensitively organised so that before the dad’s were allowed in to see their families they were given boxes with their children’s names marked on them so that as they were reunited with their loved ones they could present their families with the gifts, restoring a little self respect for guys who have hit rock bottom and in many cases have years to serve on their sentences. This was a really touching time; to see these guys with their kids and for them to be able to give them gifts was really special.

Tedy, Vallya and Rich braved the traffic for yet another run to the warehouse and then a vist to Gorna Baniya orphanage to distribute to the children living there. Gorna is a suburb on the southwest of Sofia that has a real mix of rich and poor residents and the orphanage is a large building very close to one of Bulgaria’s largest water bottling plants. Here we gave out some more presents to some very excited kids who eagerly looked through the contents of the boxes to show what they had received. This was the first regular orphanage that would not allow us to take pics of the kids but trust me when I say that the kids were very happy with their shoeboxes. More satisfied customers!

After this the last visit of the day was to Jack Louwe of the Lora Foundation . Lora have been working in Bulgaria for many years. Jack and his wife Elsabe have an amazing story and I urge you to check it out for yourselves at www.lorafoundation.co.za. Prepare to be stunned. We have supplied gifts for the orphanages that Lora have been supporting for the last few years and it is always good to catch up with them each Christmas. Please pray for Jack, Elsabe and Lora who have had a genuinely traumatic year with serious illness and criminal attacks to contend with. They need your prayerful support especially with a court case coming up which will be very hard for the whole family to face as Lora’s attackers are brought to face trial.

We know that our God is good but sometimes we all ask, "Why is this allowed to happen?" "How can God say He is love when there is so much suffering in the world?"The truth is all the suffering that we see in Bulgaria or anywhere else is caused by mankind’s unlimited capacity to cause hurt and pain. We are called to be His hand and feet in a suffering world and if as a Christian I ignore this call how can I ever look those who are suffering in the eye and say “God loves you”? I believe that God does love each and every person on planet Earth and that there is no one that cannot be reached by Him.

Not guys in prison.

Not women carrying the burden of large families in dysfunctional Roma communities.

Not young children left by their families in orphanages because of disabilities the state claims are untreatable.

Not young girls working the streets and suffering the degradations of life as a prostitute.

Not the refugee trapped in a system that doesn’t care.

Not the young orphanage leaver abandoned by the state and thrown out of the only family they have known.

Not the kid on the street running drugs for criminals who consider them expendable.

Not the girls taken off the streets and trafficked across Europe to be sold into slavery in London, Berlin or Paris.

No one.
]]> The Happy Mondays — Sofia, Oblast Sofiya-Grad, Bulgaria http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260913067/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260913067/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260913067/tpod.html Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:21:39 -0500 To Bulgaria with love...
Sofia, Oblast Sofiya-Grad, Bulgaria

Happy Monday morning! We started with some happy manual labour at the warehouse. We are becoming more familiar with the busy major roads of Sofia and we wound our way quite slowly right across town to reach the warehouse. On arrival we said hello to the very sweet fox dog (scary guard dog) that is one of the guardians of the warehouse sight. Then we loaded the van for the three orphanages we were going to be visiting. We are now a highly polished unit when loading; Mimi with the list, Rich stacking in the van and the minions carrying the boxes diligently. We then prepared for battle with the heavy traffic as we drove out of Sofia.

Vidrare is an orphanage specialising in caring for those with mental and physical disabilities. Following last year's visit, Rich briefed us on what the team should expect. On our arrival we met Yevgeny, the director of Vidrare and Phillip of the US Peace Corps, who was spending some time working for Pravets municipality. After unloading the van with help from staff members and some of the residents, Phillip asked us if we would like to meet some of the people living here. The building has recently been renovated and has brightly coloured murals on all the walls. We were given a tour and were able to meet all the children and adults who were residents there. We were privileged to be introduced to most of those that we met. In the first room one of the young boys was very happy and excited to see Rich and continually hugged him. A little girl who was sat on the other side of Rich showed a good deal of interest in Rich’s ear, to the extent of sticking her finger very far down it! All the residents varied significantly with age and also with their disability. There were children who looked as young as six or seven and we were introduced to Juju who was 32 years old. Some had severe physical disabilities and others were fully fit physically but may have had a learning disability or mental health condition. A few years ago Kate Blewitt made a TV film called 'Bulgaria’s Forgotten Children’, a documentary about a state run institution that was supposed to care for people with disabilities. The programme documented terrible conditions, the residents chained to their beds and ignored. Vidrare was very different, in every room there were two or three members of staff who were engaging with the people and clearly had a lot of love for all those they were working with. The love showed in their faces as they were holding the children and engaging with those in the room.

The Director Yevgeny gave us some coffee and told us about the latest development in the new building that was under construction last year when The Trussell Trust visited on the Christmas box trip. The shell of the building has been built, which was funded by ‘Beautiful Bulgaria’, there was also some funding promised which has since been denied because of the recession. The house is designed to house 12 young people who will move out of the main residential home into it to become more independent. The Director gave a few names of people who were living in the orphanage who would currently really benefit from living in this house and becoming more independent.

The Director also really wanted to promote and encourage integration into society of many of the people who live in the home. Since the fall of communism in Bulgaria there has been little change in attitude towards people with disabilities and the majority of time people are placed in state care homes away from their families. There has not been a push to give people with disabilities life choices and be integrated into the local community which is what Yevgeny is trying do.

Razliv was the next orphanage we visited with more Christmas boxes. Here we were greeted by many excited children who had been looking forward to our visit. After unloading boxes from the van, we were treated to a traditional Christmas song by the younger children and then we gave out the boxes. The children were really happy to receive a Christmas box, especially one lad who was a big fan of the cartoon Ben 10. Inside his box was a hat, scarf and gloves all with the Ben 10 logo on. He was so happy and ran around showing everyone his lovely Christmas present.

Gurkovo was the last orphanage of the day where we gave out even more Christmas boxes. It is an orphanage for 3-7 year olds and when we arrived we happened to meet up with our friends from Peterhead Methodist Church in Scotland who help support the orphanage. After greeting them we were just in time to join in dancing with the children in their disco. We danced around and then prepared to give out the boxes. Every child had learnt a poem or song to tell us before they got their box. One boy was new to the orphanage and was worried as he had forgotten his poem. His face was very happy when he was allowed to have a box anyway. Some of the children shouted them and others shyly recited what they had learnt. After the first two groups of children had received their boxes then we went upstairs to give out boxes to the youngest kids in the orphanage, all aged 3. Here we were delighted to hear another poem which all the children told us together and then they gathered around the boxes, eager to get one and see what they had. We were privileged to be able to stay to help open their boxes and to see the excitement as they explored their presents. It was such a blessing to see how much joy the boxes brought to the children in Razliv and Gurkovo orphanages.









]]> The smile of a stranger... — Sofia, Oblast Sofiya-Grad, Bulgaria http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260998195/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260998195/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260998195/tpod.html Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:20:33 -0500 To Bulgaria with love...
Sofia, Oblast Sofiya-Grad, Bulgaria

Wednesday was a truly special day. Rich, Sophia and Lizzie were invited to take some presents to Sofia's refugee centre in the suburb of Busmansi. Once again this visit was organised by some of Tedy’s friends and we gladly accompanied them together with a good selection of gifts for the individuals and families that are effectively imprisoned there.

It was very humbling to meet so many people fleeing the violence in Iraq, especially Mohammed and his family. Mohammed is a mathematician, as is his wife and he had his young child, Susu, and his sister with her twin five year old daughters with him too. Mohammed’s brother-in-law had been killed on the streets of Baghdad and so the family took the tough decision to leave for the sake of the children and try and start a new life elsewhere. Only one camera was allowed on the premises but as soon as we have pics we will show you just how pleased all the families were to receive the presents that we gave them.

We also met a guy called Shams, a 28 year old Kurd who left Syria, despite a university education, because he, like so many Kurds, has no official papers and cannot get a job there. Many of these guys are considered as potential terrorists by Bulgarian authorities and many have been kept indefinitely in Busmansi simply because nobody is sure what to do with them. Those that do get legal representation have to wait months for even the slightest progress, although there has recently been a change to the law to make sure that people can only be kept there for a maximum of 18 months. These men were very happy to receive the simple gift bags that had been made for them but Shams was very disturbed and kept asking me "why does God not love me?" and “why am I here in Busmansi?”. We eventually persuaded him to take a gift bag (mainly toiletries) but he left with one of the saddest looks in his eyes of anybody I have met.

On our way out of the centre, as the guards locked the steel gates to the entrance hall behind us I heard my name being called out from high above. It was Shams from a third floor window. He threw me a letter scrawled on a piece of scrap paper. I won’t tell you of everything that he wrote but I will share this, from half way through the letter:

“I am coming to Europe.... to save my life. Thanks for the gift. I am happy because I saw your smiles in your face”.
]]> Just keep on moving... — Sofia, Oblast Sofiya-Grad, Bulgaria http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260862653/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260862653/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260862653/tpod.html Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:03:18 -0500 To Bulgaria with love...
Sofia, Oblast Sofiya-Grad, Bulgaria

Today was mostly spent on the road as we had to travel back to Botevgrad later in the day to deliver some boxes to the Methodist Church there. Pastor Georgi is a long standing friend of the Trust who has worked for many years to help the less fortunate in that town. Despite being in his late 60's and looking after his wife who is very ill he still finds time to run a church and to open the doors of his building to let it be used for a meeting place for local people with disabilities. Pastor Georgi can remember the persecution the church in Bulgaria suffered under communism but it is now really encouraging to see so many churches at the forefront of social care programmes here, playing their part in protecting the vulnerable and comforting those who are suffering.

We have used the Methodist Church as a distribution point for some years now. The pastor knows the neighbourhood very well and knows those families and elderly people who have very low incomes. They are invited to come, with no strings attached, and just simply take a box away. Most of the people in the area are not Roma but regular Bulgarians. Many are elderly and have a very tough existence. Retirement is not really an option as there is very little state provision so you have to keep active and find ways to make sure that you have enough to eat. Gardens are full of veg and many people keeps chickens or a pig as a matter of necessity so these gifts are again very well received.

Before we left for Botevgrad however, we had been invited back to the small "upper room" in Moderno Predgradie to give out boxes to the children that were being fed there. Once again we were touched but just how much the people here care for the children of this neighbourhood. Pavel, Maria, Danny and friends truly care about the kids here and much of their time is spent either meeting needs or trying to teach the children about the dangers of drugs, crime and sexual activity. Many of the local children will live in homes where the dad will be unemployed and trying to find casual work or be involved with criminality and where mum is a prostitute. Our Christmas boxes spread a little joy once again and we pray that God will give Pavel and Maria the strength to continue- most people would have given up in the face of such odds long ago.

After skating our way along the slippery highway over the mountains to Botevgrad and back we actually managed to finish the day at a reasonable time and relax in the evening. The team here really do appreciate your thoughts and prayers and we are very thankful that we have managed to keep safe and (almost) well. Sunday is coming and we have a big plan for the day. We are going to do nothing.

Trams, communism and the law of diminishing returns in regards to passengers...

How do trams make a profit? Designed to carry a carless population during the communist era these things, unable to pull over to the side of the road, ply the streets in a never ending search for people willing enough to risk life and limb to leap into traffic in a desperate attempt to reach the beckoning open doors of the tram. Despite relying on a consumer base made entirely of people with no sense of self preservation there are those who make it onto the trams. This allows them to work up the nerve to get off again. The tram doors open and passengers bolt from the doors like pheasants flushed from a copse, people running across three lanes of traffic in a mad dash for the safety of the pavement (although even there you may get taken out by motorcyclist’s, who regard a pavement as an excellent place to make progress because of all the lumbering trams in the road). Many tram travellers simply assume that traffic will stop for them if they just step out into the road and up to a point this works, but I can’t help wondering how many people are injured or killed every year in Sofia trying to catch a ride for the next few city blocks. Surely that can’t be enough people around now to make these things viable- you rarely see a full one...
]]> Traipsing, travel and scorched trachea's... — Stara Zagora, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260511429/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260511429/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260511429/tpod.html Sun, 13 Dec 2009 12:23:32 -0500 To Bulgaria with love...
Stara Zagora, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria

Well we have had a very long day today, so long in fact that it is not now today, but the day after the day after today. Rewind...

The day started 07.45 with our empty vans making the swift journey over the mountains to Sofia to rendezvous with Tedy at our warehouse. With Mimi and Rich at the wheels we carved our way gracefully through the Sofian rush hour like a pair of dancers giving a prize winning performance on Strictly. Actually we got stuck in every jam, tussled with BMW driving, cigar smoking Mafia types and played chicken with trams and trolley-buses as usual.

After loading the vans with 550 Christmas boxes we set out for the city of Stara Zagora, some 250km away. After bouncing half across Bulgaria we were to meet up with our friends at World Without Borders, our partner organisation in SZ. Gancho, Milena, Marika and Toni gave us a truly warm welcome (as ever, this includes rakia- a double distilled whisky that can be 60% and you must not even inhale if you want to drive and will take out the back of your throat unless sampled with care) and told us about the Roma community in the city. There are 32,000 people living in an illegal settlement at the edge of the city, all Roma, many living in desperate poverty. Time being against us we did not have much time to look around but the WWB team told us some very disturbing things about a community that preys upon itself with the most vulnerable members being exploited by the criminals that live amongst them.

There are some really startling figures that WWB have collected about the community. They know that at least 26 babies were born to twelve year old girls, over 80 to under sixteen's. In Roma society girls are only valued in the context of marriage and having babies. A girl who is over 20 years old and is unmarried is often treated as if there is something unusual about her and men may well consider her too old to marry. Many young girls are forced into prostitution and so there is a very high rate of STD’s and abortions. These procedures are usually carried out in secret without medical assistance. Of 100 women WWB surveyed all of them had had an abortion with 13% having had three or more. 100 boys surveyed with the question "What do you want to do for a job?" gave a result of 76 claiming that they wanted to pimps. How does this community even hold together? The pimps, drug dealers and money lenders live amongst the people they exploit; their houses are easy to spot. Big gates, nice cars (nearly always black) and huge size compared to the run down houses and shacks that are home for most of the residents.

WWB run health care programs for the members of the community. Women in particular are targeted in order to break down the mistrust that exists between Roma and regular Bulgarians that all too often means that Roma women do not seek or receive the medical care that they need, especially when pregnant. Many women do not visit a doctor at all during their pregnancies and as a result many complications and problems are left unresolved, leading to a higher infant mortality rate than the regular population.

How can a few Christmas boxes make a difference here, in this place? The truth is really that they are the means to an end. WWB is a local organisation, made of people who have either grown up in the area or lived there many years. These boxes will help them to show their neighbours that they care and lead to further contact and help for vulnerable families and individuals contacted during the distribution which will take place quietly over the run up to Christmas. The WWB team were tremendously touched by the generosity of the people of Salisbury and want to say a big “thank you” to those who made up gifts. In the weeks to come we will bring you pictures and stories from Stara Zagora and The Trussell Trust will continue to support WWB in their efforts to turn the impossible tide...
]]> Travail, triumph and triage... — Botevgrad, Sofia Region, Bulgaria http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260384207/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260384207/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260384207/tpod.html Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:05:09 -0500 To Bulgaria with love...
Botevgrad, Sofia Region, Bulgaria

Hello again from a sodden Bulgaria. After months of prep and weeks of intensive effort today the Trussell team actually managed to distribute some Christmas boxes. As the muppets would say: Yayyyy!

For Sophia, Lizzie and Valya the day started in a leisurely fashion at the House of Joshua (HoJ) as Mimi and Rich started work in Sofia. Every year the Trust transports hundreds of boxes for a group of churches from Devon who have had a long relationship with some orphanages near Varna, on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast. After these boxes travel on the Trust's truck to Sofia we then forward them. This year Mimi asked for help from a Coach Company she had done some work with previously and they agreed to let us put all the cases of Christmas boxes on one of their London-Sofia-Varna coaches.

So far, so good. We were told that we needed to get to the central bus station for 08.30 and meet the coach. The drivers were only mildy put out when they discovered that we had 95 large boxes to fit onto the coach along with the few passengers going on to Varna. How we laughed as passengers were asked to make way for a bunch of boxes; one guys' face was a special picture of confusion as a brain raddled by 30 hours of travel from London tried to accept that yes, his personal space was now being invaded by a bunch of boxes and that yes, he was being asked to leave the seat that had become his home for the last day and a half... Some passengers though gave us a hand to load the coach and we were soon on our way.

Then it was back to the warehouse to load the big van for Botevgrad and Skravena Roma communities. With both vehicles now fully loaded we convoyed back Botevgrad in the pooring rain for a rendezvous at HoJ with the girls and a quick turn around to get to our first Christmas box distribution at Skravena School.

It is always good to see our friends at the school. The children there are very excited about our annual visit and we enjoyed a well rehearsed rendition of various English language songs and poems before giving out the boxes. Many of the children at the school are from very poor families and it is great to see so many smiling faces as they all receive their gifts together. The schools' director told us how much they value the presents and described us their friends too which was a real blessing.

Next we delivered to two kindergartens connected to the school whilst the little ones slept. Father Christmas does deliver in normal working hours if you know who to ask...

Then we made tracks for Skravena Roma community and for Sophia and Lizzie a step into the unknown as they came face to face with the kind of grinding poverty that perhaps we have come to accept exsists in Africa and South America but comes as a real shock to see in a European Union country. Mud, rubbish, sewage and bare-footed kids are perhaps the first things to strike you but then you wonder why so many people in Bulgaria have been left to live like this and wonder at a political system that has consistently ignored or written off as worthless such a large chunk of society. It is always difficult to give out the presents in places like this (and Botevgrad Roma community too, which has the same problems but is four times the size): you are conscious that you want to make sure the process is dignified but Roma people are naturally a bit on the excitable side so you have to ignore the jostling and sometimes... heated debates that break out from time to time as the pecking of who gets their boxes first is sorted out. We do use a voucher system so that everyone gets a box and this usually works well.

The other reason that gift distribution is awkward is that you can't help feeling that surely there must be something more that can be done for these communities to improve their quality of life. To see where thinking like that gets you visit www.trusselltrust.org...

Despite a bit of a shock when Sophia's finger decided it wanted to be squashed in the van door, we have had a good day and a lot of families and children have enjoyed receiving Christmas boxes, reminding us yet again that these small gifts do make a big difference for those who have next to nothing.

Tomorrow we head to the city of Stara Zagora to take several hundred boxes to our partner
organisation World Without Borders and a visit to the largest Roma community in Bulgaria...

Today's scores:

Rich 3, Trams 0.

Mimi 1, Coach drivers 0. Despite an appeal to the ref TT team get away with some nifty manouevres.

Van door 1, Sophia's finger 0.

Low flying bench 1, Sophia's shin 0. This has now become shameless attention seeking on Sophia's part, frankly.

Pictures of happy kids 20,299,271, Pics of TT team posing, some.

Boxes delivered 400+

Total washout avoided despite rain's best efforts.
















]]> Trucks, trams and traffic... — Sofia, Oblast Sofiya-Grad, Bulgaria http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260310731/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260310731/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/trusselltrust/2/1260310731/tpod.html Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:09:38 -0500 To Bulgaria with love...
Sofia, Oblast Sofiya-Grad, Bulgaria

Well another day has come and eventually gone so for most of the team it's time for a rest.

I guess we should really introduce the team so you can see who's who and so you can avoid them in the street back in the UK lest they start talking about Christmas boxes when it is in fact March... This does happen.

The team from The Trussell Trust UK are Lizzie Abnett (Trussell's UK Volunteer Co-ordinator), Sophia Chichester (gap year student with the Bulgaria dept) and Rich Parsons (Bulgaria Operations Manager).

Batting for the Bulgaria team are Tedy Koleva (National Development Co-ordinator), Mimi Georgieva (Admin/Projects Support) and Valya Stankovska (translator and all round helper).

Do not be impressed by these titles. We made them up so that they sound great.

It's not often that you can say that everything went to plan on a Christmas box trip day but today it nearly did, which means we are pretty happy. The day started with a typical battle through Sofia traffic to reach our warehouse (big thanks here to Bulgaria Baptist Union for letting us use some of their space) to unload the truck. The trick with driving in Sofia is to take everything that is bad about UK driving behaviour and embrace it as your friend and ally. Going with the flow is the order of the day and as long as you remember that every motorcyclist that you see has absolutely no sense of self preservation and will attempt to make that gap and that buses/trams/trolleybuses are essentially mobile chicanes to be negotiated at speed then you will be fine. Also, do not attempt to drive down tramways- this is bad. Ahem.

We had a fantastic team of volunteers rustled up by Tedy to come and help unload the boxes and we had the job done inside 90 mins. A team of guys from an ex-prisoners reform group really got stuck into the job and together with some guys from Busmantsi Refugee Centre and the TT team the warehouse was soon full and we waved Tsvetan and his truck goodbye.

Then it was back to the town of Botevgrad to vist the Roma community and give out vouchers for the box distribution tomorrow. It was really good to see some old friends again. Having spent some time working in this community Rich, Mimi and Valya are quite familiar with the people there but it is still a shock to see just how poor this community is- 200 people, 2 outside taps, no toilets, pirated electricity and real excitement about the two pigs that are being fattened for Christmas!

Tomorrow the fun begins with an early stop at Sofia bus station for Mimi and Rich to foward some boxes to Varna and then our first Christmas box distribution of the year will take place at Skravena School and then we visit Skravena and Botevgrad Roma Communities. Hooray.

More tomorrow, assuming we don't find ourselves stuck to the front of a tram Rich...













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