The choice of the best voluntary initiatives of 2015

Posted on 03.12.2015

On 2^nd December 2015 for the sixth consecutive year the Foundation ”Lale” and the Foundation “National Alliance for Volunteer Action” (NAVA) honored the most interesting and effective voluntary initiatives in Bulgaria for 2015.

In an official ceremony in the National Theater “Ivan Vazov” with the attendance of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Mr. Rosen Plevneliev the members of the jury bestowed certificates to the three awarded organisations: the Club of the Philanthropists from the 105 “Dimitar Dalchev” Secondary school -Sofia, TELUS International and the Tourist society “Prista”- Rousse.

“The European culture of empathy and unity is the fundamental basis of volunteering and it is what makes us not only free people and independent personalities, but also a strong and united society that has good causes and a mission and is ready to help the people in need – declared President Rosen Plevneliev during the ceremony. The head of the country pointed out that we have lived in hard times and that our lifestyle and values were put to the test. “When it is hard and difficult we need to follow our dreams, not our fears. We will not surrender. We will keep moving on because we will not forget the traditional for Bulgarians, built for ages values – tolerance, humanity and respect to different people. The desire of everybody to hold out a hand to people in need will also not be neglected”, emphasized the President.

In this year’s edition of the competition “The best volunteer initiative of the year” 40 initiatives were nominated. All of them characterized themselves with innovative thinking and a desire for the realization of an effective idea that will make a change on a local and a national level.

The awarded initiatives were chosen from a competent jury with members Aneta Milkova, member of the Board of managers of the Bulgarian National Television; Ognian Zlatev, the leader of the Delegation of the European commission in Bulgaria; Aleksei Lazarov, the head editor of the “Capital” newspaper, and Ivan Stanchov, the founder and the President of the Board of the managers of Foundation “Karin dom”.

And here is some brief information about the initiatives, based on their results, their importance for the people in the community, the number of people and their characteristics, the financial efficiency and the significance of the initiative for the development of the organization’s team and the volunteers.

The volunteers from the Club of the Philanthropists of the 105 “Atanas Dalchev” Secondary school every Sunday, for more than a year, have helped with the preparation of warm food and packing of dry food for 400 people in need from Sofia and have distributed it in the “Saint Ilia the Prophet” Simultaneously the volunteers have taken part in the classes in church school with the preparation and realization of lessons for the children. The award for this wonderful idea is the construction of “Playground for forgotten games” in the temple’s/church’s yard.
The initiative of TELUS International, Plovdiv branch, supports the Complex for social services for children and families and their programme “Protected shelter”. More than 150 volunteers from TELUS in Plovdiv helped with the overhaul of the house. Just for several months they managed to fully furnish the bedrooms and to make them a better place for living. Volunteers from the campaign have taught the children who will be adopted abroad foreign languages in order to reduce the stress.
The main goal of the initiative of the Tourist society “Prista”- Rousse is to make more people pay attention to the serious issue of pollution of the Danube islands in the Rousse region and take part in finding a solution for it. This initiative is meant to inform the people about the great biodiversity there and the tourist opportunities, which the islands offer. The team of the Tourist society “Prista” has been on journeys to the Danube islands in the area near Rousse and has done researche about the pollution, has collected the needed information and has organized campaigns for cleaning the islands. Five campaign were held in the period from June to October 2015, in which 560 sacks with garbage from 4 Danube islands were gathered by 110 people.