Social Projects
ZOV UK and ZOV Bulgaria Association
Since its very founding, Communitas has supported ZOV UK in their efforts in Bulgaria. ZOV UK was established by Oxford University students, and later it was registerred locally as well, by the name ZOV Bulgaria Association. ZOV's main activities are concentrated on the development of social skills of the children fostered at the Children institution "Penyu and Maria Velkovi" in the town of Veliko Tarnovo, as well as to prepare them for the life outside the institution - for further studies, work, or more general challenges. In the years, ZOV succeeded in developing the unique Outreach Project, which, with the benevolance of the Veliko Tarnovo University, aims at improving the children's perspectives for higher education and better professional realisation. The project consists of workshops and seminars for educational orientation, civic education, profeshional orientation, simulation games, etc., as well as of mentorship component. The efficiency of ZOV's work, can be measured not only through the small budget of the project, but most of all by the fact that there are already children from "Penyu and Maria Velkovi" who are admitted to the university. More about ZOV's activites you can find here.
Child and Space Association
In the perion 2007-2011, Communitas Foundation and ASSA Foundation chose to grant support to Child and Space Association's programme called The Child and his Symptoms. The Association under the management of Vessela Banova, is one of the main actors in the process of deinstitutionalisation of children who grow up without parental care. The activities of Space and Child Association include: training of the specialized staff in the children institutions, improvement of the collaboration between the social workers at OZDs (Department for Child Protection) and daycare centres and the institutions for children and teenagers with disorders, helping the work with parents of children with disorders, and consultations on the policy reforms. Currently, Child and Space Association is a subcontractor of the project led by UNICEF for the deinstitutionalisation of Mogilino. More on their activity can be found here тук.
Nikolai Shmirgela Foundation
In the perion 2007-2011, Communitas Foundation and ASSA Foundation chose to grant support to Nikolai Shmirgela Foundation, and particularly for their projects Draw me a sheep carried out with the children from the Daycare Home of childred with (physical and mental) disorders Good Heart in Pernik, Children's Home "Nadejda" (transl. Hope), Children's Home "Vyara, Nadejda i Lyubov" (transl. Faith, Hope and Love), and Children's Home "Asen Zlatarov"; art ateliers with the Communitas stipend holders from the specialised high school for children with impaired hearing Prof. Decho Denev in Sofia. The activities of the Nikolai Shmirgela Foundation aim at social integration and development of communicative and creative skills in institutionalised and impaired children by engaging them in activities outside the institution. The courses are also therapeutic and are carried out by trained psychologists. More about Nikolai Shmirgela Foundation here.
Centaur Art Foundation
In the perion 2007-2011, Communitas Foundation and ASSA Foundation chose to grant support to Centaur Art Non-for-Profit Foundation and their project Photodrama carried out in the institutions for children with mental disorders in the villages of Petrovo and Sladak Kladenets. Photodrama measured a significant improvement in the phychological and communication status of the children and the teenagers from these institutions, and proved the efficiency of their art approach. At the same time, by taking the children outside the institutions to short trips in the villages, the project contributed to the children's incorporation in the local communities. From their report: The project's results prove that the adult is important to the child not only in terms of taken care. (...) The approach and the attitude towards them, the call to their personal individuality, changed and developed them. One could already understand their talking, they started dancing, creating friendships, and looking at the world outside the institution. More about Centaur Art, here.