ROMAN ORPHANAGE - SUMMER CAMP 2005 |
Brian Sumpton lives in England but has visited the Roman Orphanage every July for the past few years helping out with a wide range of practical jobs from painting to looking after the children. He goes under the auspices of the Star of Hope charity and has to pay his own air fare both ways.For his most recent visits, Poetic Hours has been giving money, initially for maintenance projects but of late, just to be spent on the children. Last year it bought bananas - the first the children had ever tasted. This year it went towards a summer camp where some of the youngsters could leave the orphanage for a week and experience the beauty of their own countryside.Brian went with them..... |
"The camp was excellent, but it should have lasted for three months rather than for a week only!" This was the "advice" 10-year old Georgi gave on the last evening before we finished our summer camp for underprivileged children. 40 kids gathered together in Velingrad on July 27th whom Star of Hope had invited to join from children's institutions and from families living in extremely poor conditions. The ever-smiling Georgi lives with his parents in a remote village in the mountains of Strumjani Region. He and his 12-year old brother had never been to a children's camp before. Their parents, finding it difficult to make both ends meet, rely on the children's help in their agricultural work. The first camp for both Georgi and his brother was an incredible opportunity to meet other children, play with them and just have a good time together. The lessons we had with the kids on Christian values, the workshops, the fellowship, the swimming in the town's mineral water swimming pool, the walks all this made everybody feel so contented during the camp. No wonder, the departure day was so emotional. Fidanka, a girl living in the orphanage in Roman, with tears in her eyes stood up on the last evening and said, "Thank you for inviting me to be part of this wonderful camp!" I would like to use these words to thank the British and the Bulgarian volunteers as well as everyone else who supported us in a variety of ways to make this camp so successful. - Star of Hope Newsletter (Autumn 2005 issue) |
I was asked to personally pass on the thanks of my friends in Bulgaria for helping make a bunch of kids very, very happy (I'm also forwarding their news letter they say it better than I can.) Any way about the Summer Camp Velingrad Bulgaria - July 24th till August 4th It was Great As you know the purpose of this trip was to take the kids out of their living hell to a camp for 7 days. Back to the Trip - the facts I was away a total a total of 12 days away. 5 of those days were spent travelling, preparing for the arrival of the kids, decorating the camp with balloons and pictures to make the place more welcoming, we moved beds, chairs and tables to help us squeeze up to 4 children in one bedroom and we spent a lot of time planning the weeks activities. The other 7 days were spent with the children, there were 3 groups of children, 1 group of about 15 from the special needs Orphanage in Dolno Draglishte, 1 group of 10 from the special needs orphanage in Roman, and 1 group of underprivileged children from a area in Bulgaria called Strumjarni, all bringing with them tales of abuse and unimaginable mis treatment. There were quite a few helpers this year 7 volunteers from England 7 volunteers from the star of hope Bulgaria 1 Nurse 4 teacher from the homes Other included: - A Director of Social Service, her husband and two children. A doctor and her son These people paid there own way to come just because they wanted to be part of what we were doing at the camp. We went swimming We played football a lot We danced We sang We told stories We held craft workshops We went for walks We played a lot We had ice cream We had 3 bible lessons, with the aim of showing the children and staff Gods love We learned bible verses We had an English evening and a Bulgarian Evening There were lots of hugs, cuddles and interaction with the kids We all laughed a lot and we cried sometimes Thanks again ! |
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