Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine until now over 6 million refugees fled the country and over a 100 thousand people (mostly mothers with children) sought refuge in Bulgaria. The team of the Balkan Heritage Foundation (BHF) empathizes with the hardship of all these people and would like to support them in overcoming at least some of the difficulties which they face in a new country with a foreign language and culture. The BHF has extensive experience organizing trainings in the fields of archaeology and conservation, as well as communicating the cultural heritage of the Balkans. We know that meeting new people and cultures can and should be a positive experience and a step towards establishing good long term relationships.

“A cultural welcome” is our new initiative and our way to make the lives of these people in Bulgaria easier. The initiative has two main goals:

• to introduce the newly arrived people to the cultural heritage of Bulgaria by organizing free cultural tours and museum visits in Sofia and Plovdiv
• to encourage the social and economic integration of the Ukrainian refugees by funding  Bulgarian language courses

In May, 2022 the BHF  began a partnership with the Bulgarian branch of “Worldwide Orphans” Foundation (WWO Bulgaria), which has organized  a daycare group for Ukrainian children. Since then the BHF made a onetime donation of 1000 USD to WWO Bulgaria co-funding a three month Bulgarian language course in person for 15 of the mothers. In addition the BHF team members are volunteering  to lead free cultural tours for the Ukrainian refugees in Sofia. We reached out to our museum partners: the Regional History Museum Sofia, the National History Museum, the National Archaeological Institute with Museum, the Municipal Institute “Ancient Plovdiv” and the National gallery and the Sofia City Art Gallery, to support our initiative by providing free entrance and guided visits.

The Foundation’s next goal is to raise 5000 EUR ( approx. 5362 USD) for another Bulgarian language online class (for approx. 100 people) which will be organized by the „Institute for foreign languages” part of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. We ask all of you – our students, colleagues and friends to support our initiative. You can help by making a donation and/or sharing the information for this campaign with as many people as possible.

Sincerely,

The team of the Balkan Heritage Foundation