In 2001, OXAB made its first trips to Bulgaria, the first time we had operated outside the former Yugoslavia. While in previous years we have visited countries such as Croatia and Slovenia, Bulgaria is an entirely new departure. Rather than being faced with recovery from war, Bulgaria is faced with the problems of the transition from communism to capitalism - a rapid and dramatic social and economic change. Since the fall of communism in 1989, Bulgaria has made considerable progress in terms of economic development, despite enormous structural problems, but the progress made has not benefited everyone. Our work is based around helping children in Bulgaria - in orphanages, street children’s centres, and other institutions. The terrible situation of orphans and disabled children in neighbouring Romania was highlighted worldwide by campaigns in the early 1990s to publicise the dreadful conditions these children lived in - often treated as if they could do nothing better than vegetate, even if their disability was minor or treatable.

Sadly, the reality is that the problem has not been confined to Romania, but extends over many post-communist countries, including Bulgaria - where the problem has not yet received the same level of attention. While efforts are being made to improve conditions by the government and various charities, orphanages and children’s homes are usually understaffed and underfunded, and the few staff there often lack any real training. Following pressure from the European Union and International Community, deinstitutionalisation has been on the political agenda since 2003; however, progress is slow, children are not eligible for adoption (often as their parents are still alive) and fostering is still little developed, so many more children remain in institutions than in Western Europe.

What happens on a typical OXAB trip?

While most of our trips are to orphanages, these vary enormously in the conditions for the children, and in the number of disabled children in the institutions. Your likely activities depend very much on the children’s age and ability. While with some placements, especially the street kids’ centres, you might be organising sports and other outdoor activities, or, for example art, drama, or even English lessons, in others the children will be less able and less active, and so your work would be restricted to more basic interaction, and to helping the staff with work around the centre. If you’re going to a centre with very disabled children, we’d recommend you get experience before you go of working with the disabled - contact us for more information. In general, the language barrier is a relatively minor difficulty, though you should learn at least a few basic phrases (see our Bulgarian for beginners section) - English is spoken by very few older people in Bulgaria, since the former communist policy was to teach mostly German and Russian as foreign languages. Bulgaria also uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which, while not complicated, very different from our own! We do, however, have English speaking contacts around Bulgaria, and if there’s a problem you’ll have their contact details available.

A typical trip lasts two to three weeks, although it’s possible (and cheap!) to go travelling afterwards. Any money that you fundraise before leaving will go much further on art materials etc in Bulgaria than here in Britain!

Places we visit
OXAB visits centres across Bulgaria; please click here for further information.

How do I get there?
Typically, you’ll travel by plane to Sofia Airport - while there is an airport near Varna on the Black Sea coast, it’s almost certainly going to be far cheaper to fly to Sofia and get the train across the country - a ticket to travel the full length of the country costs only £7 or £8. A good deal on a flight will get you there, usually via another European airport, from just over £60. Train links across the country are reasonably good, though sometimes slow - be careful to take the express trains wherever possible! Budget airlines are also starting to fly to Varna and Burgas on the Black Sea, so be sure to check them out. Have a look at our tips section for more information.

What’s the country like?

Bulgaria, like many Balkan countries, is culturally diverse. While much of the population is Bulgarian and Orthodox Christian, there are also considerable Muslim and Roma minorities - the country was part of the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years - creating a mixture of both Slavic and Middle Eastern culture, in addition to the more recent injection of Western influnence! The country is a little smaller than England in area, though the population is much smaller, at just 7.6 million. The transition from communism has not been easy, and many parts of the country, especially away from the larger urban centres, have suffered badly in terms of employment and quality of life. The contrast between rich and poor is dramatic.

Bulgaria is at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula, with the Balkan Mountains running East-West across the centre of the country. The terrain is a mixture of valley plains, and mountain ranges - the highest in the Balkans. The climate varies dramatically with altitude, but has much hotter summers and colder winters than we have here - in summer you are reminded that this country neighbours Greece, with temperatures hitting up to 40C, whereas in winter temperatures can dip well below freezing, and stay there for days or even weeks.

We have various resources to help you with your trip to Bulgaria on the website on our get involved page. Our current liaison officer for Bulgaria can be contacted by clicking on this link (bulgaria@oxab.org.uk).

Last updated: February 25th, 2009