Mentoring Scheme, Balvan - Veliko Turnovo 

• Background information – the need

The Khristo Smirnenski Home in Balvan is currently home to 50-60 children, aged between 3-18 years. Although, as OXAB volunteers have noted, the material resources in the orphanage are low, far more worrying is the lack of emotional support provided for the children, due to understaffing and a lack of funding and resources. The damage that growing up in a large-scale institution has on children’s emotional, cognitive and physical development has been recognised in academic literature (Nunev, 2004), and the stigma associated with institutionalisation often makes it difficult for children to integrate into society on leaving and limits their ability to form long-term relationships (ibid.). Institutional care is thus a major cause of social exclusion and poverty. 

• The mentoring project

By offering young people an individual volunteer mentor, who takes a positive interest in their wellbeing, whom they can to talk to about their hopes, dreams and worries, and who can provide advice and support with regard to choices they are making or will make in the near future, concerning education, jobs, accommodation etc, the mentoring project aims to offer support to young people at a critical time in their lives, a time when they may be facing difficult choices and numerous challenges associated with growing up and leaving institutionalised care. In doing so, it also hopes to encourage volunteer culture within Bulgaria, where it is currently an underdeveloped concept, and break down some of the stigma associated with institutionalisation and the Roma ethnicity in particular, through encouraging communication between the orphanage and the local community. 

• Why mentoring?

Research shows that mentoring has many benefits for children and young people – positive outcomes include greater confidence and self-esteem, achieving an educational or employment related goal, and developing valuable life/social skills (Stein and Clayden, 2005). In addition, young people with a mentor are less likely to skip school and less likely to begin using illegal drugs and alcohol (The Children’s Society, n.d.). 

• Current Progress/ Update

Ten student volunteers from the University of Veliko Turnovo have now received full training in general listening and communication skills, as well as being given specific information on topics relevant to young people. The training was carried out by qualified social work professionals at the Centre for the Integration of Children and Young People at Risk using a range of interactive methods. With the training and preparation complete, the mentoring sessions are scheduled to start at the beginning of November 2008 and will be complemented with monthly group workshop sessions facilitated by the social workers at the centre. We’ll keep you updated as the project progresses further so watch this space…   

• People/groups involved

OXAB UK (Joanna Flint, Chloe Blackmore), OXAB Bulgaria (Steliyana Dulkova, Katia Zlatkova), Municipality of Veliko Turnovo (Centre for the Integration of Children and Young People at Risk – Maya, Svetlana)

• For more information on the above project, including the full project proposal, or for information on how you can help, please contact the UK Project Co-ordinators Joanna Flint and Chloe Blackmore on balvan.english@gmail.com

Last updated: November 18th, 2008