Optimism for Bulgaria

Routine and calm, orderly activities are essential to the well-being of people with physical and intellectual impairments.

Three professors from Ruse University 3D print face shields for doctors and medical staff in Bulgarian hospitals.

Families line up for food as well as for learning aids in front of HESED’s centers.

An off-road club in Velingrad ensures food and medication reach elderly people in remote villages.

Banitsa is Bulgaria’s favorite on-the-move breakfast and a go-to snack at all times of the day. The popular cheese-and-egg-filled phyllo-dough pastry is sold at shops strategically placed in city areas with a lot of foot traffic.

When Bulgaria declared a state of emergency on March 13, restaurants closed their doors to diners, and educational establishments moved their classes online. For private vocational institutions like HRC Culinary Academy, this posed a double challenge.

Tens of thousands of Bulgarians made charitable contributions during an April 8 benefit concert, titled #HelpFromHome, in support of the Bulgarian Food Bank. A staggering 230,000 levs was raised in the 24 hours during and after the concert.

In the early days of May 1995 Scott and Susan Carpenter and their 11-month-old son Alex moved into a simple two-bedroom apartment right off Vitosha Boulevard, by the National Palace of Culture (NDK), in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. They had a view of the nearby mountain, also called Vitosha, and would listen to the Bulgarian national anthem every 15 minutes.

“When you study World War II or the communist period, it’s just dry numbers. You can’t have an emotional connection to numbers. But if you can experience what it is like to be toiling away on Belene Island during peak mosquito season, history is less likely to repeat itself.”