Hello everyone,
this post is dedicated for our memories of the B.R.G.H.T FUTURE summer camp.
We will update this post every week so that way You will be aware what is now going on in Mrachenik.
Stay tune with us during June 🤗
🌱We are happy to tell you that our Summer camp B.R.I.G.H.T Future project just started this 1st of June. Smokinya Team worked very hard for this project to happened and it’s with great joy that we met all our campers!⛺️
31st – 2nd
First walk with APV’s ( participants who arrived earlier to help us set up the camp )
Workshop and on-boarding for our APV’s
First dinner together
Pallets prepared to set up the tents
Building furnitures for the campers
Revitalisation of the garden so later we can use this space for activities
Picture of all the campers that finally arrived
First workshop about community
Presentation about Sources of Success
Cooperation while making poster of community meaning
Team building about verbal communication between teams
Helping the cook to make delicious meals
Our first fire in the camp
3rd – 5th
The last day for the On-boarding training for the volunteers
Taking of the grass from Mrachenik school playground
Making a volleyball ground to do some sport activities
Creating a compost which will be used in the future to natural plants.
Making a fire camp which the volunteers can sit around it at night to get some warm.
Playing some games in the evening like chess and UNO
6th – 8th
Ready to continue the work at the school, removing tiles and grass from the ground and cleaning the whole area.
After a brainstorming of ideas, we decided also to build new structure for the school, like this home-made benches!
The next day some of the participants wanted to help Vasco, a local inhabitant, in the construction of his glamping area. His family own two beautiful horses and he promises to let us ride them! 🙂
Another full day here in Mrachenik, in the early morning we went picking the famous Bulgarian Rose. In the afternoon we continued to work on the school, and to close another day, we went hiking on the mountains searching for cherry trees!
9th – 11th
Working in the school garden – removing grass, tiles and cleaning the space.
Community working with rose picking. We started at 5am an in two hours we collected around 8kg of roses.
Visiting traditional, old, Bulgarian house of one of the local villagers.
Hiking trip to the grave of Bulgarian revolutionary – Hadzhi Dimitar. In total we did 11 km.
Enjoying beautiful landscaping and views. Hiking is a perfect way to start weekend!
12th – 14th
These past 3 days have been so busy! 🍃
The major of Mrachenik gave us the permission to clean public spaces in the village, such as: the main square, the play yard where the child used to play and the fountains ⛲
Thanks to this work our relationship with the villagers increase so much 🙌
We had the opportunity to welcome the red cross during few hours! ⛑️ The representative reminded us (or taught for some of us) the First Aid, how to use (basic) materials around us and create something that can save our life.
Also, he gave useful informations about snakes / tics because we are most of the time working outside and the grass are full of these threats! 🐍
Some of the campers went back to the roses picking and will go back once again this Friday to close the season of roses! 🌹 They are grateful and happy to use our hands for helping the locals!
Finally, we had a meeting with some of the villagers, we took a coffee and ate sweet biscuits. Thanks to this meeting we were able to talk to them and improve our Bulgarian language skills. 🗣️
One of the villager helped us and taught us how to build a basket! 🏀
15th – 17th
One of the local family invited us for a dinner to say thank you for our work in the village. We had a chance to try food and see artefacts from Egypt – the country of the host. We had an amazing time there and we feel very great-full when people appreciate what we are doing!
Work, work, work – we are not stopping! We still have some tasks to do in the village. This time we cleaned sidewalks, fountains and stairs. We love to help community and to see how Mrachenik is becoming more and more beautiful. Not only the streets are getting better but also villagers became more open to us!
We want to express our gratitude to Scania Bulgaria for their incredible support for Smokinya Foundation during our B.R.I.G.H.T Future camp. Not only did they generously contribute materials and finances, but they also went the extra mile by joining us in Mrachenik to lend a helping hand, even in the rain!
This Saturday, a fantastic team of 20 volunteers made their way to join us. They enthusiastically participated in various clean-up activities around the village, showing their genuine care for the community. Their team divided into three groups, each taking on a specific task to make the most impact. Тhe most significant places we focused on were the abandoned school in the village, the local river and a highly polluted area.
18th – 20th
On Sunday our volunteers went for another walk to Kara Tepe. Hiking is a perfect way to actively spend your free time. Plus in Bulgarian’s mountains the views are amazing!
Helping the village is what we love the most! This time we built for locals a small library! Our participants also created the swing and some of them were making a YouTube video of B.R.I.G.H.T FUTURE project. We are very impressed how creative they are!
During the camp one of the volunteers had his 25 birthday. Together we celebrated them and our cook prepared a delicious cake. Happy Birthday Chris!
21st – 23rd
The physical work is over, but we are still have a lot of things to do. This time campers had a chance to participate in the workshop about Circle of Creativity – very useful tool in life that helps with setting goals and creating a plan.
Last day of rose picking – we were helping before the closing of the season. It was a real pleasure that we could help and for us it was incredible experience!
Our team decided to create a festival for the campers and the villagers. Every hand is on board. We are preparing food, drinks, different types of activities and also art gallery with a memory room! Participants have a freedom to create whatever they want! We are so excited for tomorrow!!!
Let’s take a moment to appreciate our cooks! Here everyday we have three meals and snacks. Most of the food is vegetarian – but even for the biggest meat lovers is not a problem. The dishes are creative and very delicious! Also from time to time we have a chance to eat the cake. Last time it was a birthday cake for one of our Spanish volunteers. We wish You all the best Lara!
24th – 26th
On Saturday the campers organized a festival for the villagers of Mrachenik.
It took several days of intense work to be done! Our campers was split by teams.
Some of them was part of the entertainment team which means that they handled the program of the festival. They planed activities such as chess contest, music, fire camp, bingo, and others games.
The food team cooked for everybody a lot of specialities from different countries. It was a good opportunity for people to try new dishes. It was a true multicultural dinner. We ate tortilla de patata from Spain, Bruschetta from Italy, Tarator and banitsa from Bulgaria.
Moreover it was the moment for the campers to realize that cooking for a huge amount of people is very hard. Now they appreciate more the work of our cooks!
Also during this festival our artists create an art gallery inside the school. Everyone expressed their creativity in this huge space. There was different kind of art such as paints, draws, grafittis, sculptures…
Finally we had a team who investigated about Mrachenik history and they created the memory corner. It was beautiful to see the villagers talking about the old Mrachenik and their stories!
This festival was a great success! A lot of villagers showed up and even people from different villages came to meat our short-term volunteers and connect with them!
After the festival we came back to our old activities, a lot of workshops and self- development! We had a time to reflect about what we did and what impact we created on the village, people that are living there and most important how this project affected us!
Smokinya Foundation follows the UN youth agenda 2030, the 11 Youth goals for EU, and EU strategy in the field of youth to Engage, Connect, Empower. We are committed to contribute in working towards reaching the UN SDGs.
Smokinya Foundation is accredited to carry out Erasmus+ projects in the field of youth, as well as, we are holding a Quality Label for Lead organisation within the programme European Solidarity Corps.
With this TEAC ESC activity we worked on and created results and successes on improving the following SDGs.
https://smokinya.com/2022/07/17-sustainable-development-goals-of-the-united-nations/
Should you have a question, contact us: info@smokinya.com.
By applying to this course you take responsibility and risks. Inform yourself about the regulation and potential risks. Smokinya Foundation cannot be held liable for any of the potential risks, and this post is only for informative and popularising purposes.
This program is co-funded by the European Solidarity Corps program of the European Union.
The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an
endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be
held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. //
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