BORN and raised in Essen, Germany, Yvonne Kurtze considers herself a very normal, average person with a “normal, unspectacular life in Germany”. Maybe it should be clarified: she used to have a normal life. Yvonne married her high school sweetheart, Cartsen, and lived in the same city as the members of both of their families. She never planned to travel around Germany, much less leave the country for an unknown place like Sofia.
Cartsen was asked to join a 10-and-a-half month project in Shanghai, but unfortunately this was during the SARS epidemic, and the plans were cancelled. Instead, he was offered a position in Sofia 10 days before he was to leave.  “He came to Bulgaria at the last second and without preparation”, and Yvonne decided to stay behind in Germany.  During Cartsen’s stay in Sofia, Yvonne came to visit four times for weeklong intervals.  When he returned to Germany for the Christmas holiday, he broke the news to her that he had been asked to stay for another two-and-a-half years. After a week of thinking and weighing up their options, Yvonne decided to return with him. To her it was a “quick decision; it was clear that I wanted to go, especially since I felt I knew the country well after weeks of travel.” In April 2004, Yvonne and her husband moved with all of their furniture and belongings to Sofia.
This new path in her life was one she had never expected to take, but it has taught her many lessons. “You can’t plan things, because nothing will turn out how you plan it, and you can’t think about 10 things at the same time, because nine of them will change. I never planned on leaving Germany, but it’s opened up my life, it’s unbelievable. Now I don’t want to go back to my old way of life.” This old way of life was working in a hospital as a social worker. At the age of 18, Yvonne had interned at a children’s hospital in the cancer ward, a position most people would be unable to handle emotionally, but one which she enjoyed immensely. She loved the hospital environment, because there are different kinds of people from all walks of life with different stories. However, she learnt from the very beginning that the door of the hospital was where it all changed.  Approaching that door, she told herself “from this moment on, as soon as I go out those doors, it’s a different life.” With this experience, she feels she can now handle a lot of difficult things that life throws her way.
Yvonne is now the Charity Vice Chairperson of the International Women’s Club (IWC) and works very closely with various orphanages in Bulgaria. She claims to be a “typical German” in that she is very structured and knows what she wants and what she expects from others. She works very closely with the orphanage directors in order to build trust and keep them active, and she ensures that 100 per cent of the money goes to the children. Many women who visit these orphanages, especially the one for disabled children, have a very difficult time coping with the state in which these children and the facilities are in and are unable to return.
Not all of the children are orphans and not all the orphanages are in a sorry condition. Yvonne believes that even if a person is unable to visit them in person, they can help in other ways.  “Bulgaria has changed my life. There are things you see that you don’t know where you’d expect to see these things, Africa, Brazil, but not Europe. I can’t believe these children are living here in Bulgaria.” She feels that 90 per cent of Bulgarians “have no clue about the situation of orphanages outside of Sofia”, and she works with the IWC to make people more aware of the needs within their country. She also approaches businesses with propositions for aid in all forms. Due to the recent flooding, two of the orphanages she works with were completely destroyed, and the work to rebuild them and find resources will be very difficult.
Yvonne is also active with fellow IWC member Petra Stellamanns-Bendix’s street dog project. After caring for the two-day-old abandoned puppies, “three guinea pigs in a box” as she called them, she decided to adopt one of the females after her favourite one died.  “They were just too young and fragile. It was like taking care of newborn babies.” She named her puppy Ronja after a Swedish bedtime story about “Ronja, Daughter of the Thieves” because her pup steals anything she can get her mouth on.  “She has changed our lives completely and has even become the IWC dog.  She comes with me to orphanages, and is not just a part of my life, she’s a part of the charity work as well.”
Yvonne loves her new life here and loves the fact that she can continue to help people as well as animals.  At first it seemed to her that Bulgarians weren’t friendly, because they weren’t smiling and didn’t want contact. She says now that her first impressions were completely wrong.  “They’re really nice and inviting people,” and she says the fact that it’s safe for a female to be out alone at night shows this.  As a foreigner, she feels she can have a good life here as it’s inexpensive, and she’s able to remain exactly how she is without getting bothered by social pressures. She hopes that Bulgarians will become more aware in the future of under-privileged and orphaned children and become proactive in this country that she has begun to call home.