You can tell that summer has ended when the more serious side of life returns to Bulgaria, and when thoughts turn not to which hotel or beach to visit, but to which orphanage or hospital has the greatest need for new beds or vitamins.
In two unrelated initiatives, the Bulgarian charity foundations One Life Bulgaria, Lora Foundation and Cedar Foundation are making September the month when the action starts.

Driving from the UK
On the evening of September 11, a convoy of donations from the Communication Workers Union Humanitarian Aid (CWUHA) is to arrive at the border checkpoint in Vidin.

The union, which was founded in 1995, is a 100 per cent volunteer effort of trade unionists, families and friends who work in the United Kingdom's and Ireland's postal and telecom industries. In line with their tradition of providing material goods assistance to orphanages, foster and adoption centres, run-down hospitals and vulnerable families, they contacted One Life Charity, and in spring 2008, two CWUHA representatives visited Bulgaria.

While here, they were taken to Pleven Hospital-Orphanage, the Pavel Bobekov children's social care home in Panagyurishte, the Ana Gizdova children's social care home in in Bratsigovo and the National School Sv Sv Kiril i Metodii in Razhdavitsa, with a children's social care home attached, this looked after by Lora Foundation.

Lora Foundation came about following Jack and Elsabe Louw's visit to a Bulgarian orphanage in 1998. While there, one little girl made a great impression on them - Lora. She was seven years old and weighed about seven kg; staff told the couple that the girl was brain damaged and would die soon. The Louws believed otherwise and, when they returned to Bulgaria a bit later, succeeded in adopting Lora. Doctors in Sofia said that she had been "totally misdiagnosed", Mrs Louw said at a news conference at BTA on September 9. "The only thing wrong with her was severe malnutrition and lack of stimulation. We adopted Lora, and it's the biggest blessing in our life." Subsequently, they registered the foundation, which aims to better the lives of destitute children in the country.

One Life Bulgaria was created in 2004 when expats and Bulgarians came together to hold a charity bike ride, and has since made it its purpose to provide medicines to and treatments at underfunded hospitals in the country, and to give aid to children's social care homes.

As part of its operations, the charity organisation makes visits to Bulgarian institutions, and talks to the people there, to see how One Life can help, One Life board member Thomas Berthold said at the news conference.

"For us, the Pleven home is very, very important," he said. The home, the largest such in the country, has 250 abandoned children, of whom about 80 are mentally and/or physically disabled.

One Life Charity president Carl Smith told how, during CWUHA's visit, One Life submitted a wish list to them that included children's cots and mattresses, summer and winter clothing and shoes, sensory games and toys, musical instruments, food supplements, wheelchairs, buggies and walking frames, nappies, medical disposables and more.

Mission approved.

Eventually arriving at their Sofia hotel on September 11, CWUHA is to spend the following day delivering the supplies to the four institutions. The 10 7.5-ton trucks full of aid will realise CWUHA's motto: "Delivering a smile to needy children." Three of the lorries will go to Pleven, one to Panagyurishte, one to Samokov and Sofia, and three to Kyustendil for the Lora Foundation, the tenth housing their administration.

On Sunday the 14th, British ambassador Steve Williams and his wife are having the charity representatives over to their residence for a casual reception. And the following morning, the CWUHA volunteers hit the road again, for the week-long drive to the UK.

Singing for support
Cedar Foundation is holding its annual black-tie dinner on September 20 at the Central Military Club. As in the past, there will be a variety show/cabaret and auction, this year featuring performances by ethno-pop singer Nina Nikolina, Lilana, Penny O'Sullivan, and the kids from Gorna Kosnitsa.

Children hopping about on stage at a formal fundraising event? Gorna Kosnitsa is a social care home for "profoundly mentally disabled" children and adults in Bobov Dol, Cedar Foundation president Mark O'Sullivan tells The Sofia Echo, and the dinner has the goal to bring in money to improve the lives of its residents.

This year, the event is more of a "corporate deal", with individual firms sponsoring tables. Through showcasing the foundation's projects, it is hoped that attendees will recognise the scope of what needs to be done, and contribute, either financially or with donations of time.

Cedar Foundation works for the decentralisation of social care homes around the country, and on specific projects with a kindergarten and a hospital-orphanage in Kazanluk.

Mark says that in the Gorna Kosnitsa home, 59 children and adults reside, a combination of ages that is "completely illegal - that's one of the reasons why the place needs to be closed down". The idea is to then set up proper social care services in Kyustendil and Bobov Dol - family-type centres for the children and protective homes for the adults.

Both work on the principle of employing caretakers to look after a small group of needy people in a family-like environment, something as close to a home as possible, but with workers trained in proper care methods. This would include doing "proper" assessments to define exactly what is wrong with the residents - misdiagnosing is common - and the setting up of proper care plans based on individual needs. One must keep in mind, Mark says, that many of the residents "cannot even sit up or use the toilet, so they are very simple care plans".

For the adults specifically, "you employ carers to look after them, and make it as family orientated as possible. You have professionals, but they are in a central management unit - an office with social workers, psychiatrists and so on".

This is the sort of model that is used in Britain. I ask Mark if it works. His response: "It would be very difficult to do any worse than their current state."

Employed for the purpose are Bulgarians. "This is part of the whole process," Mark says. "Through the local municipality, we advertise the job, and then we get British people to come and train them. In Bulgaria, in the homes, they have a lot of professionals; in our model, we suggest that you use only carers, trained carers, who can demonstrate genuine loving care."

And how do they seek to get the property for the new homes? By lobbying the local municipality to make it available.

One of the challenges, Mark says, is coming up with finances to set up proper alternative care services, and finding the right people to employ to care for the children. There's also "dealing with the problem that most Bulgarians can't really see the reason to integrate these people into society. We'd say that society is actually disabled, and needs to sort itself out a bit. The residents, themselves, are impaired."

Cedar Foundation is not alone in its efforts. ARC Bulgaria plays "a big advisory role", and the International Women's Club - Sofia (IWC) has contributed money to help with the assessments.

In addition, the foundation's associate director is Francis Ma, the Englishman who instituted the deinstitutionalisation process in the United Kingdom.

Auction items at the black-tie gathering include a Daniel Carter-signed rugby ball, a football boot signed by Manchester United, a weekend in either London or Dublin, dinner at Krim, a weekend in the Sheraton Hotel and a bottle of rare Jameson whiskey. In 2007, a similar bottle of Jameson went for 5000 euro.

In addition, the New Zealand men at the evening will do a hukka, the traditional Maori welcome dance. The idea, as Mark says, is for the women to pay for them to dance, and the men to bid against the women; if the men win, the women have to do a poi-poi.

Ultimately, the money raised will go to continuing the work of Cedar Foundation, with the goal of expanding their existing projects. "We want to put down a plan to close down every institution in Bulgaria, which involves creating a structure, a methodology and lobbying the governments. There are 154 institutions," Mark says. "It would take about 10 to 15 years. It has to be done. These places - the government here thinks that they're normal, and as long as they think that they're normal, there will continue to be problems."

To find out more about One Life Bulgaria, visit onelifebulgaria.org. For Cedar Foundation, visit cedarfoundation.org. Tickets for the September 20 fundraiser dinner are available at 088/ 925 67 78.