So i have a little hobby which is volunteering. I have just actually come back from Bulgaria and i was there for three weeks volunteering in an orphanage. This experience is AMAZING! I did it last year too in the summer for a month and then at Christmas time for a week. I totally LOVE it.
 |
| Me and the Girls sitting outside the orphanage before a days graft =) |
If your wondering what we do there is basically revolves around caring and stimulating the children. The level of care at this orphanage in Pleven where we volunteer is horrendous! Literally the place would be closed down if it was in England. Yet i have seen improvements through my time going.
Some of the things that i have seen in the orphanage which makes me think this way;
- Children are lifted by one arm and carried and thrown around
- The babies of the orphanage are fed out of glass beer bottles with teats on the end which have a big hole cut in the end so the gloopy, brown coloured mixture is able to fit through.
- They are not held or sat in a high chair to be fed most of the time they fed by the nurses(well if we can call them that) propping the glass bottle at an angle and letting the mixture trickle through.
- They are rarely taken out of their cots and if they are they are locked in a room with what i can describe as a dozen dog toys.
- Children are often left to lay and fester in their own feces and vomit. Most of the children are soaked through when you enter a room.
- Many children rock back and forth and even do extreme forms of headbanging where they sit against a concrete wall and with extreme force smash their heads back on the wall when they are distressed.
- To take a urine sample they tape glass bottles to the children's genitals.
These are just a few things which you have to contend with from being there for a month. But due to the fact i go as regular as i can usually at least once a year for the summer i am able to work with children and see them progress but unfortunately sometimes see them regress when you get back the next year. Many of the children are severely disabled due to many causes from genetic, incest and also abuse. All children are under developed and malnutritioned. So we try and fund raise as much as possible during the year to be able to fund the orphanage with items which help the children for example with Bulgaria hitting very high summer degrees we funded for the majority of sectors in the orphanage to get fitted with aircon.
Every time we go we go equipped with our own things so we are not using the orphanages supplies for example nappies, sudocreme, nappy bags, wipes, play bags that kind of thing.
 |
| Some of the resources we brought to make up our play bags =) |
I volunteer through TBACT (The Bulgarian Abandoned Children Trust) if you are interested in getting a little more information on the orphanage or the children and what we do to help have a little browse on the website below =) Its a brilliant website and really captures what the orphanage is like.
http://www.tbact.org/
As a little momentum of mine and the girls dedication to the orphanage there was a local bead shop in Pleven so we all picked a bead we liked the best and created bracelets to remind us of the orphanage and the children that are stuck there. We also made a beaded dangle to hang in the tree outside of the orphanage =)
 |
| Oppsy little blurry but the bracelet we ended with =) |
 |
| Our tree dangle =) |
Doing something selfless makes you feel GREAT spending your spare time or some of your spare time helping and giving to the less fortunate contributes to their survival. You don't realise most of the time how much just a little time or a little donation actually does help and how much it is appreciated. Every time we leave you would think we get used to saying goodbye but we don't even though you will see most of the children again saying goodbye is never easy there is many tears =) but i suppose that shows your human =)
Just try it =)
Just thought i would share how special, needed and satisfied doing something like this can make you feel =)
