H. Stepic CEE Charity Supports Disadvantaged Children in Bulgaria

Austrian foundation H. Stepic CEE Charity supports four daily centers in Sofia, Banya village in Nova Zagora municipality, Kuklen and Malko Tarnovo where more than 200 socially disadvantaged children receive professional training, educational and psychological consulting.

Education for an Equal Start project aims to provide help and support to Roma children and children in low-income families. It is backed by Raiffeisenbank, BILLA and METRO, and carried out by Caritas Sofia.

The chairman of the foundation, Herbert Stepic, joined by Evelina Miltenova and Martin Pytlik, members of the Board of Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) as well as representatives from BILLA Bulgaria and METRO Bulgaria visited in one of the daily centres today located – in the Sofia district of Fakulteta meeting with the children and announcing the start of the project.

The aim of the project is to improve the conditions for equal access to education and to compensate educational lacks among Roma children through work with teachers, speech therapists, psychologists, art therapists, community mediators and student volunteers. The experts will be helping the children to acquire basic language skills in Bulgarian and develop their social skills. They will support parents, too in the process of growing and bringing up their children.

Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) supports the start of the project with a donation of BGN 13,000 raised in the special charity boxes of H. Stepic CEE Charity in bank offices. Furthermore, the project will be included in this year's charity campaign Choose to Help starting at the end of the year. BILLA Bulgaria provides all necessary school supplies for a successful start of the new school year. METRO Bulgaria will help with 200 sport suits, jackets and sweatshirts.