email:
info@OrphanageStoikite-bg.org
Tel: BG+00359
(0)895 485171
Tel:
UK : +44 (0)208 133 7171
welcome to orphanage stoikite-bg
Appeal for help for the children
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click for larger
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About
the Children
The children of the Stoikite Orphange are most between 9 and 18. We thought that visitors to this website would appreciate reading about the children, their activities and a little about the daily life of the individuals as, after all, this is what this Appeal is all about - the children.
Children's
names and ages in Stoikite Orphanage
Please
click here for the names, ages and schooling years of the children in
the Institute.
List of needy and useful items:
Note: We are now desperate for white towels and duvet covers etc, (white towels and bedding can be bleached) . We also desperately need good hair conditioner and good quality hair brushes not with plastic bristles as the bristles break. The girls hairs are terribly matted and it will help brush out the mats as are having trouble eradicating head lice and combing through conditioner with fine tooth combs twice weekly is the long term solution.
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| Albert | Defcho | Bogie | Christian & Yuri | Carole,Merko & Jesus |
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| Franka & Vala | Gabbie & Galina | George | Gosho | Ilias |
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| Ivan | Jasmine & David | Jesus | Julia,Stefcho &Slavcho | Kyro |
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| Merko | Nelly | Nicki | Pavel | Rashko |
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| Rusanka | Saucy Stefcho | Suzi | Slavcho | Toshko |
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| Valo | Vladi | Yanko | Yuri & Slavcho | |
In
these photos you can see the children in the clothes that were donated
and the walls have recently been painted |
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Tuesday
20 April:
A
project for extending the sizes of the bedrooms has been accepted and
works will begin in the summer holidays. Larger rooms will mean that we
can have four beds a desk and a wardrobe fitted comfortably. The children
break 15th June until September for summer break and most of them will
be housed with Bulgarian families. This is when we hope that the heating
system will be installed.
We are eagerly awaiting tender bids for the heating system and hope that they are in any day now. We will let you know as soon as we have any further news. A German gentleman has agreed to install 2 internet lines in-order for the children to access the internet from the institute. He will also pay for the 12 months subscription and this should take place within the next 6 weeks.
Adam re-visited Bulgaria with his Dad and they have donated a basket ball hoop, some trainers and swim wear for the girls. The children were excited to see Adam again and remembered his last visit. Doug, Adam and Adam's Dad played soccer with the children. Last weekend Jasmine took the children to play in a football match in Chapin. They hired a coach and bought soft drinks for the children thanks to Ian and Catherine from the Castle who colected collected over 500 lev. We were also fortunate enough to take the children to a disco and they had a wonderful time.
Gabbie and Galina are soon to be reunited with their older sister. They have not seen her since the death of their mother. The girls were separated due to the age difference but in June they will be together at another institute. It is also hoped to raise sufficient funds to take the remaining 12 children to the beach and dip their feet in the sea for the first time. Thank you to everyone for their ongoing help and support - life is looking brighter for these children thanks to you
Thursday
3 April
It sounds like we can all do with a little
good news: The new heating system I am pleased to say has now been installed
at the school in
Stoikite, it took three years of project writing and arguing but I am
thrilled that it has finally paid of. All the radiators have not been
replaced, there is now a new boiler and some new radiators, so the school
will now be heated for years to come. Now just the orphanage/institute,
but things are really changing slowly x x x the sad thing is that the
directors office in the school is like a sauna.
Everyone is working so well to ensure that the heating fund for the orphanage/institute really does happen. I thank you for all your efforts on behalf of the children. Please understand that the installation of heating that has now completed is for the school and NOT for the institute that the childen live in. We are all working hard at raising funds for the heating system for the institute, we are €10,000 short but are hopeful that by the summer holidays, with all your support, we will have the much needed funds.
I am set to visit Rosonka and Yuri tomorrow, and I will try and help secure work and suitable accommadation for them. Yuri is a strong lad and he is not shy when it comes to hard work. One day there will be aftercare for these childen. I have not visited Slavcho as yet, my fear is that it is such a terrible place and i have no other option for him, i am working towards solutions not problems and with all your support we will get there, as this has all been a team effort. Amanda
Sunday
30 March
Jasmine is away until the 8th April. I saw the director today and she is present in the institute. Yuri has telephoned me, he is living with Rosonka on a Romany community, Rosonka is 3 months pregnant. I will help as much as possible, they need a food parcel and some support, they are ok. It is now confirmed that Slavcho is in an mental asylum near Bansko this is now confirmed. I have nothing more I can add to this at the moment but I will go and see him once I have plucked up the courage. The children at the institute are on spring break and they are getting bored. Gabbie and Galina are free from headaches now that they have their glasses.
We learned today that Slavcho, Yuri, Rosonka and Albert had been released from the orphanage. The director said that they had reached 18 and had to leave, they were released on separate days without anyone notifying her. Although she pointed out that the records showed that neither Slavcho and Yuri were 18, the director said they had no birth records therefore they could not stay any longer. This is devastating news and Amanda & Doug have searched for miles showing photographs of Yuri and Slavcho without success.
For those of you that don't know - it is our understanding that these kids are released from the Orphanage/Institute without anywhere to go, no job to go to or money in their pockets and leave it to you to work out how they will survive now they have left the orphanage. There is little more we can say as we are all very concerned about Slavcho in paticular. This, my friends, is what we are trying so hard to change by giving the kids a better quality of life, learning and life skills and money in their pockets when they leave.
This was all done whilst Jasmine is away, as she has her holiday break and is in Egypt. It is believed that the director waited for Jasmine to go on her holiday leave to carry out the necessary action. She is a calculated hard woman. It breaks our hearts to think that Slavcho is out there all cold and lonely. Rumour has it that he is now in a mental institute in Bansko. We will continue to search for them and wont stop until have found them. I don’t believe that any of the children left with anything other than the clothes they were wearing as their other clothes were still in their rooms. Yuri and Rosonka will most probably end up in one of the many Romany communities, Yuri is of Turkish origin an Rosonka is his girl friend. Albert will be easy to locate as if he is not medicated he will suffer from severe epilepsy, therefore he will be hospitalised at some point. The one I really feel for is Slavcho he can’t communicate. It is times like these that we really do question our faith.
We are desperately trying to sort out solutions for aftercare, however things move very slowly in BG and you have to work with the Government, not against them or you will get no where. But we wish we had a magic wand and that change was easy to implement. We know that we are not alone, so many people really cared about these children and they had not even had the enjoyment of meeting them, and be very privileged to be a part of their lives. It is not over yet, it can’t be. We are going to put all our efforts into finding Slavcho, for all the people who care about him.
May we also ask if anyone is going to Bansko please look at this pic of Slavcho and if you see him please call Amanda on 00359(0)895485171, email Amanda on info@orphanagestoikite-bg.org or notify us through any of the forums. Thank you for your help - we need it.
Latest News from the
Orphanage.
The temperatures in Bulgaria are dropping, the radiators are only on a
couple of hours per day, to try not put stress on the system. Only three
of the rooms have been done as workers are on another project for a while.
It is pure speculation at the moment as to whether the rooms will be refurbished
by the summer. We do hope to have the new heating system in place by the
summer and I would like to raise funds for life skills a kitchen with
10 cookers, fridges, sinks, work surfaces ect and for security high fencing,
large gates, bars on windows to stop children climbing out, one child
died by climbing from a window within the last two weeks at an institute
in Sofia. We do not have hot water at the moment. Thee are many other
needs in this institute. We only have to look at the big picture to realise
that much is needed to make this good, safe institute where children can
come away with good positive life skills. Amanda
Monday
10 March 2008
Sisters
Gabie and Galina have been suffering and crying with Migraine headaches
for some time now. Most of you are probably familiar with Gabie as she
is the little girl that broke her leg. Both girls have been awaiting government
funding for the past few months for glasses. Today the girls wait ended
when they were taken to the Opticians. The girls were collected from the
institute, taken for lunch in Smolyan, and then to the Optician where
they had new examinations and glasses made for them on the spot. So, it
was two very happy young girls who went back to the Orphanage with big
smiles on their faces as not only will they no longer have problems with
reading but hopefully there will be no more Migraines. Andie
Slavcho's
story:
Slavcho is the most needy
of children in this institute, his approximate age is 15 - 16 years old,
he was picked up by the police and escorted to Stoikite in June 2007 suffering
from malnutrition and starvation, he has autism it is not known how long
he tried to survive alone. Slavcho did not speak up until one week ago,
he loves music. He does not understand still to this day that his meals
will come to him on a regular basis, and eats soil to fill his stomach
and does not understand that this is not food. He also digs for worms
and will eat any kind of insects.......................
(
click
here to the rest of Slavcho's story and Amanda's poem dedicated to him)
18 February 2008 I have received a telephone call today from Yuri - he is 17 years old boy who lives in the institute. He was scared out of his wits when he called me to tell me he was in hospital alone. He said that he was having “an operation on an organ in the centre of his body” tomorrow. This was the first I have heard of it so I telephoned Jasmine and it was confirmed. She also had to investigate why none of the staff had made her aware of the situation. He will be in the hospital for over three weeks. I am going to ask Carole and Andie to visit him with me whilst they are in BG, I know no more than this but Doug is going to see him this evening. I pray for Yuri. To hear a big lad like this cry on the telephone breaks my heart. I can’t believe no one told me before as I would have been there with him.
12 February 2008 I went to see the children in the institute yesterday and gave the ones that did not have coats, gloves, hats and clothes ect. I left taking Slavcho with me to the local restaurant for food as he did not have dinner, he had run away for a few hours, he was unhappy that they had shaved his hair off because he had head lice and he liked his hair before and he feels the cold more now, any way I thought that he would not stop eating, a large bowl of stew and rice, four extra thick door stop chunks of bread, soup, 2 pancakes with honey and nuts later I returned him to the institute a much happier boy this was 8pm, I left very happy.
I was awoken early this morning by a telephone call from a member of staff at the Institute. I was ushered into the warmth of the staff office, I could hardly see the room was so full of smoke. It was then I received the news and I fell to my knees and cried and cried. In the night, when all was quiet three 17 year old boys one of which had found a cigarette lighter in one of the coats These boys all shared a room with Slavcho, the boy that does not talk, who is silenced by his past. Slavcho was sleeping happily with his full belly, the three other boys were cold and tried getting some warmth from the lighter. They thought that they would have some fun, so they stripped Slavcho naked and set fire to his pubic hair, this in turn burned his testicles and penis. Slavcho made no sound as he is almost a mute, the cover on the bed had set fire, the smell of the fire alerted the member of staff on Duty and she called me as she knew I was just a couple of minutes away. I took Slavcho to be treated for his burns which looked so painful. I have no words for the boys that did this. The police will speak to the culprits tomorrow, not today, but what can they do these boys already live in hell. I am sickened and I fear the wounds will get infected, but the mental suffering this poor boy has had all his life silenced him from emotion to cry, but not me I can’t stop crying for him.
11 February 2008 It is so cold today, those poor children will be freezing. Doug went and purchase some spare parts but they have cost over £1000 for the heater in the institute yet again to try and do another bodge job. In the morning he is confident that he can get some life out of the dinosaur for a short period of time, but we will have to restrict it to only four hours per day - 2 in the morn and two in the evening or it just won’t last long. I was so cold in there earlier I could not stay more than a couple of hours. I have noticed today that we are short on 12 – 14 year old boys clothes, sweaters t shirts and Jeans.
Update: 3 January 2008 Gabbie was not feeling up to going out today but she did have a little birthday party indoors and had her nails painted and her cast decorated with little messages and pictures. All the children loved the cake. But, unfortunately, two of the children went missing whilst Jasmin was away. They are still to be found and the police have been informed but I don’t hold out much hope as it is believed that they ill have fled for the city as it is warmer there.
Update: 30 December 2007 I awaited for Gabbie's release from the hospital from 9am - 2pm today. Her plaster is toe to hip, the hospital supply no crutches or wheel chair, so I will will buy hercrutces tomorrow. How she will manage when Jasmin returns on 3rd January Ireally don't know as the toilet (hole in the floor) is two flights down but I am glad she is small enough to carry. She will remain in the cast for 30 days and her sister Galina is helping me care for her. I managed to buy boots for Gabbie and Galina today, Gabie can only wear one at the moment, but they have a good grip. Gabbie was such an energetic girl, she told me she was to scared to sleep all night last night and it really shows she loooks all washed out.
Gabbie's broken leg: 29 & 30 December 2007
.jpg)
Today
(29/12) started of well, I had family time with our own children, and then
went to see the children at the orphanage to hand out the warm clothes that
Ellen and Keith had donated. As Douglas, Michael and I drove in, Gabbie
saw us and ran out unfortunately fell on the ice and screamed in pain. It
was clear that her leg was broken at the top and she was rushed to Smolyan
hospital. A few hours later Jasmin informed me that the staff had left 12
year old Gabbie alone, so Doug and I rushed to get Galina her sister and
went to the hospital.
Gabbie was clearly in pain and had a cast all the way up her leg, but her little face brightened up when she saw us. We stayed until about 7pm, that evening and Gabbie will remain in hospital until the morning. As Jasmin leaves for a few days vacation and in order to ensure that Gabbie is taken care of when she leaves the hospital I am going to take her to my house. I have convinced the Director to allow Gabbie and her sister to premain with us until Jasmin returns. It was those stupid little shoes with no grip, but she had no others, so we must really try and raise money for boots for these children. I am due to collect her in the morning and will up-date you on her well being x
Letter from Amanda: 28 December 2007 Today I had a special day with Gabbie aged 12 and her sister Galina aged 14, we all went skiing together with my family, we had great fun, we later went to meet Ellen and Keith in Pamporovo. We had dinner at my house and then played a round of frustration and I am pleased to report that I won, both girls tried to beat me up after but I survived the ordeal. The girls enjoyed playing pool. We all had a great day full of laughter usually at my expense, these girls are full of spirit, my only regret is that the day had to end.
Gabbie is leaning English and Galina is learning Russian. I am very close to the girls, when I returned them safely back at 10pm the girls clung so tight and cried as they had to say good night and the girls asked if I could be there Mum. I replied “being their Mum would mean that I have to tell them to go to bed and be strict at times which is not fun. I asked if we could be best friends, as this way we can have lots of fun always”. I would love these girls to join my family but after 15 children I have to stop taking more in, but where I lack the room in my house, I do have room in my heart for them. x
Note. It is very important to remember that when visiting the children in the Orphanage they are treated with kindness and thoughtfulness. Many of these children have suffered a traumatic childhood and are of a nervous disposition and need all the support and care that they can get as these children feel vulnerable.
Therefore, it is discouraged for the general public to be allowed to just walk into the orphanage and visits are by invitation only. It is also a requirement that all visitors are security checked prior to visits because children are involved. Strangers visiting can be quite an ordeal for the children and the staff would like to make a special effort by cleaning a little prior to your visit.
orphanage
stoikite, pamporovo, bulgaria
Copyright © 2007 Andie Musson