Easter, spring and horses – vacation in the Complex 2012!

Traditionally we have offered an intensive programme, during the spring holidays, for the children who are clients of the Complex for Social Services and this year was no exception. The accent was on novelty and variety.

An exciting new addition to the programme was made possible because of our equestrian project ‘Children Meet Their New Friends – the Horses’ in which EQ collaborates with BTB – Ruse, and Ruse’s Open Society Club. Daily visits to the stables operated by BTB ensured that the children could build their confidence in the company of horses and ponies.

With the participation of volunteers from local schools and the support of our friends from Arena Media and Camel Theatre Group, the children packed a great deal of productive activity into their vacation.

Assisted by older brothers and sisters, volunteers and friends, the children showed how much they knew about Easter traditions during a joke-and-riddle session. Next, teenage volunteers from the schools of tourism and design led a craft workshop making paper eggs using the traditional quilling technique.

Clay horseshoes - symbols of fortune and happiness – were inspired by the visit to the stables and were brightly decorated with flowers and other symbol of spring.

In the gym, the Camel Theatre Group and our friends from Arena Media brought to life some of the stories of Donald Bisset and blended in games so that the audience could play roles and join the action.

The old fishing boat in the yard was brought back to life after the children planted bulbs that should flower within the next few weeks.

As is our tradition, the finale to the spring vacation involved the presentation of special diplomas and gifts as our way of saying thank you and well done.

Back to school but, nevertheless, our children’s activities continue after the usual afternoon homework sessions. Still, it isn’t long to the summer vacation, is it?

A Session on Drama Therapy at the Ruse Complex

On 21st March, 2012, we were lucky enough to be visited by our good friends from the British organization, Frontline, who introduced us to Paul Bamlett, the director of Actability, a theatre company that specializes in providing opportunities to those with learning disabilities to participate in the performing arts.

Equipped with a multi-coloured parachute and a vivid imagination, Paul led a session of boisterous play in which several of our staff participated as did six of the children from our small group home – the Pink House.

Paul has worked with children and adults with a wide range of disabilities including severe autism and his techniques – based on the principles of sensory stimulation and mimicking the actions of a leader – are highly effective. We recognized this for ourselves from the happy responses of the children.

Great fun and we learned a great deal. Thank you, Paul.

Charity Bazaar at Ruse Social Services Complex

On Friday, February 10th, 2012 the personnel at the complex and several friends of EQ, set up a fundraising bazaar at the complex working on the principle of 50% of takings for the trader and 50% for the complex. Needless to say, several people generously gave a larger proportion if not all of their takings to support EQ’s mission.

Those visiting belonged to the city’s social welfare, educational and business communities and they had a fairly extraordinary range of art and crafts, food and drink, music, sports, therapies and fun activities to keep them amused thus proving the versatility of both the EQ team and of our closest collaborators – Ognian Balkandjaev (ink drawings of Chinese dragons), Iliya Devedjiev (jewelry from rope and seashells), Mathei Matheev (mainly paintings and home produced honey and thanks to Mrs Matheeva for her home baking), Martin Marinov (drumming and martial arts) and the team at Arena Media (a selection of DVDs).

The offerings from the EQ team included massage, a range of health and wellness therapies, aromatherapy, a wide variety of crafts and knitwear, photographic portraits, wine, freshly squeezed fruit juice, pastries, cakes and beverages, a tombola and guessing games and some pre-Valentine advice to the fairer sex from two ‘therapists’ with very dubious credentials.

As well as raising over 600 leva for the complex it was a fun day for everyone involved. We’ll definitely do it again.

19th December, 2011: Santa Claus and Snow White gave Christmas gifts to 60 youngsters at Ruse complex for social services

A hall thronging with people and ringing with Christmas cheer was the venue for our 2011 event that allows Equilibrium and Open Society Club to play host to clients and friends of the complex.

We invited our guests to share the warmth of a traditional Bulgarian festive celebration and students from the drama club of the Professional High School of Tourism “Ivan P. Pavlov” recreated the motifs and customs of a traditional Bulgarian Christmas Eve, that involved the children sitting around on the colourful rugs fully absorbed in the atmosphere that their older friends created. The drama group fulfilled traditional family roles and ritually welcomed the young carol- singers from the complex by distributing ancient tokens of hospitality.

The fabulous folk dancers from “Igraortzi” School with choreographer Bogdan Donev had the audience clapping and stamping their feet.

As the finale, Santa Claus and Snow White arrived with two sacks of presents. Every child – after assuring Santa that they had been on their best behaviour all year – received a package in exchange for a verse or song.

We’d like to thank our partners from Arena Media who provided the sound equipment.

The children from the Pink House had Santa all to themselves on December 22nd – Stories, fun, games and gifts and activities accompanied a glorious lunch.

From 14th to 25th of November, 2011 a team from the Compex in Ruse conducted a training for the staff of ‘Nadezhda’ Home for Children Deprived of Parental Care

In response to a request from the children’s home, David Bisset - Project Manager and Lyubomira Lyubenova- psychologist conducted two workshops for the staff from the social institution for children from 3 to 7 years old.

One workshop was designed to help the participants understand the roots of aggressive behaviour and auto-aggression (self-harm) and to provide practical suggestions for reacting to these phenomena in the institutional setting. The second training focused on aspects of team building and organizational communication.

Participants were introduced to the latest studies on child aggression and introduced to particular cases from specialists in this area. There was also the opportunity to discuss specific cases and to share professional experience.

The point was to increase professional skills and to share modern approaches to dealing with aggressive behaviour among children while maintaining a non-coercive environment in which child rights take a pre-eminent position.

During the team-building sessions, participants had the chance to work in small groups and to develop skills for effective team interaction. The emphasis was on the provision of practical tasks oriented towards structured collaboration, clear communication and problem-solving while acting to deadlines.

On 17th November, 2011 ten children from Ruse’s social services complex had the chance to explore the world of animals

The children visited the department of the regional history museum dedicated to ecology and natural science. The main exhibits place stuffed animals (taxidermy) in simulations of their natural environments and graphically demonstrate a wide cross section of the local ecology sufficient to spark the curiosity of young visitors. The children directed many questions to Venceslav Petkov, the custodian of the department and an old friend of Equilibrium. One lad asked if he could come and work in the museum when he grows up.

The secrets of taxidermy were revealed to the young explorers in the museum’s workshop. The significant educational impact of this kind of experience became clear during the course of the visit and the children showed a strong desire to continue their relationship with the museum.

The Ruse Complex for social services received an unique donation – ‘philosophical’ jewelery made by students and teachers from the city’s School of Clothes Design and Tailoring ‘Nedka Ivan Lazarova’.

There is a tradition in the school that, every year, on 17th November – the World Day of Philosophy - students and teachers become artists and creators of ‘philosophical’ jewelery.This year the children decided to give some of their masterpieces for charity. The teenagers also wanted to help the children who visit the complex by helping to make Christmas cards and other souvenirs. The ‘philosophical’ jewelery, cards and other items will be sold from 21st to 23rd December in the city centre in one of the huts of the Winter Village, which is the traditional Christmas marketplace. We shall spend the money that will be collected to organize our 2011 Christmas event and to provide gifts for the children who are using the services of the complex.

On 9th November 2011, the Ruse Social Services Complex hosted a round table on the subject of ‘Family oriented practices for early identification of problems in the child development and intervention. Prevention’.

The event brought together representatives from the spheres of social welfare, health and education together with NGOs to discuss the development of an innovative approach to risk prevention and the potential for strengthening parenting capacity as the foundation for optimal child development.

Our special guests were key members of the early intervention team from the Karin Dom Foundation who lead the project. They described the rationale and structure of this innovative family-orientated approach, while the project teams from the Complex and RALIZ – Ruse, described their practical initiatives under the project outlining key achievements and obstacles.

Community education about early childhood development and early intervention strategies plays a big role in prevention of child abandonment, neglect during infancy and poor developmental outcomes due to disability or developmental delays. Increasing social sensitivity and awareness of the issue of disability is an important step towards establishing supportive communities and professional partnerships so that children can be helped from the earliest age and their parents can be supported to meet the special educational needs of their children. Support structures and programmes must become accessible to more families with disabled children. All families have the rights to access information and vital services and should be assisted to communicate their experiences to one another.

The round table is the culmination of a mini project ‘Development of early intervention for children with special needs’. Equilibrium started this project with training and technical assistance from Karin Dom Foundation and funding from the Tulip Foundation and OAK Foundation. The main goal of the project is prevention of the institutionalization of children from 0 to 6 years, when their development is adversely affected by disability, chronic illness, low birth weight or neglect during infancy.

The Complex provides a wide range of services for children at risk and their parents and works towards preventing abandonment and support to children with disabilities. The development of the early intervention programme expands and strengthens our existing repertoire.

The participants shared the opinion that there is a need to improve access in the maternity hospital to mothers who have given birth to a child with disability and are going through an emotional turmoil having to face critical decisions about the child. Appropriate explanation of the diagnosis by the medical team ought to be combined with professional psychological and social support and the opportunity to speak to parents who are raising a child with the same condition. Another impediment to providing early intervention services is lack of delegated state budget – currently such services can be offered only within projects.