About Agapedia Bulgaria

Upon hearing about our work in Romania, a Bulgarian physician told us about the dire situation in public orphanages in Bulgaria, where children no longer live but rather eke out a pitiful existence. So we travelled to Sofia for the first time in 1999. After meeting with the responsible authorities, we realised that corruption would make our work here that much more difficult. But we did manage to create a Bulgarian branch of Agapedia foundation in 2001 after all. Our involvement started out in a public children's home in Gorna Bania near Sofia. Over the last 17 years, we have been able to develop three projects in Sofia and one in Plovdiv in 2008.

A film by Till Beckert and Martin Herrmann

‘Agapedia - A Bulgarian Adventure’

Bulgaria

Bulgaria is a unitary state that covers 111,002 km2 between Romania, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, and Serbia. It has a population of 7.3 mio.

Average net wage: 435 €

1 litre of fuel: 1.23 €
1 kg meat: 5 €
1 kg tomatoes: 2 €

Info

Bulgaria not only has to cope with the aftermath of socialism but has also been heavily influenced by Ottoman rule, which lasted nearly five centuries. The mindset is still that of a unitary state and the large federal children's homes still remain, just like in socialist times.

Projects of Agapedia Bulgaria

Plovdiv Children's Centre

Plovdiv Children's CentreIn 2008, the Agapedia Children's Centre in Plovdiv was established and has since been regularly attended by social orphans from a...

Sofia Children's Centre

Children's centre in Sofia At our children's centre in Sofia, we take in children from state children's homes or problematic families who are physically...

Foster family programme

Foster family programmeThrough our foster family programme, we have trained Bulgarian foster families and the foster parents have attended a three-month course to prepare them for taking in a...

Student programme

Student programmeYoung people from the Agapedia Children's Centre who graduate from school with particularly good grades and are admitted to university receive...

Local Contact

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Ivan Ivanov

From left to right: Milena Risova (social worker), Dorotea Marinova (caretaker), Demetra Dimitrova (social worker), Ivan Ivanov (managing director of Agapedia Bulgaria), Lilia Ivanova (head of residential group II), Russe Ganchev (psychologist and head of residential group I), Albena Asenova (administration),
Anna Hristeva & Ivan Hristev (managers Agapedia Plovdiv)