Enrich the quality of life in Bulgarian villages

Hello, dear Baba supporter!

Hope you're nesting somewhere safe and calm, despite the many societal madnesses, which we're facing and reacting to daily (especially if being in Bulgaria!)!

We, however, hasn't had the luxury to stop functioning as an organization, even though we're facing 2 months (for now) without salaries. We keep supporting our Babina zadruga (Baba cooperative), consisting of old ladies, who knit vibrant wollen socks, which bring them additional income and support or Baba Residence initiative for the next year. 

For the Bulgarian readers of you, we invite'you to check in our Lyutenitsa newsletter - we had our annual Baba Residence alumnae meeting in Oslen Krivodol village in October for the occassion of lyutenitsa making, but really - for having one more reason to meet, connect and catch up on what's important for all of us - rural well-being.

We kindly ask you to be with us in the following 10 days and support us in the following ways:

• Order Baba socks - we have 3 new models (behold the first new model called Winter sunrise in the header) and 3 most cherished classical ones. Write us here or at info@ideasfactorybg.org if you want to order Baba socks as a present for a loved one.
• Be with us on the 2-nd of DECEMBER! The annual GivingTuesday campaign is around the corner and we really, really need your support this time - please, donate, share and spread our project page on 2-nd of December, the hope-bringing Tuesday!

Thank you for your presence and persistence,

with love

Yoana and the Ideas Factory team

Hello, dear Baba Supporter!

Hope your summertime is smooth and light and it brings nourishing rural experiences!

 
As we shared in the last report, our Baba Residence journey took a new experimental direction throughout the whole 2024 and we finally have the visible result of it - after the unstoppable efforts of our resident artists and creative professionals, the 3 local chitalishte (village cultural hubs), the local coordinator Desislava Bozhidarova, the curator Dima Stefanov and our small 3-some team!

At the end of June we had an expedition in the 3 Vlach villages Deleyna, Koshava and Yasen and made an opening of the artistic installations and we experienced 5 local experiences, led by local people, part of our newly born platform Naselo.bg!

 

We had the travel blogger Jivko Konstantinov throughout the whole journey and he documented and reflected every experience with his tender perception. We will let you have a taste of the opening of our artistic installations and the 5 experiences, led by local people in the 3 villages:

The mighty storyteller - BABAPHONE - an old-school phone, which tells local stories, presented by one of its creators Velizara Karaivanova

Militsa Dzhandzova from our 3-some core team tells more about the Vlach wonders and the opening event in Yasen village

A vlach dances workshop, led by the local dance group of Deleyna, part of our Naselo.bg platform

A storytelling workshop for fishing net weaving, led by Ventsislav Dionisov from Koshava, part of our Naselo.bg platform

The singing group from Koshava, presenting at the Celebration of 100 years Chitalishte in Yasen village

 

You can find the whole article of Jivko here.

 

You are also welcome to become our monthly supporter at GlobalGiving by clicking here and choosing Donate monthly on the right side. This will help our small team continue do our field work with different rural communities and not remain dependent solely on project fuinding, which limits our work and efforts immensely!

Another important resource we'd like to share with you all, if you want to dig deeper into the topic or rural revitalization policy and efforts is the Rural Pact report, which our work is part of as a good local example!

 

Be well, be healthy

and share with us some feedback on the newly re-discovered Vlach wonders!

Yoana and Ideas Factory team