site.btaEthnic Bulgarian Children from Moldova to Exhibit Drawings at UNESCO World Heritage Committee Session in Paris

Drawings and handmade exhibits by ethnic Bulgarian children from the Moldovan village of Colibabovca, Leova District, will be on display in Paris as part of an exhibition organized under the auspices of UNESCO. The works were created as part of a European project to showcase Bulgaria's cultural heritage.

The initiative was launched with an exhibition of children's art entitled "The Valley of the Thracian Kings", which took place at the local Home of Culture. For three weeks, eleven children prepared their works for the exhibition, which was organized under the guidance of Diana Miteva, a museologist and doctor of archaeology from the town of Pavlikeni, Bulgaria.

The exhibits created by the children, inspired by the life and spirituality of the past, will be presented to more than 4000 delegates from all over the world during the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO in the French capital from 6 to 16 July.

In a thank-you letter to the children of the Bulgarian community in the village, Bulgarian Ambassador to Moldova, Maya Dobreva, said that their participation in the exhibition in support of the Bulgarian initiative to add the "Valley of the Thracian Kings" to the UNESCO World Heritage List is proof of the strength of the Bulgarian community.

According to the 2004 census the population of the village of Colibabovca numbers 1,142 people, and 934, or 81.79%, of them are ethnic Bulgarians.