site.btaBulgarian-Funded School Renovation Underway in Bolhrad Region

The heating system at the Horodne Lyceum in Ukraine’s Bolhrad region is being replaced under Bulgaria’s development aid program, financed through the Bulgarian Embassy in Kyiv. The project was initially approved in December 2021 but delayed due to the war in Ukraine.

After resuming the initiative in 2023, the local government completed major roof repairs and is now renovating the heating system in the school’s three-story building, aiming to finish by the start of the academic year. Due to inflation, the municipality had to raise its financial contribution from the originally planned 10% to 50%, Mayor Nikolai Bogoev told BTA.

“When we won the project at the end of 2021, inflation wasn’t so high. That’s why instead of 10%, we ended up covering 50% of the cost from the local budget,” Bogoev said.

Horodne, a village founded in 1813 by Bulgarian settlers from Provadia, remains home to a predominantly ethnic Bulgarian population. The local school, with about 300 students, is the only one in Ukraine where early education begins in the Bulgarian language.