site.btaNGO Mobilizes Volunteers to Help Refugee Children in Bulgaria Through Sports and Art

Volunteers are helping children in refugee centres in Sofia and Harmanli through language lessons, football and arm wrestling in an initiative organized by Caritas.

"These activities provide psychological support," said Clara Furlana, Caritas coordinator at the refugee centres in Sofia's Voenna Rampa and Ovcha Kupel residential districts. "This is not school - we are there for them if they choose to participate."

The goal is to support integration, ease anxiety and offer distraction from past trauma and uncertain futures, the coordinator said. Around 50 children aged 11 to 18 are currently in the Ovcha Kupel centre, with about 15 regularly attending sessions. Most are from Syria and Afghanistan.

Recently, Caritas held a workshop for Eid al-Fitr, bringing sweets and candies, and inviting the children to write something about their life or family on a large poster.

Volunteers

The volunteers supporting the integration of young refugees are mostly foreigners, many of them are students at the Medical University, said Furlana. They include people from India, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt and Italy.

There are also many Ukrainian volunteers working with Syrian children, said Dinka Zhelyazkova from Caritas Sofia. "It is wonderful to have refugees helping refugees," she commented. "Some volunteers come just once or twice, but we find ways to stay in touch with those who want to help and arrange a time that suits them."

Refugee Children

The young people in the refugee centres are considered unaccompanied children, said Zhelyazkova. "They have no family or relatives when they arrive in Bulgaria, and sometimes we do not even know where their families are. The youngest children we work with are four or five years old." The only people protecting their rights are lawyers. These children have a special status and rights, Zhelyazkova explained.

Recently, Caritas has been working more actively in the refugee centres, with permission from the State Agency for Refugees, to provide a better environment for the children. Zhelyazkova said some of the activities include courses on labour rights and obligations to prevent the young people's involvement in illegal work.

Language lessons are another important part of integration. Not all children are motivated to study, but some show great interest. "We organize language courses - Bulgarian for those who wish to stay in Bulgaria, or English for those who plan to move on abroad," Zhelyazkova said.

The children also visit  cultural and historical sites in Sofia. Recently, some of them, accompanied by translators, visited the Natural History Museum and enjoyed it very much, she said.