An American and a French volunteer with summer projects in Kaznlak

A summer art school for kids opens doors in Kazanlak tomorrow – the 15th of June. The school was created under a project of EVS and YDCMA.

Visitors of the school will have the opportunity to have fun and adopt different skills like embrodiering, drawing, crafting, planting. All of this will happen under the control and the care of our volunteers and the 22 – year – old art therapist Agathe Ferrand. She is a volunteer from the European volunteer corps, and has herself chosen our project after she was impressed by the work of a German volunteer in her town Bordeaux. Between her masters degree and the summer holiday Agathe chose Bulgaria and Kazanlak.

The project she found here impressed her and together with the other activists they decided to turn this art cafe into a useful for the community place. Agathe also has the idea that the works crafted here can be used to create a special exhibition along one of Kazanlak’s main streets – Iskra, where the art school is. Apart from that the young volunteer will also be keeping a diary on her work here, the impressions she gets from the people and the communication with them. Her end goal is to have somewhat of a journal once the project is over in September that can serve as a travel guide to other volunteers. She wants the book to be used as a model for work among the local students that would like to join EVS’ programs the following year. It is obligatory that you are fluent in English in order to do so.

Despite her so far short stay in Bulgaria, only a month, Agathe is almost fully integrated in the local community. She finds new friends every day and has managed to artistically take part in the Rose Festivals’ parade, not just by doing the make up of the younger participants but also by parading herself with an artistic costume.

‘It was nice just like your banitsa’ she says. Apart from these activities Agathe has also already found a good friend here in the face of the mentor of the project Megan Lueneberg. Megan has a degree in architecture and ecology and has lived in Bulgaria for a year now. She’s spent the last few months in the village of Kran next to Kazanlak. There she works in the local community center, where she teaches young children and elderly to speak English, write projects and different skills related to ecology. Her hosts are impressed by how easily she is beginning to learn Bulgarian. As a prize they have chosen some interesting destinations for her and Agathe to visit this summer. Some of the destinations include Veliko Tarnovo, Varna and Batak.