It turned out that we should stay home, but how to do this while many people need support. We instructed volunteers of YDCMA and United avangard Artist from Spain, Tunisia, France, Portugal and Latvia to work from home. Okay, they do it. However, it turned out that the city needed them. People in need needed them.
After talking with the Mayor of the municipality of Kazanlak-Ms. Galina Stoyanova on the phone and participating in an extended meeting of the Crisis Team at the Municipality of Kazanlak, we supported the idea of getting involved in emergency telephone calls of people in need to ask for necessities, including medicines and food, we have activated all available Bulgarian and international volunteers, if they wish to participate. The two organizations in the city, working for many years with volunteers-United Avangard Artist and YDCMA, were once again on the front line. We have created two lists of callers and a team for delivery and purchase of products, or 14 in total. As the number of volunteers grows on Monday, March 23, we will submit three more names. So we were pleased to find that other volunteers joined after the Internet post. Old Bulgarian volunteers who have worked for a long time in the organizations also expressed their desire.
The phone existed already and it was created by the Municipality of Kazanlak, but very few people called, which suggested that people in need did not know about it. So after a discussion with all the volunteers, we decided to promote it. The very next day, one of the volunteers created an information brochure for the emergency telephone line in black and white and full color as well, which we printed out on projects of the two organizations under the European Solidarity Corps program. The Municipality of Kazanlak also made leaflets, after that the volunteers distributed them – through shops, pharmacies and with the assistance of Mrs. Pepa Dimitrova, manager of Home Social Patronage and Ms. Daniela Ruseva, Director of the Social Assistance Directorate-Kazanlak, brochures for emergency phone line reach the people in need. Here is the moment, in addition to Ms. G. Stoyanova, to thank Ms. Vanya Ivanova, Secretary of the Municipality of Kazanlak, and Mr. Ahmet Mehmed, Deputy Mayor Social Activities, who work with the volunteers. We are pleased that the Municipality of Kazanlak provides a positive example of how NGOs and volunteers work. We are delighted to have helped a 98-year-old World War II veteran deliver medicines and products.
I am writing this article to thank all the volunteers involved in giving some of themselves, part of their time, to people in this uncertain time, because they too could stand meek on the couch and wait for it to end. I thank all the companies, organizations and the Municipality that not forgetting their citizens. Thanks also to Radio “Vis-Vitalis”, who, after a request for an emergency telephone to be promoted, did so. Thanks to everyone who turned out to be human.
Maria Slavova – Chair of YDC-Mutual Aid and Association of youth and volunteer organizations in Bulgaria.