Bags for Bulgaria

Bags of clothes to send abandoned Bulgarian children on a summer holiday

The Trussell Trust, is asking people to donate bags full of re-usable clothes to help raise funds for their annual summer camp. Every year The Trust takes 40 disadvantaged Bulgarian children on a 10 day beach respite camp. With only two months to go until this year's camp, funds are running low, so the charity has come up with an ingenious solution.

The Trussell Trust's Social Enterprise project raises money from selling donated clothes. So the charity is asking local people to give bags of re-usable (wearable) clothes to help raise the £4000 it needs to fund the camp.

In Bulgaria, Government funding only allows residential state schools to open during term time. For the abandoned children who are not recognised as 'true orphans' the three months of school 'holiday' per year means life on the streets or back in the communities that first abandoned them. The Trussell Trust's summer camp takes the most vulnerable children from Lipnitza Residential School for a real holiday of sun, sea, sand and fun, keeping them away from dangerous alternatives.

Bulgaria Projects Manager Claire Power-Browne says "It costs £100 to send a child on a respite camp where they feel safe, loved and wanted. This is more than just a holiday; it's a time when memories are made and children are free to be children again."

The Trussell Trust hopes that the people of Salisbury will donate enough bags of clothes to be able to send another 40 children on a memorable trip to the Black Sea this summer.