February 2009 Report
life outside the walls
To read the February 2009 Stellar Arts Foundation newsletter, please CLICK HERE to download the PDF file to view or print.
September 2007 Report
dancing, drumming, psychology, baba
As many of you already know, Michael and Stella Canfield now live primarily in Barzitsa,, just a few minutes from the orphanage. After settling down in their newly remodeled old house, Stella has been spending many hours with the children in the orphanage.
Also, as of December 2006, our director, Judy Lynn, left the foundation and Akemi Walker became the person to take care of all the necessary work from the U.S. side. We were very sorry to see Judy go, and hope for great success in her new endeavor.
The choreography program is working very successfully and the children have already performed a few times in public. During the annual folklore festival in June, they took part in the amateur competitions. The children performed a play including folklore dance and songs. They earned first place in the Provadia region! As result, children appeared in radio programs where listeners called in with their questions and directly talked with the children. Their success not only boosted the children’s confidence, but also made the public more aware of orphans that are largely ignored by society.
On the 6th of September the children participated in the International Folklore Festival in Varna where they again received an award. One of the girls who is a fabulous singer received a special recognition award.
As you recall, our “Home for Our Children” was a concept developed in Bulgaria by two psychologists, Mitko and Jivka Novkovi with the original name of “Baba” or “Granny” in Bulgarian. The program was designed for orphans aged from one to six and was implemented through that age level for the first nine years of the program until Stella approached them in the winter of 2005. Now, for the first time the program has been implemented for children age six to eighteen in our orphanage. This has not gone unnoticed. Mitko Novkov was invited to introduce the program in the Russia this month and the Spence Chapin Foundation’s Consultant, Suchitra Mumford from the USA came to visit our orphanage in August.
During a plane ride back from California in December 2006, Stella read an article about the Rhythmic Arts Project. Through the rhythm of drum beats, children learn basic skills, communication, and work toward healing emotional and/or behavioral problems. Stella called the U.S. founder, Eddie Tuduri and arranged for Eddies to visit Bulgaria. Thanks to our generous donors, the foundation purchased two sets of percussion instruments needed for the program.
Eddie arrived in Varna on August 3, and worked with the children in our orphanage for the first week. Then Stella and Eddie drove eight hours to the village of Petrovo, in the farthest southwest corner of Bulgaria, to a home for severely disabled children. SAF donated one of the set of instruments to the home and Eddie successfully introduced the project there. The children in both homes responded very enthusiastically to the
Rhythmic Project. Our sincere thanks to Eddie Tuduri and our wonderful friends for the support!
In the past, Children of the orphanage had been schooled in a building inside the compound. Starting this year, they joined the school in an adjacent town. We all understand the merit of mainstreaming, but this change brought a splendid byproduct. The school building in the compound was empty and the local government gave the foundation the permission to use it for the “Home for Our Children” program!
The building has five classrooms and a gym. This is rather an expensive project, but the foundation hopes to replace the drafty old windows and install a new heating system. At the present our Babas look after children in two of the rooms, we have a Play Room and a Computer/Music Room.
December 2006 Report
baba, dancing, photography
Our budget for this year was $10,000, raised by conducting two tours plus our friends and artists’ heartfelt donations for which we are deeply grateful.
A local mechanic was hired and an old car was bought for teaching mechanical skills. The instructor’s salary is $100 a month. Hiring retired local people helps the community and maintains a good relationship between the town and the home.
Three retired local elderly ladies work in the home as“Baba” (grandma)
to the children. Each Baba receives $45 a month. One Baba is a retired
hair stylist and the program created a hair styling class. SAF purchased all equipment and now girls are learning the skill.
Another Baba is a retired seamstress. Two broken sewing machines already in the home were repaired, and the Baba is teaching sewing to the children. Seamstress and tailoring are very viable occupations in Bulgaria.
The program’s most exciting development started from an incident during the May 2006 Bulgaria Artist's Adventure Tour. Every other day of the tour, we had a group dinner. Usually, we dined in a beautiful courtyard dining area under trees with entertainment of Bulgarian songs and dances with traditional costumes.
A day before we arrived in the beautiful Black Sea coastal city of Varna
the tour guide told Stella that there would be no dinner performance in
Varna; the show the guide planned for us wouldn't’t start until the next
day. Stella told the tour guide the performance was in the tour schedule
and he must find another show for that evening. We have no idea how the
guide found and arranged a show of folklore dance by five young boys aged
from 8 to 14 in such a short notice, but he did and the rest was history!!
The boys’ skillful and humorous acrobatic dance mesmerized us all.
After the show, we met the performers and their instructor, Mr. Ivan
Ivanov. He is a well-known child choreographer in Bulgaria and has taken
his troop to Europe, Japan, and New York. He is an honorary citizen of
a city in Japan!
Next day on the bus, with the excitement of the boys’ dancing still
fresh in our hearts, the idea of the orphans’ dance troop was born. The
idea was introduced to the program director and was well received. We
discussed finding a choreographer but we never expected to find a famous
person like Mr. Ivanov – he must be too busy and too expensive.
Besides, Varna is one-hour-drive away from Barzitsa where the orphanage
is located. However after interviewing several local choreographers,
they contacted Mr. Ivanov just in case, and surprisingly enough, he was
very excited about the idea and offered to teach the orphans for a very
reasonable wage of $320 per month, including travel time and gasoline. He
started teaching in September, and the first performance took place in December in the near town of Provadia, which has population of 50,000.
Just imagine how the kids’ self-esteem grows when they perform their country’s traditional dance to the world. Our plan now is to sponsor their performance tours.
Our Angel Advisor Dr. Jill Cole from The Worldwide Orphans Foundation received a grant for a photography program from the foundation. The program is for orphans to trace back their family roots and film their backgrounds. In July 2004, Dr, Cole and filmmaker Randy Bell kicked off the program in Serbia. Next year, Dr. Cole will bring the program to the orphanage in Barzitsa!!