5 years ago, no one would have believed that this was even possible! A graduation ball for 4 of the young people from the centres for family-type accommodation “Love” and “Hope”.
It took place on 14th May, 2019. This is not just any old date. On this day, a number of the youngsters removed from large institutions for children and adults with intellectual disabilities walked through the doors of the places they have called home for the last 5 years. Ruse family-type accommodation. They were graduating.
For them it was an intimidating step into an uncertain future. It represents the culmination of the long and difficult adaptation they have gone through since being deinstitutionalized from places hidden from the public view.
But here we are, 5 years later, under the management of Equilibrium and with the support of the Ruse Municipality, a lot of sponsors and friends we are celebrating the graduation of four of our young adults.
They have been excited and anticipating the big day since they first tried on their graduation suits. We would like to thank the platform “Friends, Help!” for their support in providing the beautiful outfits for the graduates and the presents for them!
Today was the big day – a celebration with a lot of guests, partners, friends and the staff from both houses, without whom this wouldn’t have been possible.
We would like to thank Mrs. Katya Petrova and Mrs. Radost Peykova from the Ruse Municipality, Mrs. Ani Venkova – a project manager of the two houses since 2014, our partners from the Day centre of “Child and Space” association, Mrs. Stefka Varbanova from the platform “Friends, help!”, who honoured our celebration with their participation and presents for the young adults. We also want to thank the professional design school “Nedka Ivan Lazarova” and its director Mrs. Diana Ivanova, whose resource class our young people are graduating!
The manager of both centres – Plamena Stefanova – met and greeted everyone with a touching speech that expressed her deep emotion. The chairman of Equilibrium – Elena Petkova – who couldn’t hide her feelings and strong emotion – greeted the guests at the party.
But the most important thing is that the young adults could enjoy the celebration, dancing, laughing and enjoying the tasty food, prepared by the staff!
