The year of the blue wooden horse, in accordance to the Chinese calendar, brought 325 leva from a charity event organized by the artist Ognian Balkandjiev and actor Ilia Devedjiev in Mall Ruse. Both are partners and great friends of ours from the Arena Media team.

Having first decided to use their combined talents for charitable purposes last year, the guys decided to raise funds for Equilibrium this year. Both have worked with young clients of the Ruse complex and… Continue reading →

Teenage activists – students of the English Language School “Geo Milev” Ruse, have once again proven that charity is gaining popularity amongst young people and students, and finding new forms of expression.

This week, the Ruse complex hosted a meeting between the child and its parents, and the young people from the school. There was much enthusiasm on both sides: the child excitedly spoke to the older boys and girls and they parted with the promise of further meetings.

The… Continue reading →

Equilibrium and the Open Society Club – Ruse are partners under a new contract for the provision of social services in the Ruse complex for social support of children and families.

The municipal authority announced that our technical proposal under the process of public tendering had secured us the right to continue to manage the services for another 3 years starting from January, 2014. The integrated services include a centre for social support, an emergency placement unit, a centre for… Continue reading →

“To believe in generosity should start doing it” – this thought was chosen for the motto of our Christmas charity campaign 2013. So we believed in good and it was not only us who did.

A range of events, experiences and many people created lots of miracles, and the happiest of all, of course, were the children that we work with in the Social Service Complex. But first things first!

Our Christmas campaign for 2013 started on November 27th with… Continue reading →

On 19th November, EQ played host to a surprisingly large group representing Ruse’s educational community.

The venue was our new office in Dobrudja Street which was being used as we intend to continue using it – as a welcoming, informal meeting place for presentations, training and discussions.

Svetla Mejri greeted the audience and introduced the speakers – David and Galina Bisset – who intended to talk about “games and adventures”. This is how we refer to an extensive repertoire that… Continue reading →

Participation in the exhibition “Taste the Balkans”, held on 6,7 and 8 November in “Inter Expo Centre” in Sofia, Association” allowed Equilibrium and our working partners Open Society Club – Ruse to launch a new charity campaign “Turn good intentions into action”.

We were invited to participate in the international exhibition by the Bulgarian organization Slow Food and we take this opportunity to say a very big Thank you to Desislava Dimitrova (chairperson) and Tsvetan Dimitrov.

Our products ranged from… Continue reading →

On 11th October, young clients and staff from the Ruse complex shared a giant birthday cake with a variety of people who had come to help sing “Happy Birthday to you”

Parents, foster carers, partners and colleagues from the childcare sector including key representatives of the local deinstitutionalisation coordination mechanism who were provided with a vivid example of the community-based alternative to residential care for children.

It was a dual-purpose cake because, as our compere, Elena Petkova, pointed out we… Continue reading →

The training programme developed by “Equilibrium” offers training in 7 thematic areas in which the EQ team has gained substantial experience and practical know how and the programme has gained momentum and popularity recently leading to our trainers visiting 6 facilities in the space of two month.

The interest of most of my colleagues focused on experience in the management of social services and specific models and practices developed and applied in Ruse’s complex for social support.

Managers and employees… Continue reading →

PAAR stands for Participatory and Appreciative Action and Reflection and this conference organized by the Know How Centre for Alternative Care for Children (New Bulgarian University, Sofia) was the first event of its kind in SEE.

The conference was jointly facilitated by Professor Tony Ghaye (UK) and Dr. Galina Markova who heads the Know How Centre. Professor Ghaye is an internationally known exponent of positive psychology and director of Reflective Learning – International.

The event was attended by over 80… Continue reading →

On 19 September 2013, Mariana Velikova took part in a roundtable discussion about the challenges of social tendering organized by the Bulgarian Centre for Non-Profit Law and the National Association of Municipalities.

The mechanism of tendering for social services has been operational in Bulgaria for 11 years. At its launch in 2004 there were only two tenders leading to the commissioning of two social services. Data for 2012 shows the outsourcing of 178 service totaling about 16 million leva. There… Continue reading →