News

16 January 2024

Ombudsman Diana Kovacheva awarded a cheque worth BGN 14,350 to support the “Diversity and Equality in the Miraculous Garden” project that is part of the 2023 funding program “You and LIDL for Our Tomorrow” implemented under the auspices of the Ombudsman.

“The Miraculous Garden” is a social project that creates jobs for young people who have some intellectual deficiency. The project runs a plot of 1.8 hectares in an urban location near a large secondary school and three kindergartens. The idea for “The Miraculous Garden” is to create a setting where interactive outdoor learning sessions will be organized in addition to workshops and events that will be attended by children aged 4 to 11. In the course of the interactive outdoor trainings all attending children will be able to see and learn how different vegetables of the season, flowers, herbs and forest plants are grown.

“This campaign is particularly important because it makes dreams come true that otherwise wouldn’t had it not been for this support because it gives a chance. These children belong to a vulnerable group which is invisible and incomprehensible to the public at large. These children face many clichéd attitudes, shortage of teachers if any, of opportunities and resources. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this campaign gives a chance for life as education affords an opportunity to acquire skills how to live. Our education is not adapted to these children. Thank you for noticing them,” Prof. Diana Kovacheva said at an official ceremony in the National Gallery Kvadrat 500.

Thirty-six projects of civil society organizations have been approved in the sixth edition of the initiative “You and LIDL for Our Tomorrow” in 2023; their total cost is BGN 365,000. The ideas will materialize in 21 communities across the country and will reach 300,325 people to give them a better quality of life and encourage self-fulfillment.