Youth share the homes and everyday life of the elderly from the villages of Kostalevo, Pavolche and Chelopek for a month
Baba Residence - the innovative initiative of "Ideas Factory ", which connects the young people of the city with the elderly from the villages, seeking the fruitful intersections of their interaction - started for the second consecutive year. The villages of Kostalevo, Pavolche and Chelopek in the Vrachanski Balkan welcome the young people for a month until the beginning of October.
Cleaning in Chelopek village
This year, 47 applications have been submitted, most of them from Sofia. All selected young people have completely different professional backgrounds, interests and experiences and at different ages. They range from 19 to 32-year-olds, and their activities range from anthropology, Bulgarian and Slavic philology, design, including financiers, teachers, psychologists and more. During their stay in the villages, the “residents” will seek innovative solutions to local problems through design thinking and entrepreneurship.
The main task of all residents, like last year, is to document local personal and folk tales, valuable knowledge of crafts and customs, and to listen to the urgent needs of the village and its inhabitants - emotional and everyday. A useful point of intersection between ethnographic studies and social entrepreneurship is the larger question that some of them will seek answers during and after the Residence, when their ideas will be supported by mentors during an adventurous Ideas camp weekend. .
For the few days they lived in the countryside, the residents were clutching a wave; tried to weave in a camp; made green zucchini jam; they were picking up wine canes; cleared the surroundings of 1 from the villages; organized a sit-in with the locals; they also met the only heir to the craft of craftsman Mito Orozov in the village of Kostalevo.
-
Medyanka in the village of Chelopek
-
Granny with Donna
-
A sitting in the village of Chelopek
There are still 3 weeks left until the end of Baba Residence, during which residents will have time to start thinking of a sustainable idea that will help their host village and area in the long run. Ideas will be presented at the international forum for social change through empathy "EMPATHEAST ", that will bring social innovators and entrepreneurs from around the world in Vratsa from 11 to 13 November.
Ideas Factory is a Bulgarian organization active in the field of social innovation, social entrepreneurship and creativity for social change. Thanks to its rich international experience, the Idea Factory team promotes and catalyzes a network for social innovation and social entrepreneurship in Bulgaria (The challenge for social change 'Empatheast' - a forum for social change through empathy) and supports startup social entrepreneurs.
"We believe in a process that creates a seamless connection between the needy and the needy, making it a sustainable social model," the Ideas Factory said.
