Between 15 July and 3 August, those who wish to join in the second edition of Baba Residence and spend 1 a month in aid of a Bulgarian village, they can apply for the site of the initiative.
Baba Residence - The Ideas Factory initiative, which connects the potential of urban youth with the knowledge of older people from depopulated villages, is gathering a new "crop of residents" for the program's fall issue of 2016. For the past year, residents have been able to initiate and implement together with the locals, dozens of initiatives in the villages where they lived for a month.
Some of them are: professional studio recording of a disc with disappearing folklore from the Rhodope village of Dryanovo, a social enterprise for exporting woven products from women in the villages, clearing and marking an eco-trail, pouring and installing a new bell in place of the stolen above the chapel "St. The Virgin Mary in the village of Manastir, won mini-funding from Google for programming lessons for the children of Lucky, created a children's play with motifs from Bulgarian seamstresses - Played it, restored parts of the church in Yugovo village and restored the old oven in Dzhurkovo village, where they baked 600 bread on the spot - for the first time in 15 years in the village.
The idea of the Baba Residence initiative is not only to preserve the invaluable traditions, crafts and stories preserved by the local people in the villages, but also to be a source and basis for innovative solutions for the benefit of the Bulgarian village - products, services, events that to attract new cultural and economic potential in forgotten and remote parts of our country. At best, the shared time of young people with older households where they live and observations on local life lead to the creation of socially-entrepreneurial and socially innovative ideas, for the benefit of the villages.
Residents receive pre-training to work in / with the community, study approaches to social entrepreneurship, systems and design - thinking, but also the basics of ethnographic and anthropological approaches (with the help of Anthropology Association, Ethnology and Folklore"). The residency of the residents is supported by mentors, who will help them to create innovative sustainable models based on traditional knowledge that meet current problems in the village. Participants in "Baba Residence " they have their own grandmother / grandfather / household, who can rely on their desire to help, both in daily activities and in the learning of the craft practiced in the home or village.
After one month of living in the villages, the most motivated participants will have the opportunity to join the so-called. Ideas Camp at the Ideas Factory, where he and the participants at The challenge of social change and with the help of mentors from different fields, they will be able to develop their ideas for more full-blooded and innovative Bulgarian villages. The presentation of already developed and supportive ideas will occur within "EMPATHEAST " 2016 - an international forum for social change, driven by empathy, to be held in mid-November in Vratsa.
In 2015, Baba Residence sent 17 young people from all over the country to live for a month in the Rhodope villages Monastery, Yugovo, Dzhurkovo and Dryanovo. As a result of the initiative and the interaction between the town and the village, between the young and the elderly, innumerable initiatives were born, and on 13 August, there will be a restoration of a traditional Rhodope wedding in the village of Manastir, with a couple of residents, and already a family who have met in the village during the Baba Residence 2015.
Nominations The Baba Residence will be accepted until August 3, and the selected participants will spend 1 a month - from September 10 to October 10 - in needy villages in northwestern Bulgaria and the Eastern Rhodopes. Successful candidates are expected to have strong motivation and commitment to the cause, team spirit, investment of time and skills for the benefit of Bulgarian villages. The form may indicate whether the applicant is seeking full or partial scholarships or is ready to cover his or her own costs.
We are looking for people for whom positive social, economic and cultural change in our society is the cause in which they want to take an active part. We have selected villages from Northwestern Bulgaria and the Eastern Rhodopes because we are motivated, on the one hand, by the few ethnographic data available to the villages from these places and the need to explore more thoroughly, and on the other, their economic needs and, above all, - the willingness of local people to welcome strangers to their homes for a month.
The initiative is still seeking additional financial support. Those wishing to support the Baba Residence can do so by donating to The Idea Factory bank account or by buying a photo from a charity exhibition, also available online HERE.
Ideas Factory
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 (A 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.
