There is a place in the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Varna where children and youngsters with different disabilities – mental and physical – can find support, empathy and friends. It is the club called Kite, founded two years ago by two vigorous ladies Nary Bankova and Diana Nasteva. “Our shared objective was to help disabled children and young people spend time with their coevals. The task we set ourselves was to help them become more independent, more capable and give them better choices. We endeavour to throw a bridge between people – making us all more tolerant and bringing us together!” says Diana Nasteva.

“We think every young person should be given a chance and an opportunity to lead a full life. This will never happen if he or she stays cooped up at home on welfare with no friends, no social life and no self-fulfillment. That is why we are targeting our assistance at young people who are still studying or have recently graduated and are now encountering difficulties in their search for self-fulfillment. We help them come out of the daycare centres so that they will have broader professional opportunities, depending on their specific abilities. That is why we, at Kite club focus on training though not for a specific trade but for coping with a given work environment, and giving them an adequate perception of their own abilities. They must know the scope of their abilities, what it is like to have a boss, responsibilities, working hours, what it means to perform a given task. We have a training centre but we also have a social enterprise which does more than merely mediate between them and other employers. We think that once they have finished school, some of the young people with disabilities find it difficult to adapt to a work environment, unlike the youngsters with no problems. They will always be in need of some form of assistance, of a social assistant or social worker and this is the kind of help the garden-variety employer cannot provide. That is why the social enterprise helps those who can perform a given kind of work. We provide this support via work assistants who monitor their work and constantly motivate the young people to go on. We think this kind of employment should be promoted more in Bulgaria.”

Kite has two more clubs. One is a Parents’ club, which brings together the parents of children and youngsters with disabilities so that they help each other, and the second is called Friends.

“We organize leisure time activities, “Diana Nasteva says. “This is something different from the training centre. The Friends club is the place to make friends. For example, we organize strolls in the Sea Garden, visits to cultural events, to museums, exhibitions or interesting events about town. We also go to cafes – all this is very much what disabled young people need, because it is a way for them to feel comfortable when they go out. I am glad to say we have volunteers – young people, university and school students who want to help.”

English version: Milena Daynova