If you still have any hesitations on whether folklore sayings like United Folks Can Lift Up a Mountain were born in real life, the following story will persuade you. A whole bunch of enthusiasts are involved in it, contaminated with the impulse of good. And the mountain mentioned is making a dream come true. It is a playground with a small wooden house, similar to the one from the Henzel and Gretel story. Many might see that as something insignificant. However, a kid from the Roma ghetto of Fakulteta in Sofia sees that as more than a mountain, as it has never seen it before. The enthusiasts, most of them young people, face a sea of public skepticism - will anything like that last long in the ghetto? Those, however, wouldn’t give up. The initiative has been started by young artists and animators from the Compote Collective Society, who created a cartoon drawing workshop with the children from the Fakulteta neighborhood. The children have succeeded in creating terrific pictures on their dreams with their support. Some of those have been presented in a series of exhibitions at luxurious galleries downtown Sofia, as well as during this year’s edition of TEDx Bulgaria. A book with cartoon stories has been released and it is sold for charity purposes. The dream of the kids is a wooden house to be built up with the collected money, where they can play. Then Vesela and Ivan from Compote Collective got in touch with the Transformers Society, which unites a large number of young architects and people from different artistic circles, who have devoted themselves to the improvement of city environment. Of course, the society responded at once:

“We engaged in the development of the entire project, for charity totally,” says Gergana Tileva from Transformers. “It was really important to decide where the house would be placed, so we contacted the Health and Social Development foundation. They have a small medical center at Fakulteta, right next to the building of the clinic. The foundation takes care for the children from the poorest families, it provides free meals for instance. We decided to build the house in their backyard, as they promised to take care of it and to think of different artistic activities for the children.”

Local people will get involved in the construction activities, as those are builders. The transformers will rely on drawings of local kids for the decoration of the house.

“It was important the house to have the vision, pictured by the kids,” Gergana goes on to say. “They dreamt of one similar to the Hansel and Gretel story. They all wanted it wooden. We decided that we could develop the idea a bit and to think of some flexible space, where they could play and get involved in different artistic activities. Being aware of the mentality of Roma people, their creativity and the life, tightly related to music, we decided to make a small podium in front of the house. The children will be able to dance, sing and act there. We will create another special spot for sitting, facing the podium.”

The Oak Foundation also jumped in the adventure, donating some of the money necessary for the building of the children’s playground. Generous private donors got involved as well, while several big companies donated materials. The joint ambition is the children’s dream to become reality by 15 September – the start of the new school year.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev