On April 19, the award ceremony of the first International Forum "Great Preslav – History of a People", is to be held under the auspices of Vice President Iliyana Yotova. Literary and artistic works by pupils from different parts of Bulgaria and 10 foreign countries, including Kazakhstan, Ukraine, USA, Spain and Macedonia will be presented. The place was not chosen by chance. The city established in the 9th century was the capital of the First Bulgarian Kingdom, the seat of the first Bulgarian literary school, and a cultural center of the Slavic world in that era.

Organizers want the forum to become an annual event. We learned more from Rumyana Miteva, coordinator and chairman of “Rodova Pamet” organization for art, education and science.

"I shed so many tears of joy when I received the works – 41 poems and 67 essays. They are shockingly good and were written by children living outside Bulgaria. There are also drawings and sculptures. The children portray their ancestors leaving Bulgaria with tears in their eyes. Each child will receive a certificate of participation and a copy of the book ‘Preslav Legends’ – published 50 years ago for the first time and recently reprinted in Shoumen and given to us as a donation. My idea is to send online essays and drawings that took part in the forum to all 400 Bulgarian schools around the world. "

Active participants in the forum are the Bessarabian Bulgarians from the Taraklia region in Moldova. This is the result of an agreement signed in December last year between "Rodova Pamet" and a foundation from the region working with 12 local schools, where a total of 2798 children from the 1st to the 12th grade study, as well as 7 kindergartens with 624 children. Interest in Bulgaria and Bulgarian language is confirmed by the fact that on April 12,13 and 14^than Olympiad in Bulgarian language will be held in Moldova.

According to Rumyana Miteva, a similar project is to be developed together with Serbia.

"The exhibition of children's works will be arranged at the Archaeological Museum in Veliki Preslav. It will include all the works, not just those with prizes. We hope that the exhibition will be presented at the National Library in Sofia, too. We are also working on publishing a book with some of the essays we have received. Our main goal is to promote and strengthen cultural and historical heritage of Bulgaria and our contribution to the development of European and world culture."

English: Alexander Markov