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Communication & social skills
Through engagement in the creative and performing arts and sport: Children’s Clubs introduce individual and group practice in art and artistic crafts, song and dance, and sporting activities.
A British charity for Bulgaria’s children since 1991
Standing with Bulgaria’s children growing up in care.
We focus on the wellbeing of children growing up without parents or family in institutional care — many living isolated, routine-bound lives, and some with social, mental or physical disabilities.
Our biggest night of the year
2026 Traditional Christmas Party
You are invited to the Friends of Bulgaria TRADITIONAL CHARITY CHRISTMAS PARTY Thursday 3 December 2026, 7 – 10.00pm at the Bulgarian Embassy 186-188 Queen’s Gate, London SW7 5HL courtesy His Excellency the Ambassador of Bulgaria Tihomir Stoytchev…
Who we are
The first UK charity devoted to Bulgaria’s children.
Friends of Bulgaria was founded in 1991 to bring humanitarian aid to hospitals and children’s homes during Bulgaria’s post-Soviet crisis. Since then our role has grown with the country’s needs.
The emergency passed; the need did not. As Bulgaria closed its old institutions we followed the children into what came next — group homes, day centres, foster and kinship care — and went on funding what a placement on its own cannot give them.
We award grants to trusted Bulgarian partner charities, funding projects tailored to toddlers, teenagers and young people leaving care: therapy and life-skills, music, dance, theatre and sport, and the mentoring that prepares them for independent adult life.
1991
Founded
First
UK charity for Bulgaria
30+ yrs
Of partnership
10
Towns and villages funded
Why it matters
A childhood that shouldn’t be spent in an institution.
Many of the children we support grew up in large state institutions now being closed and reformed — the long, difficult process of de-institutionalisation. That story is why we exist, and why steady, year-round support matters.
What your support funds
Four ways we change a childhood.
02
Personal development
Enhanced through Mentored Outreach projects targeting individuals’ social, emotional, physical and educational difficulties.
03
Life-support skills
Practical instruction in computer literacy, cooking and accountancy — the everyday skills that make independent adult life possible.
04
Outward-bound experiences
Summer excursions to rural landscapes and to the coast and seaside, promoting team-building across the ages.
Trusted on the ground
Our partners — and their latest.
Every grant follows a detailed project proposal. Your donation reaches children through Bulgarian partners we have worked with for decades.
ZOV
Veliko Tarnovo
Helps children and young people growing up in institutional care.
LatestZOV seeks to foster each child’s unique potential – working to develop individual talents, life-skills and self-confidence.
Read more
Karin Dom
Varna
Therapy, early intervention and family support for children with special needs.
LatestOpened new purpose-built premises in 2022 to expand special-needs childcare. Our funded intensive week-therapy programme is doubling its capacity.
Read moreWhere your support reaches
Across Bulgaria, where we’re needed.
We fund ZOV in Veliko Tarnovo and Gorna Oryahovitsa, and Karin Dom in Varna. The map also marks where our grants have reached since 1991 — from Sofia and Vratsa to Lovec, Troyan and Dalbok Dol, and south to Stara Zagora and Petrovo: residential centres, day centres, family centres and supported accommodation the length of the country.
Solid pins are current partners; hollow pins are completed programmes. Hover or tap a town for the detail.
Our supporters & how we work
Made possible by generous friends — and spent with care.
We’re grateful to our patrons, donors and volunteers — from the Ambassador of Bulgaria and our Honorary Patrons, Prince Boris and Prince Kyril, to individual benefactors whose gifts and legacies reach children directly. Our supporters
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Every grant
Funded by proposal
Every grant follows a detailed project plan from a partner on the ground.
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£0 to trustees
Run by volunteers
No trustee receives any payment from the charity.
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+25%
Gift Aid
UK taxpayers can add 25% to a donation at no extra cost.
Baba Stana is my favorite place, and I always want to come back here again.
The nature here is so beautiful, and it makes me feel calm and happy. Thank you so much for this wonderful experience.
Being in nature, I forgot about my problems and the bad things in this world. I felt like I was in a fairy tale — thank you for making this possible.
You have been at our side all these years — you never forget us, and never stop helping us care for our children.
Friends of Bulgaria have funded our intensive therapy weeks since the beginning. Families travel from across the country for them.
Latest news
From our partners on the ground.
Summer trips to Baba Stana, 2026
Between June and July, trips to Baba Stana in Oreshak were organised for 75 children and young people from six residential care centres.
Read more
2025 Christmas Party — Summary
Thank you for being part of our traditional Christmas party 2025. Please see below a summary of the event: 2025 Christmas Party – 6 December – at the Bulgarian Embassy, London courtesy Friends of Bulgaria Honorary Patron, the Ambassador Tihomir Stoytchev Below are some illustrations from the event: Notice board illustrating childcare at Karin Dom, […]
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2024 Christmas Party — Summary
Thank you for being part of our traditional Christmas party 2024. Please see below a summary of the event: The party inclduded full attendance at the Christmas Party 2024 with colourful and musical contributions from the London Bulgarian Choir and junior choir Londonche in presence of Patron HE Ambassador Stoytchev and Honorary Patron Prince Kyril […]
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A new Executive Director for Karin Dom
New Executive Director of Karin Dom has been appointed in October 2024 Antoaneta Boncheva Ivanova ‘is a well-known person in the field of social services and policies for children, an advocate for children’s rights and health care in Bulgaria. She is an activist, volunteer, social worker. One of the first volunteers on the ground during […]
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2022 Christmas Party — Summary
[fob_centre] The 2022 Friends of Bulgaria Christmas Party was a lively, colourful and musical event as always, thanks to the generosity of t…
Read more
Ralitsa, Alek and Evo Petrov swim, cycle and run with a purpose
Please support our Honorary Secretary and Treasurer & her husband and friend by sponsoring their effort in support of our Bulgarian partner Foundation Kaleidoscope (www.kaleidoscope.bg) in our urgent appeal to support the children of Ukrainian refugees in Varna. To support them please click here. See below from them: This year we will dedicate our efforts […]
Read moreRefugees from Ukraine: an appeal
Please DONATE to Friends of Bulgaria’s special fund dedicated to helping refugees from Ukraine arriving in Bulgaria Donations placed here are not individually subject to transfer fees and will be forwarded to authorised relief agencies – primarily the Bulgarian Red Cross – for distributing as needed. In response to the current crisis, Friends of Bulgaria […]
Read moreRecord attendance at the traditional Christmas Party 2018
There was record attendance at the traditional Friends of Bulgaria Christmas Party on 6 December 2018 in the elegant reception rooms of the Bulgarian Embassy, where guests enjoyed a typical Bulgarian menu for St. Nicholas Day with national song and dance led by the London Bulgarian Choir followed by musical entertainment by Ivelina Tsoneva and […]
Read moreStand with Bulgaria’s children.
A gift funds therapy, a summer-camp place, or a young person’s first steps into adult life — and Gift Aid adds 25% at no cost.