SPOTLIGHT
In this section:
Bulgaria Chitalishta Community Centers Serve
New Role
Aid Helps Ancient Rila Monastery to Manage Lands
Bulgaria Chitalishta Community Centers Serve New Role
 |
|
Roma women wait in line at a chitalishte in Kustendil for help
with filling out municipal forms. Some 100–150 people come by
daily, asking for help with everything from filling out unemployment
forms to finding out information about funeral homes or how to get
divorced.
Kristina Stefanova, USAID |
KUSTENDIL, Bulgaria—Standing in a line at the local chitalishte,
or community center, women in mismatched clothes carry their children
and clutch documents as they wait for help.
One woman might be waiting to have a personal doctor assigned, another
to fill out city forms to register as unemployed, and another to apply
for unemployment benefits. Some ask what to do about a damaged roof
or ask for help with a funeral. Until recently, couples could legally
divorce here.
This is a common scene in the chitalishte in the Roma (Gypsy) neighborhood,
a shantytown that is home to one-fifth of Kustendil’s population.
Most people here are unemployed, and the majority cannot read or write,
says Sasho Krastev, a Roma who heads the chitalishte, a traditional
neighborhood reading house that recently evolved into a center for administrative
services through a USAID project.
About 100–150 people a day come through the center, mostly seeking
the services of Antoaneta Nikolova, the only other chitalishte employee.
She fills out forms, checks regulations, and makes calls on behalf of
people.
“These people can’t fill out basic forms,” says Krastev.
“They don’t know that they have the right to a personal doctor,
so we tell them. We even make appointments and send them to the doctor.”
The chitalishte has taken on such an active role in serving the community
that recently Kustendil’s police department asked Krastev to organize
a massive check of cars and carts to ensure that they meet safety regulations.
Municipal officials also seek Krastev’s advice on whether to extend
social services to people with roof damage or other special needs.
Founded in 1964, this chitalishte once had thousands of books. But
over the years the library was pilfered, and today all that is left
are two bookshelves lined with old volumes. People now come to read
newspapers whose subscriptions are paid for by USAID funds. The project
also bought the chitalishte a phone line, a computer, a large television
set, and a video to show films on Roma rights under new Bulgarian laws
or on immunizations and other healthcare topics.
The chitalishte in Kustendil’s Roma neighborhood was one of 300
participants in a project that ran August 2001 to July 2004. Of $2.5
million in funding from various partners, USAID invested $1 million.
Kristina Stefanova, USAID
Each chitalishte got a year-long grant. The one in the Roma section
of Kustendil, for instance, got $8,000 to provide administrative services
from August 2002 to July 2003. Due to the demand, the chitalishte continues
to provide this service, but now relies on municipal funding.
Chitalishtas first appeared in the 1850s as “reading houses”
and were Bulgaria’s first secular community centers. Their role
gradually evolved and they assumed additional responsibilities, such
as education and charity.
After communism took hold of Bulgaria in 1944, chitalishtas became
seen mainly as cultural houses, which is how they remain seen today.
Since the early 1990s, state subsidies for chitalishtas, which are
registered as nonprofit groups, have plummeted. The funds barely cover
the costs of building maintenance, let alone two or three staff members.
Under the USAID-funded project, participating chitalishtas ran special
projects that local leaders felt the community needed most. Many chitalishtas
have tackled the challenge of working with disabled or orphaned children
by offering after-school drawing or dancing classes and more specialized
care.
Chitalishtas in some small villages have opened business centers,
offering copying and printing services. Some chitalishtas run internet
centers that offer training courses that range from basic computer skills
to Cisco System certifications and other networking programs.
Traditional arts and crafts is the specialization of other chitalishtas,
which offer classes in glass staining techniques, ethnography, weaving,
knitting, or pottery making. A chitalishte in a grape-growing region
specializes in viticulture and teaches people about winemaking.
Chitalishtas typically earn income by offering dance and music lessons
for a small fee, organizing amateur dance and theater performances,
and renting their auditoriums or larger rooms. Physically, a chitalishte
can be a tiny room in a building, a few rooms, a house, or a large building.
As USAID/Bulgaria gears up to close in 2007, the mission staff reflects
on completed programs and ponders the mark they have made on Bulgarian
society. The chitalishte project often comes up as a model project.
“The existence of a strong, flourishing, and well-informed civil
society has been a key objective of the mission for a number of years,”
said Mission Director Debra McFarland. “The chitalishte project
gives us an ideal opportunity to support various community-based initiatives
aimed at promoting the involvement of ordinary citizens in public decisionmaking
and improving their lives.”
Aid Helps Ancient Rila Monastery to Manage Lands
 |
|
Rila Monastery, located an hour and a half drive from Bulgaria’s
capital Sofia, is an ancient cradle of this country’s culture.
The monastery was part of a decade-long $10 million environmental
and ecotourism program funded by USAID. Some 30,000 hectares of land
surrounding Rila Monastery, as well as its sacred grounds, are now
a nature park owned and managed by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
FrontLines Acting Deputy Managing Editor Kristina Stefanova was recently
in Bulgaria, researching and writing a series of articles.
KChristopher Frost, USAID |
RILA MONASTERY, Bulgaria—This
ancient monastery, a cradle of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church,
with its painted icons, carved doors, manuscripts, and church
plates, is now a nature park and mostly owned by the church,
which had lost control under the former communist regime.
USAID invested $10 million over the past decade
to help create a self-sufficient, protected park system in
Bulgaria, and Rila Monastery is a major accomplishment.
“Religious leaders, government ministries,
the local municipality, businesses, and NGOs—literally
every sector of the community—worked together for the
management of the park,” said Mission Director Debra
McFarland. “This collaboration reflects the very special
place that Rila Monastery and the surrounding area have in
the hearts of Bulgarians.”
Today, 30,000 hectares of mountains and meadows
surrounding the monastery are protected from poachers and
construction. The park also protects one of Bulgaria’s
most significant watersheds, which supplies Sofia, the capital,
with most of its water.
Early this year, USAID helped complete a management
plan for Rila Monastery, which is a UNESCO World Heritage
Site. The previous year, the Sofia mission helped complete
a national ecotourism strategy.
Rila Monastery was founded in the l0th century
by the Bulgarian monk St. John of Rila and was rebuilt 300
years later. When Bulgaria fell to the Ottoman Turks in the
15th century, the monastery was temporarily abandoned, plundered,
and ravaged. A thorough renovation began in the early l9th
century, adding residential wings and a church of the Holy
Virgin.
Back to
Top ^
|
