The 2024 ‘“Sacred Language of My Forebears…’: Let Us Support Bulgarian Language Learning in Sunday Schools Abroad’ results

Twenty-eight projects were submitted for the 2024 session announced by NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’, titled ‘“Sacred Language of My Forebears…”: Let Us Support Bulgarian Language Learning in Sunday Schools Abroad’.

An expert commission chaired by Snezhana Yoveva-Dimitrova, Director of the State Cultural Institute to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, with members Koprinka Chervenkova, NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ board member; Silva Nalbantian-Hacherian, PhD, Director of the International Cooperation, European Programmes and Regional Activities Directorate at the Ministry of Culture; Raina Mandzhukova, Director of the Executive Agency for Bulgarians Abroad to the Minister of Foreign Affairs; and Asen Petrov, State Expert at the Education of Bulgarians Abroad and School Network Directorate at the Ministry of Education and Science, reviewed the projects and, based on the evaluation criteria set out in the Requirements and Procedure of holding sessions organised by NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’, proposed seven projects for approval.

At its 19th meeting, held on 24.06.2024, the NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ Management Board, approved projects to be financially supported:

1. ‘Bulgarian Retro Bookmania in the Kingdom’: the Vasil Levski Bulgarian School, London, Great Britain.
2. ‘Green School: Perceiving Nature as a Classroom for Learning the Bulgarian Language’: the Yan Bibiyan Bulgarian School, Münster, Germany.
3. ‘Bulgarian Folk Tales and Songs—Guardians of the Thousand-year History of Our Sacred Language’: the StsCyril and Methodius Bulgarian Sunday School Association, Dortmund, Germany.
4. ‘“FIVE PLAYS for Classwork and Out-of-class Activity”, a children’s Bulgarian learning aid, levels A1 to B1 of the Common European Framework, age 7–14’: the ‘Bulgarian Language—Language of Europe’ Association, StsCyril and Methodius Bulgarian School, Paris, France.
5. ‘School Newspaper’: ‘THIS IS BULGARIA’ Language and Cultural Centre, Milan, Italy.
6. The New Year issue of the Vazovcheta newspaper: the Hristo Botev Association, Paris, France.
7. ‘Melodies of Bulgarian Speech’: the Hristo Botev Bulgarian School Association, Augsburg, Germany.

All these projects supported by NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ will be implemented during 2024.