The projects winning financial support under the 2025 session announced by NEF ‘13 Centuries Bulgaria’, titled ‘“Sacred Language of My Forebears…”: Let Us Support Bulgarian Language Learning in Sunday Schools Abroad’, are made public.
This year, twenty-two projects were submitted to the Fund by Bulgarian Sunday schools in Germany, France, Austria, Italy, Great Britain, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and the USA.
An expert commission chaired by Nikolay Nikolov, Chief Expert at the Education of Bulgarians Abroad and School Network Directorate at the Ministry of Education and Science, with members Katrina Koleva, Chief Expert at the Museums, Galleries and Visual Arts Department of the Cultural Heritage, Museums and Fine Arts Directorate at the Ministry of Culture, and Yoanna Nikolova Dragneva, Deputy Executive Director of the Executive Agency for Bulgarians Abroad to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, reviewed the projects.
Based on the evaluation criteria set out in the Requirements and Procedure of holding sessions organised by NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’, the Commission proposed five projects for approval by the Management Council of NEF ‘13 Centuries Bulgaria’. At its 29th meeting, held on 15.09.2025, the NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ Management Council, approved projects to be financially supported:
- ‘The Phoney Civilisation’: the Buditeli [Enlighteners] Cultural and Educational Society in Athens, Greece, the StsCyril and Methodius Bulgarian Sunday School;
- ‘Reading Comprehension Texts for 3rd-grade Pupils in Bulgarian Sunday Schools’: the Little Bulgarian School in Chicago, USA, the Little Bulgaria Bulgaria Center;
- ‘Six Songs for Working with Children in the Primary Stage of the Bulgarian Sunday Schools, Bulgarian Language levels A1 to A2’: the ‘Bulgarian Language—Language of Europe’ Association, StsCyril and Methodius Bulgarian School, Paris, France;
- ‘Tales by the Hearth’: the Association of Bulgarians in Tarragona, Bulgaria–Tarragona, Spain, Sveti Sedmochislenitsi [The Seven Saints] Bulgarian Sunday School;
- ‘Pranksters’ Kingdom’: the Trebol Association of Bulgarians and Artists and the Azbukarcheta [Little Alphabeters] Bulgarian Sunday School, Madrid, Spain.
According to the decision of the Management Council, the NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ financial support for the winning projects in the session is worth a total of 26,000 BGN. All these projects will be implemented during 2025.