“Borrow a Grandma” Initiative Takes Place for Fifth Consecutive Year in Gabrovo

For fifth consecutive year, the initiative “Take Me in Your Village” is taking place in the district of Gabrovo in Central Bulgaria, where older adults happily stand as ‘borrowed’ grandparents to ‘adopted’ grandchildren.

More than 100 children from various Bulgarian cities will spend a week in 7 villages in the region of Gabrovo. They will get acquainted with local customs and traditions, will learn how to look after vegetable gardens and help the grandparents with the chores.

The idea for the intiatives originates from a sdudent essay by Veronika Yosifova.

Grandmother Penka Laleva hosted “borrowed grandchildren” for the first time in 2016. The memories from the happy children kept her warm all winter and is now looking forward to the new young guests. She shared her memories from the last summer saying that the children enjoyed the rabbits, but were most impressed by milking the goats. They also helped her with harvesting the potatoes. “They worked hard,” Penka said..

The first ‘borrowed’ grandparents in the initiative were from the village of Novakovtsi. Dimitrinka Boshnakova, the mayor of the village says that this year it will include a day camp and two stages with children aged 9 to 14 and then with young people over 16.

During the stay in the villages, the children participate in traditional customs, learn folk songs and dance.

The campaign starts on July 3rd in the village of Popovtsi and will end at the end of August in Novakovtsi.