For the fifth consecutive year, the Trust for Social Achievement organized a campaign "Give a Fairy Tale". It started on 01.11.2023 to mark the Day of National Revival Leaders, and ended before the holidays, when the books were left to their new owners – children up to two years of age from vulnerable families.
The children reached by the books are part of the specialized patronage service "Together – Healthy Baby, Healthy Future" (HSFAA), implemented by the Trust for Social Achievement in Bulgaria since 2016. So far, it has covered over 420 vulnerable young families in Sofia and Plovdiv.
Much of the patronage sisters' work from the service with young mothers is dedicated to promoting responsible parenting practices. Reading and looking at books is extremely important for early childhood – it helps develop key skills throughout life. This is the message of the "Give a Fairy Tale" campaign, which unites dozens of children, parents, teachers and other like-minded people of patronage care for vulnerable families every year – reading books is an integral part of responsible parenting and should be accessible to all families.
A brand new study of the results of HSSA in Bulgaria* shows that the program is a very successful tool for intervention at an early age among poor families. Children who participated in the program show significantly higher results for early development than their peers, who also face life in poverty, but do not receive this type of support. Their parents read books to them 23% more than their parents, living in poverty who do not receive specialized patronage care. Reading books is key to the development of children's communication and social skills, concentration, listening and comprehension skills, language skills, and of course – it strengthens the particularly important relationship between parent and child.
In this year's edition of the campaign over 710 books were collected– all of them will help to develop these skills in children. TSA cordially thanks all donors in the campaign, especially sixty-eight kindergarten "Ran Bosilek", "Merry House", twenty primary school "Todor Minkov", Sofia, Smule – Bulgaria, group "Zvezditsa" and group "Firefly" from kindergarten Desislava in Plovdiv, who mobilized dozens of parents and children to our call for support. Over the past five years, we have managed to collect over 2,700 books and make over four hundred families happy.
*De Laat, J., Harst, M., Kraus, H. (2023). Support for vulnerable young mothers with their first pregnancy and their children. Evaluation report of "Together – Healthy Baby, Healthy Future" in Bulgaria. Sofia: Trust for Social Achievement