At the end of the year, fairytales once again found their way to the youngest children. Through the collective efforts of dozens of donors, volunteers, and partners, the “Gift a Fairytale” campaign once again demonstrated in 2025 that a book can be much more than a gift — it can be a first encounter with reading, imagination, and shared time between parent and child.
By the end of 2025, thanks to dozens of individual donors, a record-breaking 1,700 children’s books were collected. In addition to the books, the initiative raised approximately 400 BGN in donations to provide essential supplies for families living in the most challenging conditions.
Especially meaningful was the support of donors who chose to help in more than one way — in addition to books, they donated diapers, baby toiletries, and food for the youngest children. For the families we support, these donations are not abstract assistance — they are part of everyday life.
The People Behind the Campaign
This year, among the supporters of “Gift a Fairytale,” we welcomed many new friends — the community of the Time Heroes platform, diplomatic missions based in Bulgaria, educational centers, and teams from various companies.
A particularly significant highlight of the campaign was the active support of H.E. Catherine Bannon, Ambassador of Ireland to Bulgaria. She became one of the strongest advocates of “Gift a Fairytale” in 2025 and, together with her team, engaged members of the wider diplomatic community in Sofia in support of the cause.
Live Meetings and Shared Stories
The campaign created a new space for in-person meetings and conversations through the event “Gift a Fairytale Live,” dedicated to early childhood reading.
During the week of Giving Tuesday, we visited our generous hosts and partners at Fox Book Café, where we spoke about the importance of books in the earliest years of life, about first encounters with reading, and about the memories books leave behind. Writer Rene Karabash shared personal stories about her first books, and the gathering marked the beginning of a new shared experience for friends of “Gift a Fairytale”, both children and adults.
The Youngest Donors
For us as a team, the most powerful moments this year were meeting children who visited us in person to donate books themselves. We welcomed children who visited our office with their parents to bring books, as well as students from 119th School in Sofia who self-organized and donated books.
Thank You
We are grateful to Rybka Publishing House for supporting the campaign with a donation of children’s books and helping even more children have their first encounter with books.
The campaign was also supported by a number of corporate and organizational teams, including BILLA Bulgaria, Videolux (Technopolis and Praktiker), the team of the World Bank Office in Bulgaria, and Merck Bulgaria.
With the support of volunteers from HP Inc Bulgaria, the donated books were carefully sorted by age group, ensuring that each child receives books appropriate to their age and development.
Where the Fairytales Go
The donated books and materials reach children from poor and vulnerable families supported through the home-visiting Nurse-Family Partnership program delivered by our family nurses who work directly with families. The books enter homes as part of comprehensive early childhood support — alongside guidance, care, and ongoing community-based work.
Beyond the families supported through the home-visiting service, books also travel to early learning spaces in Novi Pazar and Kyustendil, attended by mothers and children from communities without access to services, nurseries, or other forms of early education. In these spaces, books are often the first encounter with learning, play, and communication.
Another part of the fairytales reached underserved neighborhoods and communities where we work with parent groups — in the village of Markovo, in Kazanlak and Yambol, as well as the kindergarten in the village of Elhovo, Nikolaevo municipality. Each of these places is in urgent need of colorful materials and children’s books, as we support families for whom books are rarely part of everyday life.
For many of these children, this will be a first encounter with the world of books — first pictures, first words, and first shared moments with a parent that lay the foundations for language development, imagination, and emotional connection.
We thank every individual donor, volunteer, and partner who became part of “Gift a Fairytale” in 2025. Your support, trust, and active involvement made these 1,700 fairytales possible.
With your donation, you gave more than a book — you gave a child a greater chance to speak its first words with confidence, to start school prepared, and to believe that knowledge and opportunity belong to them too.*
*Research shows that the presence of books in the home and early shared reading with an adult are associated with stronger language development, higher school readiness, and longer educational attainment (Evans et al., 2010; American Academy of Pediatrics, 2014; OECD, 2012).