NEGLIGENCE KILLS
Gergana Velinova (22) died in an accident in Varna ascribed to a fatal combination of snowy weather and human negligence and irresponsibility. Velinova was reported missing by her family on January 2 after failing to return from a trip to draw money from an ATM. Two days later, her body was found buried under a pile of snow that had collapsed on her after piling up on a canopy sheltering the ATM. Guards from the two banks servicing the ATM said that they had not seen Velinova on their monitors. An autopsy found that Velinova had died immediately. An investigation is underway.

BULGARSKA KOLEDA
A total of more than 3.6 million leva has been raised through the fifth annual Bulgarska Koleda (Bulgarian Christmas) charity campaign held under the patronage of President Georgi Purvanov and his wife Zorka Purvanova. Of the total amount, about 1.5 million leva came from SMS donations and special rate phone calls, and a further more than two million leva through a special bank account. The money will be used to help 37 children and 13 medical treatment facilities for children.

FEEDBACK
Thirty-eight tip-offs about corruption committed by public officials have been received at www.anticorruption.government.bg since the website was launched on December 21. Inspectors have two months to investigate the reports. No senior public officials are involved in the reported cases of corruption. Most tip-offs were about medical officers, customs or police officers, irregularities in bidding procedures to rent municipal property, and conflicts of interest.

PERACH BULGARIA
The Israeli embassy, in co-operation with Sofia municipality and the national Education Ministry, has launched Perach Bulgaria, a mentoring programme by which university students assist disadvantaged children. Based on a system that has operated in Israel for more than 30 years, the Bulgarian programme aims at achieving two goals, to give disadvanted children role models and to bring students face-to-face with social reality. University students are paired with a disadvantaged child and spend four hours a week with them, acting as mentors, guides and friends, with mentors receiving a scholarship for their participation. Each mentor-mentee pair develop the goals of their mentorship together, continuously updating and assessing their progress. The mentorship programme is co-ordinated and supervised by a full-time co-ordinator, under the overall supervision of a professional psychologist and access, as needed, to the highly experienced full-time staff of Perach in Israel. The launch-year programme is running from November 2007 to June 2008 and involves 20 students from New Bulgarian University, paired with 20 children from Sofia schools.