In two villages in the Veliko Turnovo region, communities have been meeting regularly to select the next family to be the recipient of a young calf in the Pass on the Gift (Предай Нататък, literally meaning pass it on) programme.
Pass on the Gift is one of many programmes supported by the Tulip Foundation, a Bulgarian non-governmental organisation (NGO). The Tulip Foundation does not run programmes itself, but supports social care projects driven by community demand. The foundation was registered in 2004 with the support of a coalition of Dutch funding organisations called the Co-operating Netherlands Foundations Programme for Central and Eastern Europe. This coalition was established in 1991 as a joint undertaking of four Dutch foundations intended to assist the process of social transformation in Central Europe’s post-communist societies. It supported a series of projects in several Central and Eastern European countries. In Bulgaria they have been active since 1997.
However, as Maria Petkova, director of the Tulip Foundation, describes it in an interview with The Sofia Echo, “at some point the question arose what would happen when this programme closes? Social problems will continue and will need to be addressed. There will need to be access to independent funding”.
In the Pass on the Gift programme, the Tulip Foundation provides a pedigree heifer (a young cow before she has had her first calf) or other animal, along with additional support and training on how to take care of the animal, as well as other forms of support needed. The cow is given to a family deemed by the community to need special help. The family must have children, be in a difficult financial situation, have unemployed family members and/or people with disabilities and so on.
The municipalities involved provide land for families to use free of charge to rear the cows. The family that receives the cow is obliged to pass on – hence the name of the project – the first-born female calf to another family in the community. This family is again selected by the entire community and the process starts all over again.
Pass on the Gift has been implemented in a joint venture with the international organisation Heifer, which has launched the programme in many Central and East European countries. It will now be introduced to several villages in the Pleven region.
In its few years the foundation has supported an impressive list of social care projects, including the setting up of daycare centres, community centres and home care as alternatives to social institutions.
“After ‘89, all social care was centralised in institutions,” Petkova said. The foundation has made it a policy not to support social institutions because it considers such centres inappropriate for this type of care. Instead, it supports the creation of community-supported networks of alternative care. “More money for institutions simply means that more children will end up in these institutions,” Petkova said.
“We support projects by helping them secure funding, but projects must be undertaken by local people from the community in concert with the community. People to people.”
Over the years, Petkova has seen a change in local government’s attitude towards NGOs and charity. One of the requirements for an NGO to earn the foundation’s support, for example, is that the municipality provides a building or other suitable space free of charge or against a minimal or symbolic rent for at least 10 years, which has to be secured in a contract. “It was difficult to convince a municipality five years ago. Now, because of our requirements, NGOs get municipalities to prolong contracts,” she told The Sofia Echo.
Where once Bulgarian NGOs, with the support of foreign donors, started projects where no government policy existed, they have now started to receive support from ministries, albeit channelled through EU structural funds.
“The charity climate is maturing. We are negotiating with several companies to support projects,” Petkova said.
According to Petkova, the amount of money is unimportant, “the difference is in the way the money is spent”.
In partnership with the European Knowledge Exchange Forum and with support from the MATRA Programme of the Netherlands ministry of foreign affairs, the Tulip Foundation has now launched the Programme for Social Transformation through Encouraging Social Responsibility. With this three-year programme, it aims to strengthen the capacity of NGOs and encourage social responsibility among businesses and the public.
“I can think of no better reason to help others,” Petkova said, “than to see others have a better life, be more successful and realise their potential.”
