In the period 1997-2000 Theatre Tsvete carried out a number of socialization projects in the Home for boys and girls with permanent physical impairments in the town of Lukovit, together with their peers from the ordinary schools in the same town. Impressed by the work of the team, the Centre for Independent Life recommended Theatre Tsvete to the Daycare centre for children with mental problems in the town of Bansko, where we have worked periodically since 2003. In 2005 "Save the children", Bulgaria, commissioned us to develop a program for tolerance education in primary schools, and for parents and teachers in the schools with integrated classes.
Years of experience of working with children with permanent physical and mental impairments enabled us to understand their problems, which in the process we also learned to cope with. Arts, with their emotional and intellectual impact have a big potential to enable children with different backgrounds to communicate and express themselves, they are a powerful tool for educational and therapeutic work, but unfortunately are still not very widely used in Bulgaria.
Theatre Tsvete's team views all planned and implemented activities as very important, namely:
- joint artistic activities of children with intellectual and physical impairments and their peers, aimed at achieving social integration
- preparing artistic productions with the participants and presenting them to the community
- together with teachers from three Bulgarian universities, we created a basic methodology to apply art social therapy of children with disabilities based on tested successful practices
- training of volunteers to work in the Centre - pedagogues, colleagues from "Bratia Miladinovi" community centre ("chitalishte"), students, parents
- media events
As a particular merit of the project we consider the forming of a multidisciplinary team working with the children with special educational needs. Besides the Theatre Tsvete members, it includes university teachers, volunteering students, studying to be of help to people with disabilities in the different areas.
In the preliminary training that we did with those students, they learned the basics of some art techniques for their future professional work. They highly appreciated the training, given what they described as shortage of practical work in their academic studies. At the same time we took advantage of their specific knowledge and skills when planning and analyzing our activities.
In the process of working with groups of children and adults, the participants improved their social skills, which influenced their learning skills. One example is their higher level of concentration, or self-control, in the case of hyperactive children, the greater motivation for team work, especially for the shy and passive.
The performances which the groups finally presented were also very important for the better integration of those kids in the community, and for the development of their new social skills. The audience awarded them with lots of applause, personal acknowledgement and complements.
The progress of the children involved in the project has a long term effect since all the changes that took place in them were inner ones - they now have new communication skills , can cope to some extent with situations involving aggression or tension, new ways to express themselves, and to be open to the experience of the others.
The cooperation between Theatre Tsvete and the academic teachers allowed what the team had long awaited - the transfer in Bulgaria of the skills acquired in the international workshops and trainings for implementation of good European practices. Having seen the practical effect of our work, our supervisors are now negotiating the possibility of establishment Master’s programs based on the experience accumulated during the project in the Universities of Sofia, Blagoevgrad and Burgas.
Contact information
Tsvete Yaneva, Project leader
Theatre "Tsvete"
z.k. "Mladost" 1, bl. 15, entr. B, ap. 41, Sofia 1750, Bulgaria
Tel.: +359 2 884 54 71
Cell Phone: ++359 886 319 605
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