We live in a beautiful rural village. Unfortunately, there are many landfills in the village valleys and they are still growing. We want to build a strong community and all together bring sustainable solutions for our common problems. By organizing educational and practical sessions, we’d like to teach local people how to keep the interconnected ecosystems alive.

This project will take place in Vetrintsi, Veliko Tarnovo area, a rural village in Central Bulgaria.

Everyone agrees the village we live in is a great place with the cleanest air in the region. Unfortunately, some people don’t realise the impact of the landfills across the village valleys. There are at least 8 big landfills and many smaller ones that are still in use. In the past there weren't any other options - without the containers provided by the municipality today, people used to throw everything in the valleys. Nowadays they are filled with plastic, metal, glass, building scrapes, etc. That has a big impact on the local flora and fauna. By different activities, we will bring people of all ages united. Working together we aim to get people involved in the solution of environmental issues, make new friends and strengthen the community.

In this village we have people dumping garbage and not caring about nature, and other people caring very much. Our aim is to bring people with differing views together and get the village community act together in finding sustainable solutions for the problems we face. For the garden waste we will create a composting site where everyone can bring their biological waste and get rich compost and soil in return. We will get key figures from the village involved by organizing excursions to demonstration projects about composting. We will organize presentations about the process, getting people enthusiastic and willing to participate further in the project.

Step 1: Community lunches – social events to inform and educate people and unite them.
Step 2: Local and regional administration – communicate logistics of trash from the landfills.
Step 3: Clean the landfills.
Step 4: Put friendly and informational signs.
Step 5: Plant trees and flowers in the valleys and around main buildings and roads.
Step 6: Create picnic areas with campfires and benches, beautiful park with resting areas and shared community gardens, composting site.
Step 7: Celebration of community achievements.
Step 8: Having various educational, practical sessions and workshops.

In an year from now we would have created stronger and united community. The landfills would be clean and the shared gardens and trees would be already planted. We would still have plenty of work to do - making resting areas, picnic spot, composting site.
Once the project is over we will have a beautiful and green village, sharing its abundance with the local people. Seeing it this way people will think twice before littering. We will have a community working together for the good of the village. Participating in the composting process, instead of throwing or burning garden waste, local people will benefit and learn about sustainable practices. It will be an inspiring example for all the rest to follow!

We will hold regular community lunches inviting local people to share their opinion about the specific problem. Through empathy and non-violent communication we aim to create a loving and caring atmosphere so everyone feels heard, understood and accepted. We will invite outside mentors for the meetings to make sure everyone gets his fair chance to speak. We will also have questionnaires for the people living in the village as another way to get everyone’s opinion and solution ideas. We will hold regular celebrations and appreciations for the little steps taken by the community to get to the aim of creating a green, clean and abundant village. We will create resting areas with flower and herb gardens for everyone to use. A composting site will provide soil for all the gardens in the village

We believe that in order to create a better place for everyone to live in, we have to start with the nature surrounding. We want to be part of this change - clean and help Nature heal from the damage done. We also believe that having a strong and reliable community is possible and very important for every village and we really want to help people feel great about the place they live and the neighbours they have. Least but not last, we want to set positive example to kids and young people, who often think that big cities are the place to give them the opportunity to develop.

Office expenses - 2000 EUR
Travel and accommodation costs - 3000 EUR
Public relations - 1000 EUR
Special equipment for volunteers (gloves, bags, masks, shovels etc.) - 2000 EUR
Transportation and maintenance - 10,000 EUR
Plants and garden tools - 4000 EUR
Personnel costs - 4000 EUR
Informational signs - 5000 EUR
Materials for picnic spot, resting areas, composting site - 14,000 EUR
Educational costs (educators/mentors fees) - 3000 EUR
Community events - 2000 EUR

We would like to hear others’ opinion about our idea. Everyone is welcome to propose more activities and actions that we may add to our project.