"We want to dress our hearts in beautiful garments, not our bodies, by donating the cash allocated to buying expensive clothes”. This is the message of high school graduates from the Sofia-based Thomas Jefferson Second English Language School. The good news was born on a dedicated Facebook page created by them and entitled Goodness Fair and has immediately captured plenty of media attention. Well, this spontaneous campaign has come to refute a widespread view that present-day young people live in the throes of consumerism and apathy to other people’s problems. The key initiators of the charity campaign are four girls in the 12th grade – Victoria, Adriana, Gergana and Iskra. Raised money that graduates would otherwise spend on expensive clothes for their graduation parties, will now be donated for the treatment of children suffering from Epidermolysis Bullosa known as the Butterfly Children, because their skin is as vulnerable as the wing of a butterfly. Victoria came up with the idea first, after she learned about the tragedy of young patients with this condition who can be hurt even by a mother’s hug. The girls shot a 10-minute video about Butterfly Children that was used to promote their cause among all 12th graders in their school. The teachers joined them too.

"In the recent years, graduation parties have become big occasions”, Adriana explains. “Parents spend a lot of money to buy expensive clothes, pay for restaurants, nightclubs, hairstyles, professional makeup and a photographer. We decided it is time to do away with this vanity by reinventing this occasion.”
About 100 people in Bulgaria among them eight children have the rare genetic disorder Epidermolysis Bullosa, figures from Debra Bulgaria, a patient organization protecting the rights of people with the condition suggest. On the day they officially leave school the graduates will wear white T-shirts symbolizing hope and goodness.

"We want to make it obvious that beauty is not confined to hairstyles and great-looking clothes and that it has to come from within”, Gergana adds. “Inner beauty is the true guarantee of physical beauty. We also aim at claiming more public attention, including the Ministry of Health as its obligation is to take care of the kids and provide funding for their treatment. The monthly costs that their families should pay come to 1000 euros. They need special sanitary dressings and antibiotics but the state does not reimburse even a fraction of these costs and their families are desperate. And because now this rare condition has got chances to join the list of diseases for which the National Health Insurance Fund provides funding, we should like to speed up the process so that children receive the best treatment.”
The campaign initiated by the four teenage girls has become very popular across the country.. "We would not go on had it not been for all the people who support us”, Adriana admits. Many Bulgarian teenagers have written posts on their Facebook accounts willing to join the noble cause.

"I would not say that we are an exception. I think that everyone can dig out his or her goodness and do something similar”, Adriana says. “Well, all one has to do is turn their backs to the superfluous, the material and just carry out this change. After all, we are young and it is our duty to carry out this change.”

English Daniela Konstantinova