The Credo Bonum foundation is popular among the citizens of the big Bulgarian cities with its Books for Waste campaign which encourages people to collect plastic waste. People who hand over 1 kilo of waste have the option to choose a new paper or electronic book for their participation at the campaign. The main goal of the campaign is to foster a more responsible attitude to environmental preservation and show the benefits of reading. Credo Bonum also came up with another idea, in order to draw attention to the life and the leisure of the Bulgarian pensioners. For the purpose, it launched the Ageless Art project. Its purpose is to help the elderly Bulgarians go to a theatre or a concert in Sofia and become part of the cultural life of the Bulgarian capital. The main purpose of the project is to help pensioners overcome their social isolation caused by inaccessible environment created by the modern technologies. In the beginning of May 2018 tens of volunteers joined the mission Take Elderly People to a Cultural Event in Sofia /timeheroes.org/. Thanks to their help dozens of elderly people shared a joint trip across art galleries, went to concerts in Bulgaria hall and took part at other cultural events downtown Sofia. There are many free of charge events during the summer months, but the elderly people are not always informed about them, because they usually watch a TV or listen to a radio only. That is why the Ageless Art initiative aims to inform the elderly Bulgarians about the major cultural events in the city.

Some people have little social life, because they have no information channels. That is why we invite these people to join us, the coordinator of the project Mila Stoyanova told Radio Bulgaria.

The Credo Bonum foundation came up with the idea to launch this project. We have been working on a project directed towards the elderly people for several years, because most of the recent projects and activities have been directed mainly towards the young people. Sooner or later everyone gets old and stops working. We named our project Ageless Art and fulfilled it in May and June this year. It took us two to three months to prepare the project. We hope to popularize the project in other Bulgarian cities as well, if it turns successful in Sofia. Information about forthcoming cultural events is published mainly on the Internet and the elderly people rarely use this information channel. We often forget that many elderly Bulgarians do not use Internet and don’t have smartphones. These people can always find one hour a week to visit an exhibition, go to a concert or other cultural event, although most of them spend a lot of time with their families and take care of their grandchildren. Now the kids are on their summer holiday and their grandparents can attend cultural events with them if they have enough information about these events. We issued a cultural newsletter with free of charge events within the frameworks of the project. The elderly people can find this newsletter in the post offices and the places they pay their bills. More than twenty pensioners joined the initiative in the beginning of July. They met our volunteers and visited together a concert in Bulgaria hall.

The Credo Bonum foundation also launched another project directed to the elderly Bulgarians. Its purpose was to teach them how to use a computer and the social networks. The Bulgarian pensioners showed huge interest in this project. In the beginning we organized free of charge courses in two schools in Sofia, Mila Stoyanova says and adds:

The courses were open to all elderly people. We faced problems during this initiative as well, because we could not contact with the Bulgarian pensioners easily. However, the initiative was very successful. Those who joined the course did their best to learn how to use Internet. The elderly people who attended the course had different knowledge and expectations. Some of them had never touched a computer before. However, everyone agreed that these courses were quite useful for them.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov