Since its creation in 1992, the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad has aimed at preserving and supporting the education of Bulgarian children abroad and at contributing to the spiritual unity of all Bulgarians across the world. The agency keeps contact with many Bulgarian organizations, associations, youth unions, and has been searching for and organizing databases of information about Bulgarian communities abroad. This year, the agency continues its work in this direction and has organized many events, including the contest "Bulgarian Woman of the Year" and "Spartakiada" in Primorsko, where over 150 children from the Bulgarian communities in Ukraine, Moldova, Romania and Serbia participated. In addition to this, the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad has helped in publishing two books that tell the story of the life of a Bulgarian in Argentina and that of the Banat Bulgarians. In an interview with Radio Bulgaria, the current chairman of the agency Dimitar Vladimirov said that:

“Since the establishment of the agency we have established contacts with over 1,000 Bulgarian organizations abroad and we help them with whatever we can. We provide Bulgarian books and other materials for children, as well as folk costumes for dance ensembles. We also help Sunday schools by working in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science. The latest conversation we had on this topic was with the Bulgarian ambassador to Mexico, where a Bulgarian organization is being created, as well as a new Sunday school.”

The annual events organized by the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad include three children's competitions in which Bulgarian children from all over the world compete for prizes with a song, a drawing or literary work dedicated to Bulgaria. This year's edition offered intense competition in all three contests. Over the years, the literature contest, bearing the name of writer Stefan Gechev, has been established as a program for finding, training and helping children with outstanding literary abilities from the Bulgarian communities around the world. Participants in various age groups can send both poetry and prose. First prize for poetry in the group of children aged 6-10 went to Mihaela Taseva, a 4th grade student of "I am a Bulgarian" School in Bremen, Germany. In the prose category, the first prize in the same age group went to Victoria Bogdeva from the Bulgarian Cultural and Educational Center "Az Buki Vedi", Bolgrad, Ukraine and Dmitry Nikolaev from Moldova. Together with the literary contest, the song contest named after Bulgarian folk singer Lyubka Rondova, caused great interest. Each participant presented two songs – one traditional folk song and another Bulgarian song of their choice. The first prize for a modern song in the 5 to 10 years age category went to Josephine Shore from the “Peyo Yavorov” School at the Embassy of Bulgaria in Brussels. First prize for her performance of a folk song went to Angelina Musan from the Bulgarian Sunday School "Rodolubiye" in the village of Tabaki, Ukraine.

One of the children who received awards for her performance was Tatyana Kasapova, who was second in the 15-18 years age category. She chose to wear a traditional Bulgarian folk costume while performing her song. She told Radio Bulgaria more about her:

“My name is Tatiana Kasapova and I am 16 years old and come from the city of Bolgar. I have been singing for 7 years. My parents and brother motivated me to participate. This is the first time I come to Bulgaria. I attend ‘Az Buki Vedi’ Sunday school and my teacher is Maria Stepanovna Papazova. For me, Bulgaria is my homeland and in order to come here to live, I need to finish the 11th grade and then come to study in the Music Academy in Sofia because music is what I want to do.”

English: Alexander Markov