In September a Bulgarian Sunday school will open its doors for children in Crewe, England. Its founder is Tezdzhan Sabri, born and raised in Bulgaria’s Razgrad. The new school is called "Bulgarche" and will operate in accordance to the requirements and regulations of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science for Bulgarian schools abroad.

"The idea of ​​setting up a school emerged about four years ago when I was making Bulgarian pastry and delivering breakfast to Bulgarian schools in Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Coventry and Chester," says Tezdzhan Sabri. "Despite the presence of other similar educational institutions in the UK, one cannot even go to courses in Bulgarian language in the city where I live. And there are many Bulgarian children who are studying in English schools and we as parents are worried that they would forget to write and speak their native language. This was the main motive for me to start the initiative of preserving Bulgarian language among children. They are Bulgarians and they need to preserve and pass on our Bulgarian heritage to the next generation. They should use the language themselves, in their contacts with family and relatives,” Sabri says.

All people who want their children to study Bulgarian can contact the new school. The two daughters of Tezdzhan Sabri – Elif and Melis will also attend the school. The teaching staff is already eagerly awaiting children, parents and loved ones for the first day of school on September 15th.

"At the Sunday school children will have the opportunity to learn their native language – Bulgarian, to get acquainted with the rich Bulgarian literature and history, to learn more about Bulgarian traditions and cultural values, although they are far away from their homeland. The school also provides an opportunity to study folk dances in extracurricular form,” the founder of the school says.

Tezdzhan Sabri graduated high school in Razgrad. He had been a football player for many years at the local Ludogorets team and was also a professional football referee.

"My emigrant story began seven years ago when I moved to live in England with my family. I moved to the English city of Crewe in the hope of securing a better future for my children as well as a peaceful lifestyle,” Tezdzhan said. He and his wife, Hadzher, are owners of a small business – an English-style café located in the town center.

In Britain, Mr. Sabri continued with his refereeing career and reached fourth level, but after a knee injury he stopped being involved with refereeing. Four years ago he became chairman of the Bulgarian community in the city and two years later he and his friends formed the first Bulgarian football club called “BG Lion” to participate in the Sunday league of England. In 2017, as President of the Bulgarian community Mr. Sabri was the host of the Carrying Bulgaria in Your Heart event, attended by some 400 Bulgarians from different parts of England.

Mr. Sabri says he plans to return to his home town of Razgrad one day, but not in the near future. "Not only that our compatriots have no desire to leave England, but there is even a trend for a rising number of new settlers who are worried they would not have this opportunity after Brexit," he says.

English: Alexander Markov

Photos: personal archive