A campaign in Bulgaria is collecting books for the Bulgarian library which will open doors on the island of Tenerife. Nelly Kirilova, a Bulgarian ex-pat, who has been living in Spain for some time has come up with this initiative. She has been working on the idea for two years, and her cause is supported by many of our compatriots living in Bulgaria and abroad. The library at Angel Kanchev Community Centre in Ruse supported the campaign with a large donation of books.
The name of the new library is DAS VIDA, which means „You give life“. The first 70 books were from Nelly’s personal collection, and today the total number of volumes is over 1,000.
We started with personal meetings, we distributed the books from hand to hand, but in February we received an invitation for the library to be relocated in a charming bio-store and it is now open to the public. During the quarantine we had to close for the first week, as our restrictions are very strict, but then I decided that it was a good time to re-open: people were not at work, they had enough time to read and so we made a chain of people who distributed the books, „says Nelly Kirilova.
She is glad to receive great support from our countrymen in Bulgaria.
„For us the relationship we have with Bulgarians is very important and we want to keep in touch with Bulgarians living in Bulgaria, so that there is no such division – Bulgarians living abroad versus Bulgarians living in Bulgaria. At the moment we manage to keep connected and I am even very pleasantly surprised how well the idea is accepted by people who love books and who deal with books. One of our ideas is to popularise contemporary Bulgarian authors, because many people have been living abroad for over 20 years, „said the Bulgarian ex-pat.
The Bulgarian community in Tenerife is very active. Besides the library, there is a dancing club and charitable association and, what is more, the first Bulgarian school is to be opened in October.
Translation by Еlitsa Boneva, Pharos Schools Ruse
