There are many challenges to overcome in making sure that every person in Bulgaria has a safe and decent place to live. However, this does not mean it is impossible. Habitat Bulgaria has developed projects to help Roma families with children to make essential home improvements. Families can apply for loans to fix their walls, bathrooms and kitchens. Once they repay this loan, they can apply for another installment and continue improving their housing conditions.
It is important that this is not a handout program but that we involve Roma families in improving their own housing conditions. The money that families repay goes into the Revolving Fund, this way even more families can escape poverty housing.
You can help us reach out to more families. By contributing to the purchase of doors, kitchen sinks, bathrooms or radiators you can help families work on the incremental repairs faster.
The Iordanovs
Zoya and Slavcho Iordanov have two boys. Emil, 3 years old, and Ivan, aged 8. Slavcho is the main breadwinner and Zoya is a housewife. She stays at home and looks after the household and the children while her husband works on construction sites together with her father.
The family lives in a small two-room apartment. It is very damp with mold everywhere, including the single room where the whole family sleeps. The bathroom is also in a bad condition. It is unhealthy, mainly for their children. However, the family does not have any savings to undertake renovations on their own.
Zoya’s family applied for a Habitat loan to make renovations in the bathroom and bedrooms. They want to get rid of the mold and make their home safe for the children.
The Naidenovs
Evdoki Naidenov and his wife Katia are a young family of four. They have two children: Plamen, 11 years old, and younger Radina, who has just turned 6. Katia works at a shoe factory and Evdoki has a job as a truck driver but he also works from home. He has a blacksmith workshop at his house and works for local funeral service or does other small jobs. .
At the moment they live in a house with three other families. That is 10 people in total. The house is overcrowded, has only one kitchen and the toilet and bathroom are outside the house. As a result, there is no privacy and no room for their children to study.
From the small savings Evdoki has started to build a new home, but he is not enough to finish it. The family is not eligible for a traditional bank loan and the family faces grim conditions of living in one room without ever moving out of it.
Through Habitat, Evdoki wants to get a loan to finish the roof and then move into their new home by the end of next summer.
