Where Children and Young People Can Simply Be Themselves: The Center for Social Rehabilitation and Integration in Vidin

Emilia Josifova gives socially disadvantaged children and young people in Vidin a place to breathe, play and dream – surrounded by nature.

Vidin is often called the most remote and least developed corner of Bulgaria – far from everything, right at the edge of the country. For the children and young people who come to the Center for Social Rehabilitation and Integration here, it's exactly the opposite: the center of their world. Get to know their stories in the video below (Bulgarian with German subtitles):

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"I just want to be a normal person to everyone else," says one of the young men who regularly visits the center. His so-called special needs, he says, are actually the simplest ones there are: to have the abilities other people have too. When he's at the center, he feels calmer, more balanced – nature, he says, works like medicine.

A founder who knows what she's talking about

Behind the center stands Emilia Josifova. At 19, she was seriously injured in an accident and spent the next 13 years at home – in a wheelchair, with dreams that had to wait. She went on to complete two university degrees and then began doing for others what she had once wished someone would do for her: she knows firsthand what a person with a disability needs – and what their parents go through, because she experienced it alongside her own family.

Her foundation "Podkrepa za Realizatsia" (Support for Realization) in Vidin grew out of this experience. And with it, the center that gives children and young people with disabilities a safe, sheltering space – a place where families can learn not to hide and not to feel ashamed, but to move among others with confidence.

Oasis Major Uzunovo: When nature becomes the therapist

About 13 kilometers from Vidin lies the village of Major Uzunovo. Here, the team has created another very special place: the outdoor therapy site "Oasis." The name is no exaggeration – for the children, that's exactly what it is: an oasis.

Instead of working only in enclosed therapy rooms, the team moves part of its work outdoors here. In the yard, there's gardening, art workshops, occupational and physical therapy under the open sky, plus sports – basketball, archery, football. The children feed and pet animals, help in the garden, spend time with friends.

"When you're in nature, you're free from everything," says one of the young people. No phone, no distractions, just the surroundings – a feeling of calm that many otherwise rarely experience.

Setbacks are part of the story

As idyllic as this sounds, the path here hasn't been easy. The yard was once full of animals – rabbits, hedgehogs, pheasants, chickens – cared for by Emilia's mother. When she fell ill, the family had to give the animals away because no one was left to look after them. For the children, this was a painful loss, since contact with the animals was enormously calming and important to many of them.

The team also struggles with limited resources in other ways: the building's second floor urgently needs renovation, and the team, despite its size, is nowhere near enough to cover daily needs alongside the regular work at the Vidin center. Volunteers help out – but they can't always be relied on.

An adventure park that brings everyone together

And yet Emilia looks ahead. Her next big vision: an adventure park on the Oasis grounds – with rope bridges and paths with tactile surfaces, and quiet retreats for children with autism or Down syndrome who sometimes simply need to withdraw.

What's special about the idea: none of it is meant to be built exclusively for children with disabilities. Everything is meant to be usable by everyone. A nest swing that two children can swing on together. Interactive tables with adjustable height, so a child in a wheelchair can take part just as easily as a smaller or bigger child – side by side, one child with a disability and one without.

Because that's exactly Emilia's goal: not just to support her own participants, but to bring together children with and without disabilities. So they can play together, learn together – and so the ones without disabilities learn early on to be tolerant and not to treat anyone differently.

What the children themselves wish for

Learning new things, seeing new places, spending more time with friends, being outdoors in nature more: that's how the children and young people themselves describe what matters to them. Flowers, a garden, grass, swings, a slide – completely ordinary children's wishes. And the wish not to feel like "second class." "We're no different from anyone else," says one of them. "We're just a little bit special."

The ending of this story is up to us

Unlike in many stories, the ending here doesn't depend on chance. Whether the dream of the adventure park becomes reality depends on whether enough people are willing to help – with a donation, with contacts to skilled tradespeople, or simply by passing this story on.

Donate now and help: Please include the reference "Vidin" with your donation.