1st Stakeholder meeting held in Bulgaria by Ideas Factory Association
Baba Residence alumnae & village mayors & cultural representatives of chitalishte (a traditional rural community hub) & a business representative meeting
From 26–28 September, Oslen Krivodol village hosted a vibrant gathering at the Volunteer’s House, a shared community space. Participants arrived on the evening of the 26th for an informal welcome, followed by a full day on the 27th filled with traditional Lyutenitsa-making, discussions on the future of Baba Residence and its pilot project, and an evening of film screenings created by past participants. On the 28th, the mayor led a guided village walk and discussion before departures in the early afternoon.
Our main initiative Baba Residence has been creating bridges of interaction and solidarity between urban youth and old people in Bulgarian villages since 2015. Since then more than 100 young participants have participated in our 1-month residencies (volunteer; social-entrepreneurial; artistic or expert type) in depopulating Bulgarian villages.
This year the initiative marks its 10th anniversary and we used the occasion to gather for a uniting stakeholder's meeting a representative group of alumnae of Baba Residence together with local mayors, representative of a chitalishte (Bulgarian traditional form of socio-cultural community hubs) and a local business, and 3 local grannies. Ideas Factory's spirit of creating urban-rural communities always relies on the respect and the foundations of the local cultural heritage.
In this case we combined the seasonal family and communal tradition of making lyutenitsa (traditional autumn sauce, made from tomatoes, peppers and aubergines) with a discussion about the future of Baba Residence, reflection about its past and the chance to present our pilot initiative for the ELEVATE project and gain valuable feedback.
Except being an occasion to strengthen our community threads, this meeting was helpful in terms of gaining the feedback of 2 local village mayors about how our residency could benefit the local community even more, stepping on the foundations of art and culture, but solving pressing current issues of the villages through the concrete contribution of experts.
Another important layer is the example of cohesion which the community of Oslen Krivodol village carries. The last 5 years our partners from Sunland Foundation (a young couple) have been making diverse efforts for re-populating the village (one of which is their annual Oslen fest, weekly community gatherings, establishing a Volunteer's house etc.), collaborating closely with the local municipality, chitalishte and community, creating a beautiful example of how novelty, innovation and tradition could flourish and create the foundations for inclusion and participation.
Author: Ioana Stoyanova
08/10/2025
By Jasna Presečki
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