The Trust in the Family project will be implemented thanks to the UniCredit Bulbank  employees, who chose it by voting online selecting it among three social projects in total, proposed by three Bulgarian organizations selected by UniCredit Foundation within the initiative “Your choice, your project”. 2,250 UniCredit Bulbank employees (56%) have participated to the “Your choice, Your project” initiative: more than 970 have voted for the Tulip Foundation project.

The financial aid to the Trust in the Family project is 97 000 euro, provided entirely by UniCredit Foundation.

Through the implementation of the project during a period of two years, the three institutions plan to help at least 250 children and their families stay together. „Often in poor families, single-parent families and families where either parent or both parents work abroad, the possibility is considered to leave the child to be brought up in a social institution. We believe that with the help of UniCredit Foundation, we can show how this can be avoided”, explained Maria Petkova, director of Tulip Foundation. According to what she said putting children in orphanages, which usually has severe negative consequences for them. The organization of so called “family meetings” is a way for supporting the faith and the strength of families to stay together.

The Trust in the Family project includes namely the organizing of such “family meetings” in cases where children and their families have problems. „This means that this project will benefit not only the children but also the members of their families, a total of around 3 000 people”, explained Petkova. The project will start first in 15 villages in the municipalities of Haskovo, Svilengrad, Lyubimets and Stambolovo. Also specialists from other organizations from the whole country will be trained to implement this approach in their everyday work.

„I am extremely glad that we are starting this project in Bulgaria, thus helping more and more children to be able to grow up surrounded by their close family and relatives instead of in institutions”, said Maurizio Carrara, chairman of UniCredit Foundation.

He pointed out that the Foundation is happy to support this project and in this way finding long-term solutions to the social problems in the country.

„Bulgaria was the first country where to organize such voting among the employees because it was important for us to get the opinion of the people who are here and they to decide which project is the most needed one in the local communities, which UniCredit traditionally supports”, pointed out Carrara.