Charity Scholarship 2024/2025 - for disadvantaged young people who wish to continue their education in universities

Organizers: Milostiv Association

Period: July 2024 - July 2025

Media: Bulgarian National Television, Radio Programme “Horizont”, Radio Sofia, FOCUS Information Agency, Cultural News, actualno.com

Description:
For the eight time this year, Milostiv Association has launched its annual charity initiative to help disadvantaged young people who want to continue their education in universities. With gratitude to heart donors, we can say that so far scholarships for over 210 thousand levs have been awarded.

As organizers of the initiative, we believe that young people have the right to receive a good education, which will give them a chance for a dignified life and the fulfillment of their skills. The main criterion for this should be their ability and desire to learn and improve, rather than their financial or social status.

Many worthy Bulgarians from our past have recognized their responsibility to others and society and have helped with passion and dedication. The "Encyclopedia of Donation" describes hundreds of examples of people who donated from their funds to support the education of children in Bulgaria. Aware of their particular responsibility in society, each of them has helped to the best of their ability - from a student scholarship to large amounts to build schools and universities. These examples are so prevalent and so generous that we could understand them as conscious joint efforts in the help of the Bulgarians and Bulgaria, as well as in support of science, religion, and art.

One of these examples is Rayko Tsonchev, whose father died when he was a child and he could not afford to buy even a textbook, and later studied a craft, got rich, and donated a large sum for the construction of a school and a church. Evlogi Georgiev, one of the most important patrons in Bulgaria, who, together with his brother Hristo Georgiev built Sofia University, wrote in his will: “Only my hope that I will be able to participate in the prosperity and the greatness of my country gives me the strength to peacefully."

Scholarship - BGN 2000

A ten-month scholarship of BGN 200 per month will be donated to the first ranked participants on the list who are accepted (or continue) to study higher education.

Rules and conditions

To participate you need to meet the following four requirements:

• To be in a difficult financial or disadvantaged position (raised by a single parent, foster family, or a specialized institution, young people with disabilities).
• To be under 21 years old (this condition does not apply to young people who have received a Charity Scholarship in previous years).
• You will have candidate-student exams in 2024 or you are currently a student.
• To hold success marks over a very good 4.50

Application

For young people who have received a Charity Scholarship in recent years

By 15.08.2024 you only need to confirm to us at studenti.dobrotvorchestvo@gmail.com whether you meet the requirements for a scholarship for 2024/2025. You don't need to send any documents at this point. Until 10.09.2024 we will check for how many students are provided with a scholarship and if you are among them, we will ask you to send us up-to-date documents, such as: a certificate from a university, an official income note, or a note for an unemployed parent.

For young people who have not yet received a Charity Scholarship

By 15.08.2024 you need to send us an email to studenti.dobrotvorchestvo@gmail.com containing the following information:
1. Contact information
Your full name, email address (if different from the one you are writing to us from), phone number to contact you.

2. Cover letter
The letter should include answers to the following questions:

Why do I want to get a higher education? What subject do I want to study? What would I desire to do when I graduate and why? How would my education benefit me?

For young people who are currently students, the first two questions are replaced by: Why did I decide to study at university? Why did I choose to study this particular major?

The cover letter needs to be between 500 and 1000 words in length (about 1 - 2 standard A4 pages). It will be published on the website milostiv.org. If you have already sent us a cover letter from previous years when you applied for the Charity Scholarship, you don't need to write a new letter.

3. Education documents
A success mark over a very good 4.50 is required.

• If you have graduated from school but you are not studying at a university yet, you need a copy of your high school diploma. This is sufficient to apply for the scholarship, but once you are admitted as a student, you would need to send us a document from the university certifying that you are admitted to study there.
• If you are a current student you will need notice from the university. You can send it to us before September 25, 2024.

4. A document certifying that you are in financial difficulties

• If you have lived or live in a state-supported social home or with foster parents, you need to send us an official note to prove that you live/have lived there.
• If you are socially disadvantaged you need to send us:
  • A copy of your birth certificate and a copy of the birth certificate of your siblings under the age of 18 in the family, if you have any;
  • Official note on the parents' income for the last 6 months; If there is a deceased parent - Death certificate; If one of the parents is unemployed - Official note from the Labor Office that the person is registered with them.
  • A copy of an expert decision of the TEMC / NEMC is required for young people with disabilities.

5. Photocopy of a completed and signed Declaration of Consent for processing personal data, which you can download here.

Evaluation

The chairman of the commission is Nina Pancheva-Kirkova, and its members are Radoslav Kirkov and Simeon Yordanov. In addition to the fact that the participants need to meet the above conditions, an important criterion in the selection of scholarship holders is to demonstrate their high motivation to study and realize their skills as specialists.

Donors

Scholarships are raised solely by individuals and companies. Each donor could be involved by transferring the desired amount to the bank account of the Milostiv Association, which is listed below, or, if they donate the full scholarship of one or more students, they could directly transfer the funds to the young person's account. Each donor can read the cover letters of the participants and choose for themselves which young person to help. The organizers work as volunteers. All funds collected on the account of the association will be used only for scholarships, no funds will be deducted for administrative fees or fees.

All bank transactions on the account of Milostiv Association are published at the following address - http://milostiv.org/donations

We will be happy if you have the opportunity and wish to get involved so that we can help together more young people to get an education, develop their skills and live their lives more fully, thus contributing to society.

Bank account of Milostiv Association на Сдружение Милостив в DSK Bank
IBAN: BG42STSA93001527774166
BIC: STSABGSF
Grounds: Scholarship

PayPal

PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online! Please mark "Scholarship" in the description by bank transfer or via PayPal (On the second page when donating, select the option "Description" and write "Scholarship") to know which initiative the funds should go to.

Testimonials

• "I want to express my sincere gratitude for the fact that you manage to make happy people like me, who, regardless of the obstacles are trying to cope! Thank you for everything, my mother also thanks you from the bottom of her heart, because now she feels calm for me! Your organization deserves all the blessings and thanks! I am grateful to have turned to you! Many thanks! " П.И.
• "I would like to express my sincere thanks to you and the Association for the great support through these years. I am very happy that I was part of your initiative and you were beside me in the most difficult moments of my education. Your support was very important to me. Thanks to you, I achieved many of my goals and reached the final. Thank you for lending a hand and helping people like me. Without you, I would not have succeeded! " Н.Н.
• "I don't know how or in what words to express my gratitude to you. Believe me, thanks to the scholarship you provide me, my family is very relieved." Х.Х.