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The winners of a student competition dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the April Uprising were announced today at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences by Vasil Vasilev, chairman of the All-Bulgarian “Vasil Levski” Committee. Children from Bulgarian schools abroad participated with 24 projects on the topic “The Coverage of the April Uprising in the Press of the Country Where You Live.” The initiative was carried out as part of the Ministry of Education and Science’s program “The Untold Stories of Bulgarians.” The event was attended by Deputy Minister of Education and Science Natalia Mihalevska, the Vice-President of BAS Prof. Emmanuel Moutafov, and Corr. Memb. Atanas Semov.
First place was awarded to the project by the “Young Revivalists” club from Spain in which the students examined newspaper articles and the reactions of Spanish politicians following the news of the outbreak of the April Uprising. Two second prizes were awarded: one went to the children from the “Rodolyubie” Sunday School in the United Kingdom who traced the descendants of Lady Emily Anne Strangford – the British woman who launched a large-scale charitable campaign in Bulgaria after the uprising was suppressed. A second prize was also awarded to the work of Catherine Milorcheva from Prague who examined reactions in the Czech press.
Third prize went to Evgen Holosten from Izmail and a student from Bucharest.
Two group awards were also presented: seventh-graders from the Bulgarian school in Vienna and to students from the school in Skopje. The organizers also announced five honorable mentions to: eleventh-grader Tatyana Stoyanova from Moldova, fourth- and fifth-graders from the school in Kingsley, UK, fifth-grader Maya Petrova from Montreal, seven-year-old Presiyan Ivanov from Athens, and to children from the Bulgarian school in Rome who researched reactions in the Vatican’s official publications.
The Vice-President of BAS Prof. Emmanuel Moutafov congratulated the organizers and participants in the competition to study the aftermaths of the April Uprising. He noted that the work of the children, who analyzed texts written 150 years ago, was remarkable.
“Bulgarian children living abroad have the privilege of seeing an idealized image of their homeland as conveyed by their parents. They are Bulgaria’s future patriots and the ones who will uphold the good name of our homeland,” Prof. Moutafov added.
Deputy Minister Natalia Mihalevska announced that all award-winning projects would be included in a printed publication and donated to the National Museum of Education in Gabrovo.
