Foundation "St. Nicholas the Wonderworker" from the town of Dobrich aimed to create a social enterprise - a greenhouse for flower seedlings - in which the employed would be people with intellectual disabilities. With their work in the greenhouse, they would provide planting for urban areas in Dobrich.
The project was one of the five finalists in the competition "Best business plan of a non-governmental organization 2018" of the Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law.
In the spring of 2018, while waiting for a land for the greenhouse, people with disabilities planted and raised nine kinds of flowers, including petunias, verbs, gypsies, and birches. They sold 8,000 flowers.
The St. Nicholas the Wonderworker Foundation was established by parents of children with disabilities. Maria Metodieva, Chairman of the Board, says mothers and fathers are most motivated to provide employment to young people with intellectual disabilities who are segregated on the labor market. The funds for the project were raised at charity balls, from the theater performance and with the helpe of the Bulgarian Association of People with Intellectual Disabilities.
The Miracle Garden originated more than a year ago in Dobrich as a result of the longstanding work of the St. Nicholas the Wonderworker Foundation. In November 2018, the Miracle Garden received from the Dobrich municipality a terrain of nearly 4 decares. With the decision of the Municipal Council - Dobrich, the foundation received the property for free use for 10 years.
The Miracle Garden received approval as an employer in two state employment programs for people with disabilities and employs 22 people.
12 are jobs dull time, and 10 people work part time. Their work is secured for 30 months.
Young people with intellectual disabilities from the Day Care Center and from the sheltered homes work in the Miracle Garden. There flowers that had previously been grown on the roof of the Day Care Center for Disabled Adults were moved to the garden. Vegetables, fruit trees and flowers are grown in the greenhouse.
The Wonderful garden is supplied with electricity and water. The site will be equipped with a security system.
21 fruit trees are planted, and in the greenhouse - onion and garlic. In March 2019 20,000 buckets of summer flower seedlings and another greenhouse will be ready.
There is a small store opened as a part of the greenhouse.
The Miracle Garden is the first greenhouse and so far the only one in the country where people with intellectual disabilities work.
The Miracle Garden runs a model in which people with intellectual disabilities can be valuable to themselves and to society, they work and feel useful and complete. The project has a beginning, but has no end, because the garden will be amplified with other activities.
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