InnovAID Program Volunteer

Bulgaria is a wonderful, beautiful, and fascinating country in the southeast corner of Europe. For millennia, it has been the transportation neck connecting Europe to Asia, Africa and the Middle East, a crossroad and melting pot for people from the entire eastern hemisphere. Home to ten UNESCO World Heritage sites, the variety of historical, cultural and natural beauty would keep even the most ardent fan busy for a lifetime.

The Bulgarian people are warm, hard working, and especially kind to foreigners. Yet the needs in this country are vast. Communism devastated Bulgarian society. Resource shortages, flight to countries offering better life opportunities, and crumbling local institutions have left Bulgarians facing many serious social and economic problems. Bulgaria is the poorest country in the European Union, with average wages only half those of the next poorest country, and less than 20% of the EU average. Schools are failing. The healthcare system is falling apart. Ninety percent of Bulgarian children are what we in the west would describe as being at risk.

In 2012, our team established the PINK Foundation to address the problems of underprivileged children and improve life trajectories for Bulgarian kids. The PINK House is a safe place where children can make new friends, learn new skills, and receive encouragement from adults. Our goal is to help them achieve a happy, healthy, and productive life through personal mentoring, after school activities, life skills training, and summer camps. Critical for this effort is introducing them to Jesus, and every child is given an opportunity to hear his story.

In 2022, the PINK Foundation is launching InnovAID, a major new program to support the healthcare system in Bulgaria. The PINK Foundation will work with local schools to train and deploy teenage volunteers in healthcare institutions around the country. This is an ambitious endeavor, and will take the better part of the next decade to achieve. We need trained nurses and other healthcare and public health oriented specialists to help us realize this dream. Do you love people? Are you looking for a challenge? Do you want to get in on the ground floor of a program that has the potential to change an entire nation?

As a Goer, your duties will be teaching skills to teens, encouraging program participants, liaising with public and private institutional partners, and organizing activities for the teenagers. In addition to your InnovAID program duties, you will participate in other PINK Foundation activities including community and family outreach, extra-curricular activities for children, outdoor adventures, English clubs, and more.