Lodge Professor Asen Zlatarov, Lodge Zahari Stoyanov At the beginning of 2018, brother Ivan from the Asen Zlatarov lodge was impressed by the BNT documentary film about the Bulgarian minority in Albania and in particular about the Bulgarians living in the villages in the Gora area, located on the border of Albania with Kosovo and Macedonia. He met the Brethren from the lodge in construction. We were all interested in the information provided. No one in the lodge had suspected that in a relatively distant and hard-to-reach location, after so many years and past historical and political events, there was a corner that had preserved so much Bulgarianness. All this happened practically without any support from Bulgaria and despite the assimilation processes that took place starting from the 14th century and continuing until now. The people living there had preserved the Bulgarian, in spite of everything. I hope you are aware of the fact that since October 12, 2017, the Bulgarian minority has been included in the Constitution of the Republic of Albania. After the construction, it was decided to start an initiative to help 3 schools in the district with furnishing computer rooms, starting with one school as a pilot to check if the initiative works and then continue with the others. The charity campaign was focused in the field of education and aimed at children. A slow and painful collection of funds for the implementation of the initiative began. We used all known and unknown methods. At first we raised funds for each lodge through the widow's bag. Collection was slow due to poor attendance and the ensuing covid pandemic. Funds were also collected from personal donations of the Brothers. In joint rituals with other lodges we explained our cause and all the brother guests readily assisted us. It's probably a mistake, but we didn't make the initiative public enough. In 2021, some of the brothers from the Asen Zlatarov Lodge separated into a separate lodge and took the patent of the Zahari Stoyanov Lodge. Without this being essential for the initiative, the two lodges continued the activities for the common goal. During this period, we did not waste time, but engaged in accompanying organizational activities. Brother Ivan contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, respectively, the ambassador and the secretary of the embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria in the Republic of Albania. After the Covid pandemic ended, attendance at the lodge increased and fundraising improved accordingly. Brother Mike from South Africa joined the lodge. Understanding about the donation being prepared, he proposed and organized several initiatives to help the idea Charity auctions for a bottle of liquor for the brethren of both lodges Qatar World Cup Raffle - You may have noticed the opening of the ticket envelopes at the Ignazden Lodge at Klub 2008 Charity poker tournament - Brethren from the Venerable Mother Zarya Lodge also took part in the tournament. In addition to their participation in the tournament, they provided us with an additional donation. The conditions of the tournament were that 50% of the proceeds would be allocated to the prize fund and the other half to the classrooms in Albania. In full spirit of Masonic charity, the brother who won the tournament donated the prize. The poker tournament was the last stage of the fundraising for the furnishing of the computer room in the first school. At the end of March, we had enough money for one computer room and additional funds left to start a second one. The computers were installed and handed over to MFA representatives to travel smoothly as diplomatic mail. This fact once again shows the good cooperation with the institutions, for which we are very grateful. We have decided that the appropriate time for the delivery of the computers is probably the beginning of the school year - September 15th. In the meantime, we established a relationship with the company "Nasha Gora" and its representative Fisnik Khoxha (physics teacher at Sofia School). This company, with its own funds, has been helping in recent years to maintain the Bulgarian language in villages with Bulgarian self-awareness. Since September 15th turned out to be a politically inconvenient day to ship the equipment, we decided to do it on September 22nd The delivery was carried out by three brothers - Ivan Rosen and me. We were traveling on the Sofia-Skopje-Tirana route. Passing through Tirana was imperative because the Bulgarian ambassador to Albania, Ivaylo Kirov, wanted to meet us personally. On the morning of September 22, we visited the Bulgarian embassy for a meeting. The ambassador and his deputy briefed us in a friendly conversation about where we were going and what to expect. They noted that no matter what they tell us, without seeing things live, we will not understand anything about the lives of these people. They said that if we go alone, probably no one will meet us because they don't know us. We drove towards Zapod in two cars - the embassy car in which the computers were loaded, driven by the deputy ambassador Asen Panchev, and our car. After the difficult escape from the city, we drove along a perfect highway towards the northern town of Kukes. The road to the West Shortly after the town, we turned off the road and continued on a rocky road. Due to the quality of the road and the large unevenness, we traveled the last 8 kilometers in an hour and thirty minutes. The ascent to the West The villages in this mountainous region look more like hamlets and are quite sparsely built up. Other cars were passing along the road, which was quite difficult and slow to move. All the people we met gave us a friendly greeting. We climbed until we reached above the level of the clouds, as can be seen in the pictures After the difficult climb we reached Zapod. Shortly before the village, a representative of the "Nasha Gora" society, who had studied in Bulgaria and graduated from UNSS, was already waiting for us. He suggested that we continue on foot because at the end the road was quite problematic. Walking through the clouds or fog, the school building of the village of Zapod appeared before us. Surprisingly, the building was two-story, apparently recently built and white. Definitely the largest building in the village and the surrounding area. There were many children in front. The principal and the entire teaching staff were waiting for us on the school steps. I guess you can guess that the welcome was quite warm. Despite the warning that the women in the village would remain hidden from us, all the female teachers were on the line. We were ushered into the teacher's room – a vast room with a huge meeting table. We were treated to coffee (Turkish) and soft drinks. In addition to the school staff, the representative of the municipality responsible for education, a municipal councilor, an employee of the municipality responsible for the upcoming population census, and a representative of the "Nasha Gora" association were also in the room. The principal introduced the school and the teaching staff. He told us that the school teaches children from grades 1 to 12 from the entire district. The students in this school are over 180. There are 4 other schools in the district that are up to 8th grade, each with over 100 children. They have a school bus that transports the children from the most remote villages and hamlets. In the teacher's room We were informed that from that day the census of the population of the Republic of Albania began, and that by our coming without our prior knowledge, we had hit the right moment. Seeing real help for the school from Bulgaria, there is a high probability that local residents will declare their Bulgarian origin. Loading and unloading activities I want to point out that the three of us were the only people in costume. We also introduced ourselves as "Zahari Stoyanov" Society with an Ideal Purpose, so as not to cause unnecessary tension. We explained that this is not a one-time donation, but we have serious intentions to supply computers to the other schools in the district as well as to help in any way we can. In the computer room The director shared that the big problem for the school at the moment is Bulgarian language teachers to start teaching Bulgarian in extracurricular forms, so that the Bulgarian tradition can continue to be preserved. The deputy ambassador and the representative of the Ministry of Education of Albania shared that they are working together in this direction by sending students and teachers to Bulgaria to study and then teach Bulgarian. In the current year, 5 people are being trained in Bulgaria, and the ambition for next year is to become 12. Some of those present in the teacher's room were also the next participants in this training. The director of the school, representative of the Association "Nasha Gora" and a teacher is the ethnographic museum housed in a room of the school. The hosts asked if we would agree that one of the donated computers should be for the director (he had no computer until now), one for the regional representative of the Ministry of Education, one for the municipal councilor (through whom the census process goes) and one for the organization that supports Bulgarian traditions, the Society. Nova Gora". Apparently these computers were badly needed and we agreed. After the ceremonial part, we moved the computers and peripherals to the new computer room, of course with the help of the local people. We checked their functionality. We could not fully install the classroom because there were only two sockets in the room intended for this. In addition to the lack of contacts, we were impressed that there was no internet access. After completing the activities we were invited to continue the friendly conversation at the local cafe/pub. We were treated to mostly locally produced products. We were shown video recordings of celebrations in the village with folk dances and costumes. They shared that many people and statesmen passed through the village and promised various things and then no one met their eyes. It turned out that they did not believe that someone would donate computers for the needs of the school, and this is the reason why they did not pay for Internet access at the moment. This also explains the haste of Deputy Ambassador Asen Panchev during the trip - people simply did not believe that we were coming. It turned out that the donation we have made so far is the largest in the region. In front of the pub with Deputy Ambassador Asen Panchev and the representative of the "Nasha Gora" Association We parted as friends with hope for future meetings. We went down the now familiar stony road amidst wonderful mountain views. Near Kukes, we also parted ways with Deputy Ambassador Asen Panchev. In the pub with the Director of the school, a representative of the "Nasha Gora" Association, an employee from the municipality and people from the village. A view under the clouds After the visit Two weeks later, the deputy ambassador sent us a video from the director's Facebook profile with the already working computer room and the children already studying computer science not only on paper. At the population census in the district, over 80% of those living in the municipality identified themselves as Bulgarians. What's next Furnishing 4 more schools with computer rooms. Assisting with monthly school internet access fees. Help as much as we can for the study of the Bulgarian language. Provision of school supplies. Assisting with trainings on various topics according to the competencies of the brothers of the lodge. General care for the education of some wonderful Bulgarian children living far from Bulgaria and not tempted by new technologies.
GRAND LODGE OF 
