Lyutenitsa making is never just about making lyutenitsa — especially when we combine it with the 10th anniversary of the first Baba Residence (2015, Central Rhodopes, four villages).
We invited residents from all years since the Residence came into being in its various forms (volunteer, social enterpreneurial, artistic, multidisciplinary) and we put together a beautiful reflection on what we have achieved with our rural-urban community and a plan for future rural meetings – because they are necessary for maintaining a community that is actually rare in its shared goals and values.
We combined the occasion with the process of developing a pilot initiative under the framework of a large Interreg project ELEVATE (read more about it below), with which we are considering organizing short expert residencies to resolve specific rural issues, reported by local communities.
To validate the direction with the people we work with and for the prosperity of the villages, we invited representatives of the chitalishte (social-cultural community center), the townhall, and the rural community to the lyutenitsa-making event. We invited them, but in fact we were the guests – our hosts were the community of Oslen Krivodol and the Volunteer House, supported by Kiril Nachev and Nevena Yovcheva from Oslen Fest and local residents.
Mayor Roman Ivanov joined our discussions and took the time to give us a guided tour of the natural surroundings of Oslen, telling us about part of their Roman past. Unfortunately, we also witnessed dried-up or drying-up springs there.
Diana Ivanova from the Razvitie 2022 Chitalishte once again contributed to making our meeting a heartfelt one, through organizing our snacks to be provided by three elderly women from the village.
We received yet another confirmation that we are on the same page when it comes to understanding what decentralization and participatory approach to the “population” (opposite of depopulation) of villages mean!
The bigger picture beyond lyutenitsa
In addition to the one-year production process based on the results of “Baba Residence” 2024 with a creative-tourism focus, this year we also launched another major three-year challenge – our participation in partnership consortium in the ELEVATE project under the Interreg program for the Danube region, together with 17 other partners from 11 countries and 13 associated partners. We are the main representative in Bulgaria.
The main goal of this large consortium is to form strong and lasting cooperation between the public, private, and civil sectors to cultivate more inclusive communities in the respective countries, with a focus on the active participation of older people and people with disabilities in community life. Here we contribute with our “Baba Residence” experience!
Each local initiative in the final stage of the project (end of 2027) will feed into the creation of a collective strategic document containing proposals for policy changes regarding decentralization and the well-being of older people and people with disabilities.
Keep a close eye on us in 2026, when we will take the next step —organizing an expert residency that will feed observations and insights into the above mentioned strategic document.