Vidin and the Timok Valley

2026

In January, parcels of sweets, cosmetics and hygiene products for children up to eight in kindergartens and schools in the Vidin region and for the old people of a care home in the Bregovo municipality, given by the association together with the Romanian Cultural Centre in Vidin. The association’s president, Nicoleta Iagăru, and Father Ion were there.

Result160 parcels.

2025

In January, parcels of sweets, toothbrushes and toothpaste, notebooks and pens for the children in the children’s ward of the Vidin hospital, at the Tsvyat community centre and in the villages of Major Uzunovo, Kapitanovtsi and Negovanovtsi.

2023

In early January, hundreds of parcels of sweets for the children’s ward of the Vidin hospital, kindergartens and community centres. On 24 January, the Day of Romanian Culture, a delegation of the association, led by its president, was in Vidin; Nicoleta Iagăru’s painting exhibition was for charity, for the children of the Vidin region. In the last days of December the association’s representatives handed out Christmas gifts in Belogradchik, at the Iglika kindergarten and in the town square.

2020

From the money of the “Mărțișorul speranței” fair, 12 inhalers and two contactless thermometers for the children’s ward of the Vidin hospital. In April, during the pandemic, reusable protective masks from Caracal, on Father Ion’s initiative: 250 for Vidin town hall, the rest for organisations and institutions.

2019

On 17 January, National Culture Day was marked in Vidin for the second year, on the initiative of the director of the Romanian Cultural Centre in Vidin and of Father Ion: an exhibition of drawings by pupils from two Caracal schools at the Vidin Regional Library, 40 books given by the church to the library, and visits to schools and kindergartens in villages where Romanians live.

2018

For 26 December, 200 parcels for children: 150 for the children of the Romanians around Vidin and 50, through the Metropolis of Vidin, for ethnic Bulgarian children. A team from IBM Romania helped with donations, and the Romanian Cultural Centre in Vidin was to receive a computer and a printer.

2017

On 17 June, at the consecration of the chapel of Saint Luke the Surgeon and Saint Petka at the Sveta Petka hospital in Vidin, the Metropolis of Vidin named Father Ion among its notable donors and awarded him the Order of Antim I; believers from Caracal were at the service too. On 26 December Father Ion took gifts to 60 children of Vlach-Romanian origin, to a Bulgarian village and to the paediatric ward of Vidin County Hospital.

2016

On 28 May a team of doctors and nurses from the Caracal hospital, led by Father Ion, did free blood tests in Vidin cathedral and then gave the Metropolis of Vidin a blood-sugar meter. At Christmas, gifts for the children of the Timok Valley, for the paediatric ward of the Vidin hospital and for the Romanian Cultural Centre in Vidin.

ResultAlmost 100 people had their blood tested.

2015

In the summer of 2015, on a pilgrimage to the relics of Saint Kiril, Father Ion and his parishioners decided to help build a canopy for them; on 28 October the Bulgarian Patriarchate gave him a casket with relics of Saint Kiril, placed in the hospital church. At Christmas the gifts of the “Zâmbește!” campaign also reached the children of the Romanian community in Vidin.