site.btaHead of Association of Bulgarians in Braila Says Young People Went to Study in Sofia and Never Returned

Maria Gancheva is the head of the Hristo Botev Association of the Bulgarians in Braila, Romania. In front of a memorial plaque dedicated to the establishment of the first Bulgarian Literary Society, which later grew into the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), she interprets for a large Bulgarian delegation of diplomats, academics and journalists who have come to celebrate 155 years of BAS in Braila as part of the 19th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media, organized by BTA.

"I was born in Braila on April 29, 1948. When I was a child, only Bulgarian was spoken in my family. I remember that when I went out in the street to play, my aunt would tell me to speak Romanian, otherwise I wouldn’t get along with the children. Well, I got along with the children," Gancheva told BTA in an interview. 

Her father was the director of the Bulgarian school in Braila, and her mother - a Bulgarian from Bolhrad.

"At university I studied French, Romanian and Bulgarian. I specialized in Bulgarian because there were courses in Sofia for Bulgarians from abroad. Unfortunately, today I have no one to talk to. Young people have very little interest in Bulgarian. They are interested in getting out of here. Young people went to study in Sofia and didn't come back," she said. 

Her children are also far away - her son is in Munich and her daughter in Cluj. 

"We are very few, we have grown old," says Maria, adding that in 1999 there were 100 people in the Hristo Botev Association of Bulgarians in Braila and today there are half that number.