“You are latter-day enlighteners – far from home you keep the Bulgarian spirit alive and pass it down the years.” With these words Minister of Education Prof. Galin Tsokov addressed the annual conference of the Association of Bulgarian Schools Abroad. Minutes later, he bestowed a new Ministry of Education award, called “Awakening”. The first holder of the statuette is Snezhina Mecheva, co-founder and spokesperson for the Association since it was founded in 2007, and long-standing headmistress of the Ivan Stanchov Bulgarian school in London.

“It is one award and it is a first, but there are many of us who deserve it,” Shezhina Mecheva said for Radio Bulgaria. “One person by themselves can do nothing, you need to have like-minded associates, as well as communication between NGOs and the government. We have done that and in many ways we are an example of how this can happen.”

Throughout her career Snezhina Mecheva has always upheld the “Bulgaria” cause:

“When you go to a foreign country you want to keep your national self-esteem. But our nostalgia should not be taken with an ironic smile, because it is in fact a huge, a sweeping emotion that makes us Bulgarian wherever we may be.”

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Snezhina Mecheva was born in Sofia and graduated Bulgarian philology from Plovdiv University. She then worked as documentary film editor for ten years. In the late 1980s, her husband got a job offer in the UK, and the whole family moved to London. But the bond with Bulgaria remained. In 1989, Snezhina Mecheva started teaching at the Bulgarian school at the Bulgarian embassy in London, and two years later became its headmistress. During her years at the school the number of children who have attended it has gone up considerably, and secondary school classes, as well as pre-school classes for the 4 to 6 year-olds have been added. 

Snezhina’s efforts were soon noticed, and she earned the 2013 Bulgarian Woman Award of the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, a Neofit Rilski honorary certificate of the Ministry of Education, a gold badge of honour of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs etc. And the last in the long line of awards is “Awakening”, which actually marks the start of a new stage in the development of the Ivan Stanchov school in London. Because, after 16 years, Snezhina Mecheva has decided to retire. She is also retiring as spokesperson for the Association of Bulgarian Schools Abroad, alongside its chairperson Dr. Irina-Boteva Vladikova. Both will remain honorary members of the Association which they co-founded.

As of August 2023, the Association of Bulgarian Schools Abroad will be chaired by Petya Tsaneva, co-founder and headmistress of the first Bulgarian Sunday school in Madrid St. Ivan Rilski.

“When you once put your heart into a cause, how can you just take it out,” says Snezhina Mecheva and adds that she will always be available to help continue the efforts of the Association. “We are an institution,” she says, and goes on that she has no worries about the Bulgarian school in London, which is marking 35 years since its establishment this year.

“Our school is among the leading Bulgarian Sunday schools around the world because we have an incredible team of professionals. With each one an expert in their field and ready to help, the puzzle always works out. The school will continue to exist because of its staff, but also because so many ambassadors, eight in number, including the current ambassador Marin Raykov, have supported us. The award I received today belongs to the school as well,” says Snezhina Mecheva and adds, emotionally, that what touched her heart most was people’s reaction when they found out she was retiring – a decision she had kept secret for a long time. “There is nothing more that I need. I am withdrawing happy, and with a full heart,” she says.

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Translated and posted by Milena Daynova

Photos: Vessela Krasteva, abgschool.org