On 8 March, the pupils of the Bulgarian Sunday School "Ivan Vazov" in Paris and their fathers have prepared a special programme to celebrate International Women's Day. Thousands of kilometres away from their homeland, mothers will be recognised for their commitment.

"It is not easy to instil love for the Bulgarian language in a child living abroad in a non-Bulgarian-speaking environment, even if the child was born in Bulgaria. This is the mission of the Bulgarian mother - to succeed in preserving the Bulgarian language, because it is the root of everything else - traditions, culture and identity," Yaneta Dimitrova, Deputy Head of Ivan Vazov Sunday school told Radio Bulgaria.

And that's why today all mothers whose children attend the Ivan Vazov Bulgarian school in Paris will be in for a nice and sweet surprise - a special "For Mum" party.

In addition to reciting and singing songs for their mothers, the children have prepared special gifts - personally handmade greeting cards and flowers provided by the school management.

The second part of the celebration will be remarkable. "It is also a surprise for our colleagues. Bulgarian poems dedicated to women will be read by the fathers of our students," said Yaneta.

"I have chosen fathers of either French or Bulgarian nationality, nine in all. They rehearsed in secret during the school holidays, which end for us today. Nobody knew about it, except a few dedicated ladies whom I couldn't do without. At the end of the programme, these fathers will come out and recite poems by Peyo Yavorov, Nikola Vaptsarov, Elizaveta Bagryana, Georgi Konstantinov, Evtim Evtimov, Nedyalko Yordanov. One of the Frenchmen dedicated a personal poem to his wife, written in Bulgarian.