A Social Responsibility Project: The Reformatoires of the Danubian Province

The first of the Ottoman. reformatories, which was identified with, the:name "Midhat Pasha", was established in Nish. Abondoned and parentless children were the first to be accepted to these reformatories, but ex, tremely poor kids, staying with one of their parents, were. also. accepted Those children who were found guilty and. sentenced to penalties, irk accordance:with the regulations of the government were placed in a special part. of the reformatory so as to, serve. their sentences:. This institution; thus, stated to have been. recorded as, "reformatory" in various socurces is also accounted to have been named, upon inspiration by one of the Qur'anic versus, by Midhat Pasha. Following the opening of the first reformatory in. Nish :and take creation of the Danubian Province in the region, new reformatories were opened in Ruse and (Sofia. And shortly afterwards, a separate reformatory for girls was set up in Ruse. To acquire professional skills for the children, for boys in particular, was the chief purpose in admission to reformatories. Boys were thought bathe lessons by different teachers on the Thais of their religion. Thus, they acquired the abilities of reading :and writing on mother language, learned the basics of mathematics and re-dived a moral and religious education. As for girls, they were asked to :learn Bulgarian and Turkish by their coreligionist teachers and French by a foreign female male teacher. These institutions, in which, apart from these basic lessons, girls learned,sewing and needlework and playing piano, aimed at a-a-Tiring a good training for little girls. The sources of income Tor the expenses of these reformatories, Which were the products Of the cooperation between state and society and became prestigious institutions in the course of time, were rents from public institutions immovable goods, fees paid for the "ihzariye" certificates, gains from the export Of the articles produced in reformatories and grants from statesman and common people. In this way these institutions managed to carry on their activities and succeded in training numerous craftsmen so as to sustain their lives and became influential in the spread of similar reformatories to 'Istanbul and other Ottoman provinces.