Bulgarian socialite

Konstantsa Lyapcheva (1887-1944) was a socialite, involved in charity activities for unprivileged children (refugees, orphans, etc.). In the 1930s she was the first woman to actively engage with issues such as human trafficking, domestic violence, child protection. She was the chairwoman of the Union for the Protection of Children of Bulgaria until the very end. She was a member of almost all other charitable organizations of Sofia, in many of them – as part of the management body. There is no area of social welfare in which she did not taken part. Thanks to Konstanza, the activities of raising and educating children became the subject of law and received legislative protection, and motherhood was recognized as an extremely important social function. Upon her initiative, in 1927, June 1 was celebrated as Children’s Day for the first time. She founded the first shelter homes for children in distress, for the training of social workers, summer camps and playgrounds.