The recent documentary ‘Bulgaria’s Abandoned Children’ showed the appalling living conditions of children living in one institution for children with disabilities.

Neglect and lack of appropriate care for these children shown by the documentary prompted urgent action by UNICEF, the Government and various NGO’s.

Currently there are over 8,000 children living in institutions throughout the country. The lack of appropriate care for children living in institutions is harming their physical and psychological development. Only 2% of children placed in institutions are orphans, the remaining are being placed in institutions primarily due to poverty. Some children would have spent all their childhood living in an institution. Another factor that contributes to the placement of children in institutions is the lack of community based social services.

UNICEF’s response to the children in Mogilino
Right now, a plan of action has been developed by the Government of Bulgaria to be implemented in partnership with UNICEF and an alliance of NGO’s.

UNICEF’s areas of support to the plan include:
The provision of emergency assistance to improve the quality of immediate care for the children currently living in the institution; support to assess the needs of each child by bringing in specialists to meet the children’s physical and psychological needs. In the long term, UNICEF will provide assistance for the assessment of the services available in the region and find appropriate alternatives of care for children including foster care.

UNICEF has requested the Government to provide additional information on the conditions of care in other institutions for children with disabilities as part of the review of residential care system.

We are currently appealing for donor’s financial support to help us deliver our plan for the children of Mogilino.

UNICEF’s response to all children living in institutions in Bulgaria
More widely, UNICEF has been working in collaboration with the Government to help and protect children living in institutions. We support the development of policies in this area and put forward recommendations to the central and local governments that manage these institutions for children.

UNICEF is currently supporting a country-wide assessment of the Child Protection Departments, the units in charge of making decisions for children at risk. The objective of the assessment is to strengthen these units to be better able to assess the needs of the child and to be able to establish alternatives to institutional care.

In addition, UNICEF is supporting a project for the development of foster care, to enable more children living in institutions to be placed in a family environment. Until now there have been a very limited number of foster families in Bulgaria.

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