Foster homes and kids in institutions

There are thousands of children in Bulgaria currently in institutions for children. For too long the problem was overlooked both by the government and the people, maybe until a documentary exposed the conditions under which the children live in such institutions, especially the children with special needs.

Since then a lot of things changed. Today we have a plan for the take out of all the children from the institutions and placing them into foster or other types of homes. It has been known for quite a long time that institutions are the worst place for kids and they need an environment as close to the family one, in order to develop healthily and normally.

And even though we are on the right track, there’s a lot of work to be done and a long road ahead. There are very big challenges in front of foster parenting for example. As you might know our country is the poorest in the EU, and so it is very difficult for such social programs to survive, because of the low funding they have.

And here comes the role of the citizens and of the business in the process. We – the people and the organizations, should help with as much as we can, in order for the plan to be accomplished, and kids to be moved out of the institutions. There are many companies today that donate and organize charity campaigns, such as the telecom Mobiltel, as well as many people like the publisher Svetlio Kantardzhiev. If you want to donate, you can do it through a foundation, but be careful, because there are just a few you could trust to – one of them is “For our children” foundation, which works in Bulgaria for more than two decades now and has helped many children.

Foster care is the future, and I think we should really try do the best we can.