site.bta12th Bulgarian Christmas Charity Campaign Raises Almost Lv 2 Mln

12th Bulgarian Christmas Charity Campaign Raises Almost Lv 2 Mln

Sofia, March 9 (BTA) - The 12th annual Bulgarian Christmas
charity campaign has collected nearly two million leva in
support of children with congenital diseases. The charity
campaign is held under the patronage of President Rosen
Plevneliev and the results of this year's campaign were
presented at the Presidency on Monday.

A total of 1,336,500 leva have been donated via bank transfer
between November 1, 2014 and March 6, 2015. The text message
donations amount to 628,300 leva and cost one lev each.
Donations are accepted year-round.

As of March 6, the President's Administration has received a
total of 390 applications for assistance to children. Around 73
per cent are for rehabilitation therapy, while close to 12 per
cent of applications were for medical therapy. A total of 24
health care establishments from across the country have applied
for medical equipment assistance.

The campaign's expert council held its first meeting on February
23 to review the applications and has decided to provide 34,600
leva to 42 children suffering from various congenital diseases
and in need of rehabilitation therapy.

Over 350 companies and organizations have made donations, while
the individual donors are over 2,000. Over 70 schools have
joined the campaign this year, says President Plevneliev's Chef
de Cabinet Ekaterina Zaharieva.

The purpose of the Bulgarian Christmas campaign is to help with
the treatment, medical therapy and rehabilitation therapy of
children suffering from the most common congenital diseases,
such as heart defects, metabolic disorders, congenital
malformations of the respiratory and nervous systems.

Over 25 million leva have been collected by the Bulgarian
Christmas campaign since its establishment. The initiative has
helped 2,433 children with 6.5 million leva, while the remaining
funds were used to purchase medical equipment for 200 pediatric
clinics across the country.