site.btaBulgaria Shuts Down Its Largest Care Home for Children with Disabilities

Bulgaria Shuts Down Its Largest Care Homefor Children with Disabilities

Sofia, January 10 (BTA) - Bulgaria's largest social care home for children with disabilities was shut down, giving its 90 young occupants a chance for a better future, the State Agency for Child Protection (SACP) said.

For more than 65 years, the home in the northeastern village of Kroushari, named after St Nicholas the Miracle Maker, provided shelter to children with serious mental and physical disabilities. Its closure marks the end of more than five years of efforts by government institutions and the non-governmental sector to shut down all 24 residential institutions for children with disabilities in Bulgaria.

The process of closing the Kroushari home began in 2010, when it had 93 occupants, most of them in a seriously impaired state of health, living between four walls, confined to their beds and cut off completely from the outside world, lagging behind in their development. Under a project called "Childhood for All," a SACP team assessed the individual needs of each kid and prepared them to leave the institutional environment.

Since the beginning of 2014, the preparations for the children's relocation were coordinated between the SACP, the Social Assistance Agency, Kroushari Municipality and the Lumos Foundation. The experience amassed in Kroushari and the results which have been achieved there show that the adverse effects of institutional child-raising can be overcome to a large degree if the children are treated with care, warmth and patience and are given a sense of security through a proper emotional bond with an adult.

Now, the former occupants of the Kroushari home live in family-type residential centres or protected homes in Dobrich, Varna, Veliko Turnovo, Rousse, Silistra, Provadia, Shoumen, Stara Zagora, Pleven, Plovdiv and Lovech. Some of them attend ordinary schools and use local health and social services.