The Campaign for Bulgaria's Abandoned Children (www.tbact.org ) was established in the autumn of 2007 following the broadcast of the documentary Bulgaria's Abandoned Children on BBC Four television in the UK. The Campaign is now registered as a charity in the UK, and is accepting secure online donations and donations by cheque to finance specialist care for the children of Mogilino, and to ensure that they are moved from the institution and given community-based alternative care. In the long-term, the Campaign for Bulgaria's Abandoned Children will continue its lobbying and campaigning work to ensure that all Bulgarian institutions for children with disabilities are closed down and the children's rights thoroughly respected.
The Campaign is also running two databases of volunteers willing and able to give specialist medical and/or educational help to the children. The Campaign is particularly interested in offers of help from paediatricians, child psychologists, physiotherapists, and teachers with expertise in helping children with complex needs. I would like to thank the many individuals who sent comments or emails offering their expertise.
The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee's website has posted recent updates on the situation at Mogilino: http://www.bghelsinki.org/index.php?module=pages&lg=bg&page=mogilino_news
The UK Committee for UNICEF is also raising funds for institutionalised children in Bulgaria. Details of their work and how to donate can be found at: http://www.unicef.org.uk/emergency/emergency_detail.asp?emergency=41
On 9 October 2007, the Bulgarian Mothers' Movement led a protest of civil society in the streets of Sofia. There is a petition in Bulgarian linked in the right-hand margin of this blog, and links to Bulgaria-based NGOs which accept donations.
In November 2007, two Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) asked written questions to the European Commission, calling on the Commission to begin an investigation of the conditions in Bulgaria's institutions for children and young adults with disabilities. It might be argued that the European Commission was too willing to be deferential to the Bulgarian government's stated aim of rapid deinstitutionalization of children and adults with mental disabilities in the process that culminated in Bulgaria's accession to the European Union in January 2007. A concerted lobbying effort by NGOs and MEPs is creating pressure to ensure that European institutions take heed of the urgent human rights crisis in Bulgaria's institutions. I am very grateful to Kathy Sinnott MEP and Catherine Stihler MEP for their parliamentary questions, and to the office of Liz Lynne MEP for asking how she might help further.
Links to the two European Parliament questions from November 2007 are posted below: