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According to data from a research of the State Agency for Children Protection (SACP) 2001 in Bulgaria the number of children with disabilities placed in state institutions is around 18 000, from which 11 000 children are placed at institutions of the Ministry of Education and Science, 5 400 at institutions of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and  around 1 400 children at institutions of the Ministry of Health.
Most of these children are isolated and unable to socialize due to both inaccessible environment and lack of proper integrative services in the country. The slow development of alternative services and cares for the children and the lack of support to their families leads to a great number of children abandoned in the institutions in isolation and bad living conditions.
The high degree of their institutionalization leads to strong limitation of the opportunities for good education and proper life-integration, which, on the other hand, leads to fewer chances for the disabled children to participate in the social and cultural community life.
One of the huge problems is the low quality of cares that is currently being provided in the state institutions and in schools for children with learning and physical disabilities. In spite of there are equal quality standards elaborated by the Bulgarian Government and based in the National Strategy for Equal Opportunities of the Disabled People, the parents, social, medical workers and teachers still don’t realize neither trying to diminish or formalize the problems of the children. Many parents who are of unequal socio-economic status have still low social and health awareness and do not have access to the necessary resources and opportunities. This hinders them from providing adequate support to their children and from seeking ways to overcome problems. In this respect the limited potential of the parents hinders the child adaptation and poses real danger to their further successful education and socialization. On the other hand the social and medical workers still don’t have necessary qualification and are not trained enough to provide modern methods, rehabilitation procedures and other services for the children and their parents. Furthermore, the parents themselves have lack opportunities to qualify themselves and to provide professional cares for their children. Thus the parents are unable to work due to the reason that they have to bring their children on their homes and to look after them. On the other hand the disabled children do not have enough access in general education schools because the schools buildings have many floors, no elevators and no special staircases; the service rooms are not adapted for use by the disabled children; the interior of the classrooms is inappropriate; there is no specialized transport to the schools and, on the other hand, the disabled children have limited access to the study materials because of the lack of specialized teaching methods, appropriate textbooks and trained pedagogues; there is no practice for development of individual rehabilitation plans.
The recent observation of the needs of the disabled children shows that the medical rehabilitation of the children with chronic diseases and permanent disabilities is not part of the priorities and programs of the health-care policy. The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) pays for some of the rehabilitation procedures of the people with temporary work disabilities. The medical rehabilitation of children with permanent disabilities and chronic diseases is not paid for by NHIF. There are no clinical paths for the medical rehabilitations and the children do not have access to it.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The overall goal of this project is to assist better social integration of children with heavy disabilities from the region of Vidin and to reduce the percent of marginalization in local community through establishment of decentralized day care recourse centre in the town of Vidin.
The specific objectives of the project are:
• To promote the quality of life and the dignity of children both with learning and physical disabilities and their families;
• To improve communication and collaboration between stakeholders- parents of disabled children, social workers, teachers, responsible authorities and local NGOs;
• To improve personal physical and emotional condition of the children at risk of being abandoned through providing of a qualified both medical and social care, rehabilitation procedures and occupational therapy;
• To develop individuals and potential capabilities of the children with special needs through creating of opportunities to actively participate in all spheres of the social life.
• To increase the awareness of the local community through dissemination of adequate and sufficient information;
• To increase the role of the families as a medium for development of the disabled children through providing better education and training facilities for the parents, guidance and exchange of experience and to improve their personal skills to provide better treatment and rehabilitation procedures of the children in domestic conditions
• To improve the qualification and professional skills of the involved staff in the project; 

More information is available in Bulgarian languague

DAY CARE CENTRE FOR DISABLED CHILDREN

The day care centre for disabled children is situated in the town of Vidin, Northwestern part of Bulgaria.The aim of the centre is to provide skills and support to disabled children in order to improve their self-sufficiency, self-confidence and encourage their self-expression. The centre also works closely with the community to change attitudes and misperceptions of disabilities in order to improve social conditions so that the disabled can be better integrated into their communities. The overall program goal is that the children feel that they are members of their communities and that they have valuable abilities.
The centre provides following activities
• Physiotherapy and rehabilitation procedures
• Occupational therapy
• Psychological and social counselling
• Socializing and leisure activities
• Family reintegration
• Physiotherapy and rehabilitation procedures
• Occupational therapy
• Psychological and social counselling

Contacts:

DMSGD, Bononia, 3700 Vidin, Bulgaria

Tel./Fax: +359 94 601677, +359 2 94 601 678

E-mail: dmsgd_vidin@abv.bg

Web page: dmsgd.vidaoptics.com 

More information available in Bulgarian languague