Mon, May 21 2012
Bulgaria plans to shut down or restructure all orphanages that do not meet the standards set by law, the country's National Council for Child Protection decided on February 26 2008, Focus news agency reported.
A working group was charged to review and analyse the legislative and institutional framework of Bulgaria's child protection system by March 15, with a view to improving child care, especially for children from risk groups.
To improve child care, Bulgaria needed greater involvement from the local authorities, according to the council, although it did not specify how that would be accomplished, saying only that it would encourage all institutions to develop new initiatives that would provide family and child care services.
The council would meet twice every year to assess the progress made in this direction, drafting reports taht would then be presented to the Cabinet.
Despite continued reform efforts to improve institutionalised child care, the number of children in Bulgarian orphanages remained big, the head of
the State Agency for Child Protection (SACP) Shirin Mestan said, as quoted by Focus news agency.
Part of the problem was that a large number of recommendations made by SACP as a result of orphanage inspections were not being implemented, she added.
Soon after Prime Minister Boiko Borissov's Cabinet was sworn in, State Agency for Child Protection head Shirin Mestan tendered her resignation.
The funding is provided under the foreign military sales programme of the US army's Program Executive Office of Simulation, Training and Instrumentation.
The UK nationals were arrested after throwing beer bottles at people after being refused entry to a restaurant that had closed for the night.
Restoration and development projects include Madara Horseman, Arbanassi fortress, Magura cave.
Simeon Saxe-Coburg and his spouse Margarita opened a new heating and insulation system at the Tsar Ferdinand Hospital for Pulmonary Diseases in Iskrets, a project implemented thanks to the Embassy of the Sovereign Order of Malta in Sofia and the Nando Peretti Foundation.
According to the law's provisions, the commission will have the power to investigate individuals without prior notification and would not require a criminal conviction in order to launch an investigation.