Sat, Nov 07 2009

Little House for Mogilino children to be built in Varna

Thu, Feb 05 2009 15:49 CET bySvetlana Guineva 711 Views

The first sod for the Little House, designed to accommodate children from the social care home in Mogilino, was turned in the Varna borough of Vladislavovo on February 4 2009, Bulgarian language media reported.

This is a step forward for the realisation of a joint project involving Unicef Bulgaria, Varna municipality and the Social Assistance Agency, for the re-location of mentally challenged children into a family-like environment.

When the documentary film Bulgaria's Abandoned Children, by BBC journalist Kate Blewett, was broadcast in 2007, it provoked an international storm. Gruesome images of children resembling breathing corpses rather than living beings shocked Bulgarian society as well as foreign observers. A charity campaign was launched and 1.6 million leva raised.

The budget for the building of the Little House is set at 500 000 leva. It should open by the beginning of summer 2009. Six children from Mogilino and two from local homes will be housed there as well as a support group of child-minders, social workers, a pedagogue and psychologist.

Envisioned as a comfortable and secure environment, resembling that of a family unit, life in the house will allow children to interact freely with their neighbours, make new friends and attend school.

Four more houses will be built in Rousse and Sofia.

 

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BBC to show Blewett’s sequel to documentary about Bulgaria’s Mogilino

Eighteen months after her documentary about the Mogilino children’s home in Bulgaria that caused an outcry about the treatment of the children, independent film-maker Kate Blewett has produced a sequel, to be shown on BBC4 on October 15 2009.

President: Mogilino has been transformed

Social Minister Emilia Maslarova presents her own film about the Mogilino home amid claims of improvement

Institutionalisation of children is unnecessary, claims campaigner

Leading fundraiser slams Bulgaria for the "inhumanity" of its children's homes and calls for reappraisal by government and families

Hopes for home for Mogilino children by 2009

The Unicef representative for Bulgaria, Octavian Bivol, said on July 16 2008 that he hoped that a new home for the children from the Mogilino social care home would be built by the beginning of 2009. The plight of the mentally challenged children at the Sveta Petka home in the village of Mogilino near Bulgaria's Danubian city of Rousse was exposed in September 2007 in a BBC documentary by Kate Blewett, entitled Bulgaria's Abandoned Children.

Of Mogilino and men

The sad story of the children with mental disabilities from the Sveta Petka home in Mogilino village, near the town of Rousse, became known to the public in September 2007 after BBC4 showed Kate Blewett's documentary Bulgaria's Abandoned Children. The heartbreaking images of the children shown by Blewett shook both Bulgarians and foreigners, although some questioned Blewett's objectivity. The film led to the

Five children to leave Mogilino social care home

Varna municipality would build a house for five of the children currently residing at the Mogilinо social care home in northern Bulgaria, according to the cooperation agreement signed on June 4 2008 by Varna mayor Kiril Yordanov, UNICEF and the State Agency for Social Welfare, mediapool.bg said. Varna would provide the land for the house in its remote neighborhood Vladislavovo. A total of 300 000 leva would be needed for the project, which would be spent on building the house and training staff. The money will come from the charity campaign launched by private broadcaster bTV.

TO THE EDITOR: More on the Mogilino documentary

This documentary left me very sad, and not because I feel this is a special case. It made me feel that I really wanted to do something practical to help these kids. I have been contacting organisations including TBACT (the Bulgaria's abandoned children), Unicef, the Bulgarian consulate in Australia and can confirm that Mogilino Orphanage has not been closed and many of the children are still there.

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