Not invalids

State care for special needs children has always been generally poor, not only in Bulgaria but throughout Eastern Europe and the Balkans. "The staff don’t see them as people, but as a substandard species who are fine with food and water," said Judith Klein of the Open Society Foundation’s Mental Health Initiative in Budapest, a Karin Dom funder, quoted in a December 2008 interview with the International Herald Tribune.

Thankfully, Karin Dom is a world away from state care homes. Each child in the centre is regarded as a unique individual and a valuable member of society with special talents, not a "problem" to be shut away in a corner of a cold and impersonal state institution. Dedicated staff work with the children, offering them an individual therapy plan.

With the voluntary help of British professionals, working principles were introduced, then novel for Bulgaria. These included early intervention, team work, individual programmes for children based on the Montessori principle that each child finds his or her natural vocation, partnership with parents, children’s rights and social inclusion. The term "children with special needs" was introduced  to replace the terms "invalids" and "non-educable children".

Resources at Karin Dom are limited but Stancioff tries to ensure that its staff is adequately remunerated. A team of 25 Bulgarian specialists work throughout the year, except in August. They include a social psychologist and social worker, physiotherapists, special needs teachers, a paediatrician, assistant teachers, speech therapists and a music teacher.

Staff provide services at the Karin Dom Centre but also visit schools and kindergartens and make home visits. The centre has also introduced other schemes for example, paying a nominal fee to retired "babas" to visit the homes of children with special needs and help out. According to Stancioff, the work done for children is a combination "of hand and heart".

Independence
Children at Karin Dom, like all their peers, particularly love music and dancing. "Everyone responds to music. The children may seem half asleep but they light up as soon as music comes on," says Stancioff,  who laughs when he relates how one of the girls wanted to dance with him. Look at the photos and you see how even the most introverted child comes alive at the sound of a violin, a guitar or flute.

Every child at Karin Dom has their own story to tell. A video on the Karin Dom site tells the story of Ellie, a 13-year-old cerebral palsy sufferer who has attended Karin Dom since she was two years old. At that point she couldn’t walk, sit or stand. A woman named Maggie has been her physiotherapist for 11 years. Now, thanks to Maggie’s hard work, Ellie lives at home with her mother. She attends normal school and has made many friends.

Unfortunately, many children with cerebral palsy in Bulgaria are placed in institutions where there’s little expectation they will become in any way independent. Sadly, too, parents often separate when they have a child with special difficulties. The contrast between the dream and the "problem" reality can be too much for some relationships to stand.
Karin Dom’s ultimate aim is to "de-institutionalise" the children in its care, standard practice in the West but, unfortunately, rare in the Balkans. Karin Dom also advises parents on how to care for children at home so they do not need to send them to institutions.

Many successful stories testify to the centre’s credit, some detailed on Karin Dom’s website. The following grateful comment is typical. "I wish to thank the Karin Dom Centre for the care given to my five-year-old son Daniel who has cerebral palsy. His care programme has made him calm and confident in his relationship with his peers and with adults. The physiotherapy has been very successful and he’s developing well," says Tatyana Atanasova.

Karin Dom may not be able to help as many children as it would like to, but those it has helped have happy accounts. There is, it would seem, hope of erasing the shameful legacy of Mogilino.

*Karin Dom Foundation is a member of The European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD). To find out more about Karin Dom, please visit their website at http://karindom.org/