Tell me a little about Bulgarian Mothers’ Movement (Движение на българските майки). What do you do?

Bulgarian Mothers’ Movement (BMM) is a non-profit organisation, a foundation. For about the past year,  we’ve been dealing with various orphanages and children’s social homes around the country. Children at  these homes are of all ages. When they’re out of the home (usually at 18 years old), we help them to  continue in their fate, helping them find places to live, to get a job or job training. They usually go to  transition homes.

Our organisation helps them, sometimes in finding work. BMM is all volunteers. We hold bazaars and do  other things to raise money.

How did BMM get started?
It was founded by two women, Rossitsa Boukova and Mariya Mileva, who together had started to go to an  orphanage, and saw the conditions and the needs and started to talk about what they saw and did (at the orphanage) with other women on a dir.bg forum. This eventually led to the creation of BMM (established in February 2005), and mothers from all over Bulgaria joined. Not only Sofia, but also from Plovdiv,  Rousse...

And how did you decide to work with orphanages?
Basically, we were mothers who know each other from the BG-Mamma forum. We gather clothing, nappies,  push-carts, everything necessary for children.

How did you make contact with the children’s homes and such?
We go directly to the location to make contact, with the people there, with the directors, with staff. We  depend on personal contact, conversations with the directors, to see what they need, to see if society  needs to be alerted of something that’s going on.

What is the situation of children in orphanages in Bulgaria?
It’s often very bad. Attitudes towards them are very bad. These are children with disabilities. They do not have proper care; they’re underfed, ignored or overlooked in the social homes.

Yesterday (October 9), we led a protest in front of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. There were a good number of us – mothers, members of the Bulgarian Association Adopted Children and Adoptive Parents (Българската асоциация “Осиновени и осиновители”), parents of children with disabilities. They invited a  representative delegation into the ministry to talk with the deputy minister (Ivanka Hristova). A huge list of requests was presented, too large to detail out here.

I’ve heard that you’re involved with the cause for the home for disabled children in Mogilino and  aftermath of the BBC documentary on it. Would you tell me about the situation there?
To say what the situation is you have to see the film  (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9176914173325307126); it’s in English.

We have not done anything with Mogilino yet, but there are mothers in Rousse, and we want to do something  concrete for these children. To have better doctor care for a start. I have just come to understand that  in two weeks, there will be an appearance before the European Parliament to see what the state’s  willingness is to work on improving the situation in such homes.

What do you think led to the current situation of orphanages in Bulgaria?
All things considered, despite the changes that they are doing as regards children’s homes (as of the  beginning of 2007, orphanages for older children are being decentralised; the same will start for homes for younger children in 2008. This means that they become municipality-run, not Government-at-large run, and many such facilities in remote areas are being consolidated and relocated into larger towns and cities), there are still homes deep in the middle of nowhere. It’s mostly villagers who work at such facilities. Specialists do not want to go there to work – pay is very low. The children there basically vegetate.

Most people don’t care. These children need to be in larger cities, to be among people, with good care, not only from doctors, but also from psychologists, teachers, people specialised in the field of caring for these children’s needs.

And the future?
We have much hope that the state institutions will listen to people who are at these location, and to bring about a change in society’s attitude towards these children, to love them like they’re our children, because they are our children – Bulgaria’s children. We want the institutions to listen to our advice, and for some fundamental changes to be made.

How can people help?
No one should remain without an opinion on the matter. All should have a position. Everyone can do something, even if it’s little. People hold negative views of these children (in orphanages and with disabilities). They think they’re worthless.

For more information on BMM, go to dbm.bg-mamma.com. For more on the BBC documentary, go to bbc.co.uk and  search “Mogilino”.