One of the initiatives that will mark June 1, the International Children’s Day, in Bulgaria is the launch of an internet parents’ club.

State Agency for Child Protection (SACP) worked on the project.

Psychologists, social workers and lawyers will advise parents online, SACP chairperson Shirin Mestan said.

Mestan said that since 2001, the number of children growing up in state institutions has decreased by 30 per cent.

Over the past two years, nearly 2000 children have been accommodated in the houses of relatives, Mestan said. Only two per cent of the children living in state institutions are orphans, she said.

June 1 was celebrated as the International Children’s Day for the first time in 1949. Various initiatives throughout Bulgaria will mark the occasion this year.