On April 24, Albena Atanasova, Sofia's deputy mayor in charge of healthcare, the integration of disabled people and social activities, announced the launch of the alternative social service programme “Assistance for independent life”.

The campaign, overseen by Sofia municipality, will initially serve 251 disabled people in Sofia. In 2008, three million leva will be spent on the programme, city spokesperson Tsvetanka Krusteva told The Sofia Echo.

The programme allows for carers to look after disabled people. The disabled person is able to choose his assistant but up to five different people are allowed to care for one disabled person over a 13 hour period, Krusteva said.

The programme is intended to help people who want to be active during the day. Hence it serves disabled children as well as young people who want to work and meet people and enjoy life outside. The idea is not to provide home help to the disabled person but rather that assistants support the person in their trips outside. Hopefully, parents of disabled children will be able to work while an assistant takes care of their child, Krusteva said.

Out of the 251 current beneficiaries of the programme, 100 are currently children. More than 90 per cent of the clients can no longer work or they have very serious disabilities.

It is also possible for a relative to perform this service, as many disabled people prefer their family to assist them in their everyday needs. In such cases the family member is, technically, employed by the municipality. All 622 assistants are employed on civil contracts. Young people and university students are eligible to become assistants to disabled people.

Many disabled people have expressed interest in having an assistant but so far the city can only afford to help 251 people. Disabled individuals who are interested have to apply to social bureaus and present a document from the Territory Expert Doctors’ Commission (known as TELK in Bulgarian). Afterwards the disabled individual is included in the “Assistant for independent life” programme. All disabled people in Bulgaria have to do undergo TELK consultations. In some cases, according to Krusteva, this makes no sense because the condition of some of the disabled people does not change, Krusteva said. However, this is a requirement from the state, not the municipalty.

The money for the “Assistant for independent life” programme comes from the 2007 budget because the programme was proposed last year but not approved. After disabled children were added to its list of beneficiaries, the programme was approved, Krusteva said. In January 2008 new regulations within this programme was approved, when relatives of disabled people were allowed to participate.

Other programmes currently operating include the National Programme for Social Assistance, which also provides money for “Assistant for independent life” but looks after other people in need.

The city hopes that the service provided by the new programme will help to create extra provision for those in need.