Bourgas mayor Yoan Kostadinov officiated at the April 12 opening of a new day care centre for street children.

The centre is on San Stefano Street in the Bratia Miladinovi neighbourhood. The construction of an adjoining two-storey building is under way. This building will host a community support centre. The two centres are to be united in a complex for family and social services.

The opening ceremony was attended by Deputy Ministers of Labour and Social Policy Yassen Dimitrov and Maria Tsenova, Bourgas Deputy Regional Governor Georgi Nikolchev, the head of the Bourgas police department, Colonel Pavlin Dimitrov, and Ahmed Yulker, Turkey’s consul-general in Bourgas.

Speaking at the opening, Kostadinov said that the centre was “an example of co-operation between the state and the local institutions and how together they can solve serious social problems”.

Working with children and the institution of the family was among the priorities of the municipality’s social policy, he said.

The complex will offer a wide range of social services and help at-risk children and their families. Such children are the socially disadvantaged ones, children victims of violence, children with disabilities and children from various social homes.

The complex will work against the abandoning of children and towards creating conditions for raising children in a family environment so that the number of children sent to social institutions is reduced to a minimum.

The total cost of the project and the construction work is 1 130 114 leva. The furniture and equipment cost 180 000 leva.

The social services at the complex will be provided by the National Centre for Social Rehabilitation (NCSR), which was chosen from among various bidders by a committee of representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, the State Agency for Child Protection, Bourgas municipality and its department for child protection. The value of NCSR services is 2 713 729 leva, making the total value of the project of 1 403 843 leva.

In the first year, the complex will be financed by the project Reform for Improving the Welfare of the Children in Bulgaria.

The main goal of the centre will be to assist children who live and work on the streets and to prevent them from dropping out of school. It will offer emergency help to street children, including clothes, food and shelter.

The centre’s work will include family counselling and tangible assistance for parents whose children live out on the streets. It will strive to build contact between such parents and children, and to train the parents to be better parents.

Currently, the centre is dealing with 48 cases, including 10 cases of children who beg on the streets. Eleven children are receiving help towards reintegration into their families, and a further 11 cases involve prevention of children of dropping out of schools.

On specific cases, members of the day care centre team are working with the municipality’s social institutions in Bourgas. It prepares the children so that when they reach majority and leave a social home, they will be able to look after themselves. Assistance is also given to children awaiting adoption and integration into a family environment.
 The centre will have several departments: prevention of abandoning, prevention of violence, and work with children with special needs. A 24-hour hotline will be opened for victims of violence or harassment. Educational programmes will also be offered by the centre. Children with disabilities will also be involved in the social activities of the centre.