SINCE its establishment at the end of 2004, the Government Fund for Treatment of Children has received 63 applications. Around 30 of them have already been considered and 19 children have been sent for expensive treatment abroad. It has been fully paid for by this fund.
The sum provided so far totals 1.7 million leva.
The fund was approved by the Government in October 2004 and was set up in December of the same year.
The idea behind it was to establish a body which would manage and distribute budget funds and donations for the diagnosing and treatment of children abroad.
According to Health Ministry statistics, between 50 and 60 children a year need treatment abroad that cannot be provided in Bulgaria. This mostly involves transplantations, eye, cancer and orthopedic operations.
According to the then-Deputy Prime Minister Lydia Shuleva, the goal of the fund was to solve the serious issue concerning the expensive treatment of Bulgarian children that cannot be covered by the state Health Insurance Fund.
“Then the payment of additional sums is necessary, but such sums are not affordable to the Bulgarian citizens,” Shuleva said then. “For this reason we decided to set up this fund, with the idea to unite in this effort all citizens and the state.”
In an interview with the 24 Chassa daily in January 2005, Shuleva said that the Cabinet members were going to give 50 leva every month from their salaries as a donation to the fund.
She said that anyone who wished to do so was free to state their wish to have a certain sum deducted from their salaries in front of their employers and accountants.
“The sum can be minimal – 50 stotinki or one lev if one wishes so,” she said. “Such a tradition exists in almost all European countries for various causes but still does not exist in Bulgaria.”
She said that the donations to the fund would be tax-free and would be automatically recognised as expenses.
According to Shuleva, it was also possible to make a one-time donation and it would also be deducted from tax owed, as long as there was a document certifying that the money had been transferred to the account of the fund.
“It is a matter of personal choice,” she said.
The Public Council was set up at the beginning of December 2004, by Government decision, to consider the applications of the families of the sick children. The 11-member council was approved by then-Health Minister Slavcho Bogoev.
Dr Ivan Chernozemski from the National Specialised Hospital for Active Treatment of Cancer was appointed as chairperson of the council. Shirin Mestan from the Agency for Child Protection was appointed as his deputy. Dr Nikolai Dobrev, a surgeon from the Pirogov Hospital in Sofia, was appointed as director of the fund. Other members include representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, the Finance Ministry, the Bulgarian Pediatric Association, the Health Insurance Fund, the Health Ministry, the Bulgarian Red Cross, the Aid for Charity in Bulgaria foundation and two journalists from Bulgarian National Television and Bulgarian National Radio.
The council meets at least once a month and all its decisions are approved by a two-thirds majority. As a part of its activities the fund also invites specialists and makes contacts with various hospitals across the world where the treatment of children can be provided.
It has also contacts with various public, economic and state organisations and has several consultants, who are mediators in the contacts with various hospitals and consult the council on various cases.
According to official regulations for the work of the Public Council, however, parents or legal guardians can apply only for funding for children who were under 18 by the date on which the fund was established, December 14, 2004.
The applications have to be accompanied by a positive statement from the Commission for Treatment Abroad (CTA), a recommendation by the CTA hospital, and a release contract signed by the applicants that the fund can publish the name of the child and the sum they received.
The applications are considered in the order they are received and the applicants should receive an answer not later than 14 days after the Public Council has made a decision.
The initial subsidy provided by the Government was 5 million leva, but since the start of the campaign in January 2005 private entities and companies had donated 612 246.39 leva by June. Some of the donors were making donations on a monthly basis.
In June 2005, Bulgarian-language media reported that in accordance with the Electoral Act, the election deposits made by parties and coalitions who did not gather at least one per cent of the votes, would go towards the sick children’s fund.
According to the same reports, the sum from party deposits going towards the fund totaled 365 000 leva.
Government Fund for Treatment of Children
Correspondence address:
Sofia 1000
5 Sv. Nedelya Square
Phone: 952 69 43
Fax: 952 69 42
e-mail: cfld@mh.government.bg
Central office:
15 Akademik Ivan Geshov Blvd.
Floor 11, room 20
Donations can be made to:
Bulgarian National Bank –
central branch
Bank code: 6619661-1
Bank account: 3000128907
BIN: 730201000-1
The money should not be taken directly to the BNB, but transferred through commercial banks. Please, also leave an address for contact.
