Abandoned children - the latest numbers

Abandoned children - the latest numbers

Mar 02 2009

by Petar Kostadinov

http://www.sofiaecho.com/2009/03/02/683294_abandoned-children-the-latest-numbers

In Bulgaria, 200 children younger than three have been abandoned since the beginning of 2009, Bulgarian news agency BGNES quoted Elka Nalbantova of the Za Nashite Detsa (For Our Children) foundation as saying on March 2 2009.

Every year about 1500 newborn babies enter social homes in Bulgaria, with an average stay of between one and three years, the foundation told a news conference.

There were about 3000 children of up to three years of age in Bulgaria’s social homes. This was evidence that the number of children being abandoned was increasing.

Nalbantova said that 70 per cent of children in social institutions were Roma. She said that 95 per cent of the mothers who had abandoned their children changed their minds after a social worker had worked with them. But this did not change the fact that Bulgaria, among all EU countries, had the largest number of abandoned children younger than three.

In 2007, the number of abandoned children under three was more than 2000. Of these, 1787 were children of single parents and 1516 of jobless parents. In 2007, only 13 children were put into the care of foster parents.

Seventy per cent of parents did not visit their children in social homes, while 20 per cent visited once a week.