ABANDONED CHILDREN OF BULGARIA

My goal is to raise awareness of the crisis in Bulgaria and to bring about social policy change so that physically and mentally challanged children and young adults can live with dignity in community based care. Your active support is vital and by signing this petition there will be hope for these innocent human beings.

Please pass this on to as many people possible.
Thanks

My goal is to raise awareness of the crisis in Bulgaria and to bring about social policy change so that physically and mentally challanged children and young adults can live with dignity in community based care. Your active support is vital and by signing this petition there will be hope for these innocent human beings.

Please pass this on to as many people possible.
Thanks

Honourable Maxime Bernier,

 Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade,

House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

Dear Minister:

I am writing to you to bring to your attention the desperate situation of children growing up in state-run residential facilities in Bulgaria and to urge you, as Canada%u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, to take up the cause of their protection.

On 24 February, TVO Ontario broadcast the BBC documentary entitled 'Bulgaria's Abandoned Children.' It is about a state-run residential care facility in Mogilino, Bulgaria, where 75 unwanted children are growing up.

Most of the children cannot talk because they are never spoken to. Some are abused by the staff but are unable to report it as they cannot speak. The children are devastatingly malnourished. They may enter the institution with only a mild disability or blindness, but often deteriorate to the point of being bedridden. Several die every year due to neglect. They are locked in dormitories at night with only one member of staff in the building. Most never, ever go outside. With nothing at all to do all day, they simply sit and rock backwards and forwards - a typical human response to lack of stimulation. In the mornings they are herded to the showers naked, often by a person of the opposite sex, and not even given towels to dry themselves. The younger children sit on potties for most of the day, just rocking.

I urge you to view the full documentary online at www.video.google.com   It is compelling viewing.

What is deeply shocking is that this is not the only home like this - in Bulgaria thousands of children grow up in such institutions. Most have families who have not relinquished their parental rights and would not place their child in an institution if they had a real choice. But parents of children born even with a mild disability are advised by %u2018professionals%u2019 to give them over to institutions. There are no community-based services to help the development of and the care for disabled children. The financial support available to such families in this poorest of EU countries is inadequate.

This is happening despite consecutive Bulgarian governments%u2019 undertaking to the EU to reform the child welfare system. In the past six years 30 million US dollars of loans and donations for child welfare reform were poured into the country by the World Bank, the European Union and the UK Department for International Development. Improvements are promised, but there is evidence that children still suffer unspeakably.  

I find it deeply shocking that  Bulgaria, a member-state of the European Union and significant trading partner of Canada, should warehouse and mistreat its weakest citizens with impunity.  Bulgaria must be held to account by the international community, including Canada. A groundswell of international protest and pressure is mounting as this documentary has been shown in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and now in Canada.

I urge you to take up this cause. Specifically I ask that you address this matter with the European Union and with the Bulgarian government,  seeking assurances that the Bulgarian government will make good on its agreement in principle to de-institutionalize children, and will allocate sufficient resources to enable the transition of the children and young adults to appropriate supported accommodation in the communities they come from.

I look forward to hearing from you  what actions Canada will take to add to international pressure on Bulgaria.