In an open letter to the responsible institutions, The National Network for Children strongly objects to the presentation of foster care as a business turning over 14 million levs. Publications and reports that have been distributed in recent weeks by some elements of the media are false and intended to undermine the development of foster care in the country by attacking foster parents in a very unacceptable way.
The fact that the incorrect information that is being spread is similar leads us to think that we are witnessing an organised campaign against the process of deinstitusionalisation and, in particular, against foster care.
We urge the media not to continue spreading incorrect facts and data, and for correct and accurate information to contact the responsible government institutions in the form of the Agency for Social Assistance, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the State Agency for Child Protection, all of which answer for the development and implementation of foster care in our country.
As an alliance of 125 organizations working with children and families across the country, the NNC calls for us not to oppose foster care and divide parents into birth and foster parents, but to talk about the needs of the children and how they can best be met.
Our statement represents the organisation’s position on foster care in Bulgaria and answers some basic questions:
• How much does foster care really cost?
• What is foster care and how to become a foster parent?
• What are the advantages of raising a child left without the support of their birth family in a foster family, rather than in an institution?
• How many children are growing up in foster care and how many in institutions for children?
Translator: Morgan James, volunteer
Photo: freeimages.com/anyone71
