Family News

In the last days of the passing year 2023, the National Network for Children looks back to make a brief overview of what has been done, what has been achieved and what we are going to achieve with joint efforts in the New Year 2024.

And over the past 12 months, we have spent every working day arguing with state structures and politicians, filing reports, filing lawsuits. We monitored the wrong practices and insisted on the good ones. We are proud to share that we continued to care for the well-being of Bulgaria’s children and their families. We will continue to do so! Now it’s time to rewind the tape to present you with just a small portion of the highlights of our tireless work in 2023:

• The family of the National Network for Children has increased with 5 more civil organizations working to support children and families in our country. With them, the members of the network became a total of 135.
• Hundreds of one-time and monthly donors have joined our “Subscribe for Children’s Future” donation platform . 
• After 2 years of advocacy by NMD and over 20 organizations in the country, the NHIF adopted 2 codes, through which over 550 Bulgarian children will receive medical food as care from the state , instead of waiting for donation campaigns.
• The Public Council is one of the seven points of the National Citizen Initiative “For a Real Children’s Hospital”, behind which more than 6,000 people stood in 2020. Today the Council is a fact. It is extremely important for ensuring transparency, publicity and public control over the creation of the NDB.
• Over 20 measures, for which the National Network for Children has been fighting for years in the fields of child health care, education and social policies and family support, became part of the Management Program of the Council of Ministers.
• In 2023, the members of the Legal Aid Network became 22 and helped organizations and citizens in more than 50 legal cases.
• After years of advocacy by the NMD and the Legal Aid Network, a reform in juvenile justice was finally implemented, with the aim of protecting the rights of children – suspects and accused in criminal proceedings and more lenient treatment of child victims of crimes. Thanks to the advocacy of the Legal Aid Network and BHK in 2023, the reform also covered the Law on the Ministry of Internal Affairs!
• A great victory was achieved by the NMD cause for reform in the adoption system , in support of nearly 2,000,000 Bulgarians! Together with member organizations and the Legal Aid Network, we championed the cause in all key consultative processes related to the reform in the 47th, 48th and 49th NAs.
• We supported over 3,200 families, 1,265 of which were children under 8 years of age, incl. 180 children with disabilities and 639 at risk of developmental delay under a joint project with EASPD Brussels, UNICEF and the Social Teahouse – Varna. 
• The European Committee on Social Rights of the Council of Europe has admitted the collective action of the NMD for the kindergartens pending consideration of the merits , the culmination is coming in 2024. 
• We have achieved active advocacy in early childhood intervention, early childhood development, quality education, secondary education management, early education and care services; participation in the development of the following strategic documents:  Framework for the quality of secondary education, Framework for the quality of early education and care services, Strategy for the child, the Plan and vision for Early Childhood Development, the National Plan and the two-year implementation plan for the European Child Guarantee and participation in multiple working groups.
• Together with the HPV Coalition, we advocated for increasing vaccination coverage and expanding the coverage of the HPV vaccine for 11- and 12-year-old girls – at the national and European level.
• We condemned the Ministry of Health to make public the National Strategy for Child and Adolescent Health and Pediatric Care, which plans children’s health care until 2030. 
• Together with Adv. Natasha Dobreva, we finally won the important strategic domestic violence case “A.S.E. with Bulgaria” in Strasbourg. The Legal Aid Network participated as a third party, and Adv. The Network’s Natasha Dobreva represented the victim.
• Mandatory mediation was adopted for the first time ! One of the great causes of the NMD Legal Aid Network is the widespread use of mediation, and in 2023, for the first time, compulsory mediation was arranged in a wide range of commercial and civil cases.
•  Changes to the Domestic Violence Protection Act, many of which NMD members have been advocating for years, have been passed! The changes aim at better prevention and faster access to justice for victims.
• The publication of the personal data of publicly reprimanded children was put an end to.
• We have established permanent joint work with various national representatives, part of the Parliamentary Group for Children , on current issues affecting children’s policies.
• We have established joint advocacy at European level with the Eurochild network on the European Child Guarantee, the eradication of child poverty, especially among the Roma group and the prevention of family separation
• Over 960 media publications and interviews on radio and television have drawn attention to the important topics in children’s policies that NMD advocates on a daily basis. 
• More than 240 young people participated as respondents on 6 topics on which young people work within the framework of the “Children Researchers” program, and 2 young people from the “Megafon” youth network presented a report on the topic “Meaningful child and youth participation” to the Rights Committee of the United Nations in Geneva. In the last days of the year, it became known that the megaphone was selected as a child consultant to the Children’s Advisory Team of Child Rights Connect among more than 130 applicants from all over the world. 
• The Voice It hall could barely accommodate all 260 young people who came to talk to politicians about school bullying, the curriculum and sports and healthy food. Scripting time was overdue due to the numerous questions from the children. The event brought a favorite hashtag of the year – #SelfieSPremiera. 
•  We supported over 70 children in need from Tsarevo, Kardzhali, Byala Slatina and Tarnava regions, helping them start the new school year. Thanks to generous donors and companies, we collected over BGN 20,000, with which we provided school supplies, uniforms and school meals.
• More than 400,000 donations to save the National Center for Safe Internet gathered the interactive platform “Handler”, with which thousands of children, parents and citizens from all over the country asked three ministers to provide the only Center that receives more than 30,000 reports of online child abuse annually.
• Worthy individuals and organizations have been widely promoted, thanks to our Golden Apple Children’s Life Awards .
• With the twelfth edition of our Notebook report, we gave the country a 3.33 rating for its care of children. More than 200 experts, children, youth and families participated in its creation.
•  Over 140 human rights defenders, lawyers, civil activists, representatives of institutions and students filled the Sofia University Auditorium at the unique legal discussion forum “LexTalks: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT” of the NMD, with which we called on the state to urgently continue the reform of justice for children and ensure better prevention of child criminalization.
• Over 400 persons supported with hygiene products provided by DM worth nearly BGN 20,000, distributed with the help of the member organizations in places.
• 3,428 children and young people received their dream book for Christmas from over 1,300 generous magicians from all over Bulgaria through our campaign “A child is waiting for magic. Become a magician – give him a book!
• We are sending off 2023 with successfully implemented 21 partnerships with businesses that contributed to the development of the National Network for Children and its prosperity and recognition.
• We continued to develop our Child Friendly Company certificate, which has become a recognizable symbol of corporate social responsibility. We welcomed DSK Bulgaria bank into the family of “Friend of the Child” companies and are ranked next to the officially responsible companies: A1, Lidl, UnicreditBulbank, Kaufland
•  Our big campaigns have found like-minded people. Kaufland and Siemens supported the implementation of the “Golden Apple” awards, VOICE IT is implemented jointly and with the support of LIDL Bulgaria. Make Magic became the most business-supported campaign, not only financially, but also with the provision of services and the purchase of books for the children. Official partners in the campaign were: DHL, Unicredit, Experian, Econt and Ciela bookstores. During the past year, we managed to attract hundreds of new donors who supported our work with their monthly donations.

In order to continue to achieve such and even greater and significant successes, become part of our family by subscribing to the future of Bulgaria’s children at nmd.bg/dari .

Thank you to everyone who supported us during the year. We continue together!