The year 2024 passed under a sense of a stalled state and state governance, locked in a series of failed attempts at a regular parliament. The improvements of last year, which led to the highest rating for the state in our Scorecard report in all the years since it was issued, were not continued this year, and some even suffered badly. Despite the country being immobilised by the political crisis, our participation in 20 working groups still made a difference, and several of our important causes achieved success or took a step forward. Not so much with the help of the state, but thanks to the insistent work of the civil sector, and in an environment in which it was under constant attempts to be stifled by political parties in the country.
We therefore send off the year with gratitude for the strength of NGOs and the positive changes wrought in several policies concerning the welfare of children and families in our country. Here are what they are.
Caring for child and maternal health
In children’s healthcare, we have leaped forward in our great cause – the National Children’s Hospital. At the beginning of the year, the National Assembly passed a decision by a full majority to fast-track its construction, and then the Ministry of Health established a permanent coordination unit responsible for the operational work on the project. This was thanks to our long advocacy work with the Initiative Committee for its establishment. Later in the year, members of the Public Council were summoned to explain to the State Agency “National Security” the complaints filed by Commercial League – Global Pharmacy Center JSC in connection with the cancelled decision to build the Mom and Me Hospital. Despite the efforts of the private investor to tarnish the public image of the members of the Public Council, of which NNC is a part, we will not give up our efforts to create a National Children’s Hospital and a profound reform in child and maternal health care to ensure the highest level of health care for every child in the country. Over 100 organizations and activists signed our position this summer.
In another of our great causes – medical food – after we got the National Health Insurance Fund to reimburse medical food as a state care in 2023-2024, instead of children waiting for donation campaigns, we started providing free food to dozens of needy people all over Bulgaria in the spring of 2024. However, hundreds of children and adults with protein-calorie malnutrition were denied access to life-saving care because the National Health Insurance Fund published guidelines with discriminatory conditions for their allocation. The Legal Aid Network of the NNC filed a lawsuit before the Supreme Administrative Court attacking the discriminatory texts of the National Health Insurance Fund guidelines. Thus, NNC’s fight for therapeutic food for all in need continues. Our advocacy to inform doctors and parents about the benefits of higher HPV vaccine coverage, which has almost completely eradicated cervical cancer in many countries, also continued. We took part in the SmartCARE & PROTECT-EUROPE Showcase Event in Brussels, a showcase event on what has been achieved in the fight against HPV disease. The vaccine is free in our country, but the vaccination rate for girls aged 10-14 is still below 3%, although there has been a small increase in the last year.
The 15 days of absence with a note from a parent was officially accepted instead of a medical note when the child was slightly unwell. We initiated the change with an Open Letter to the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and committees in the National Assembly. The letter was supported and expressed the position of the Ombudsman, the Bulgarian Pediatric Association and other organizations working with children. The change relieved families and reduced the administrative burden on directors.
And last but not least – after 3 years of editing and rewriting, the National Health Strategy 2030 has become a fact. Over the next 7 years, our country should reduce the share of births by cesarean section to 30%. The proportion of babies who at 4 months of age are still breastfed should rise to 40%. Gambling addiction and problematic screen behavior are already among the health risks for young people that Bulgaria has committed to developing measures against. A major contributor to the additions has been the active work of the NNC on the draft NHS 2030 throughout the development of the strategy.
Protecting the rights and social care of the most vulnerable. Legal Aid Network of the NNC
The meetings and the activities with the member organizations of the Network are truly energizing, directly on the ground all over Bulgaria, where they help children and parents with different needs every day. In October we met with 20 organizations in four cities for legal workshops and focus groups to support their work with vulnerable groups – refugees, Roma, abused children, children without family. We discussed different cases from the work of social workers in the field related to child protection, combating antisocial behaviour, access to social services. We talked about our landmark strategic cases and how the NYS Legal Aid Network can provide free legal assistance. In 2024, the NNC Legal Aid Network supported organisations and individuals with legal aid in a record 70+ cases. The network now numbers
In 2024, the Legal Aid Network supported organisations and individuals with legal aid in a record 70+ cases. The network now numbers 35 lawyers and human rights defenders. We continued our 6 strategic cases – including the case before the Council of Europe’s European Committee of Social Rights, on the issue of early childhood education and care in Bulgaria. We partnered with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, established a strategic partnership on child justice issues with the international law firm Baker McKenzie, and began coordinating the Justice for Children Community at the National Institute of Justice.
Our work continued on the landmark case against British “pastor” Daniel Hull, accused of systematically fornicating
with 14 boys in the Nadezhda neighbourhood of Sliven. In addition to having one of the two child victim advocates as a member of the Legal Aid Network and engaged by the Network, throughout the year we prepared briefs, commentaries and advocacy meetings on child victims’ access to justice, using the progress of the criminal case against Hull as a negative example. Because of another recusal of a judge in the Sliven case, we requested, among other things, an urgent meeting with the Ministry of Justice and the SJC. “The Bulgarian judiciary is on its knees in front of a proven paedophile.” So begins the announcement to a Free Europe documentary about the case against the English pastor. The film was made by journalist Genka Shikerova and was filmed for Free Europe with the assistance of the Legal Aid Network of NMD and For Hope Foundation. Watch the video. The criminal case continues – now reassigned to regional court in Nova Zagora.
The rights of unaccompanied refugee children
We have put a lot of effort into the GUIDE: Support for Guardians of Unaccompanied Children initiative, aimed at increasing the knowledge and skills of legal representatives and professionals working directly with unaccompanied refugee children in five European countries – Bulgaria, Greece, Slovakia, Italy and Poland. The activities will continue over the next two years. They will support the implementation of European asylum, migration and integration policies by improving the skills, support mechanisms and visibility of legal representatives and professionals caring for unaccompanied children, especially those with disabilities or developmental delays. A series of trainings for legal representatives and professionals working in the field with unaccompanied refugee children will be held in the first months of 2025. A training toolkit has already been developed and published and will soon be available in Bulgarian. The NNC also engaged in qualitative research on attitudes towards refugees and asylum seekers in Bulgaria. We conducted a series of in-depth interviews and focus groups with representatives of institutions, NGOs and refugees under the project “Research on social attitudes towards refugees and asylum seekers: the Bulgarian model”. We carried out 10 interviews with representatives of institutions and international organizations, as well as 15 focus groups in different parts of the country.
Reform in foster care
In 2024. In 2024, the NNC elected its representatives to the Consultative Expert Council (CEC) of the project “Capacity Building of the Agency for Social Assistance Staff about the Modernization of the Social Protection Systems – Component 1” (CES) on the topic of foster care. Two opinions were sent on the Regulation on the conditions and procedure for application, selection and approval of foster families and placement of children in them – one on behalf of the National Network for Children and the other jointly with the Childhood 2025 Coalition. Most of the proposals of the working group of member organizations were accepted. At the end of the year, comments on the Methodology for the assessment of candidates for foster family were also sent to the CES.
Better education for all children
Education reform was again a priority in the work of the ХХЪ in 2024. On the topic of the missing quality standard, we organized a national conference in cooperation with the National Inspectorate of Education and St. We held a joint conference with the National Education Committee and the University of St. Kliment Ohridski. We continued to advocate for inclusive education, student mediation and social-emotional learning, more real child participation in school, revision of the National Assesment system and much more. In 2024, we repeatedly united the civil sector against populist changes to the Law on School and Preschool Education and against any attempt to divide children, teachers and parents.
Fighting violence against children
We have made efforts to bring Bulgaria one step closer to building a unified database on violence against children. Children are direct victims of violence at home, at school, on the street, online. They suffer violence even just as witnesses – in parental conflicts, problematic situations in class. At the same time, 8 institutions in our country process data, but there is no common system that would give the full picture and be the basis for inter-institutional prevention and response measures. The issue is important because children who have experienced violence are at great risk of being bullies as adults. It is our concern to protect them from such a future. Whether we provide comprehensive care for children who have suffered violence is also a big topic, as well as what opportunities we give children with antisocial behaviour to break out of the pattern of violence. Our work over the year on this topic has been brought together in five reports on trends, legislation in this country and other areas concerning this topic, and it was also a focus of our national NURVAC ‘Together Against Violence Against Children’ conference, where a lot of data was presented and the views of 9 institutions and organisations directly involved in the issue were heard. Another significant success of ours on this issue is our participation, together with the Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation, in the INSPIRE project, thanks to which nearly 50 civil society organisations and community centres from all over Bulgaria will be supported to reduce violence against children and empower victims.
Online safety for children
Due to the record number of reports of online child abuse, we have started work on an analysis of the legal framework and regulatory gaps in our country. We will continue this work next year as part of the Digital Children initiative, which gives us the responsibility to be a partner in the renewed consortium behind the National Safer Internet Centre from 2024. Our priority here is to advocate for changes in legislation and policies that ensure children are safer online and that child sexual abuse is effectively tackled online. It is a shocking statistic that 1 in 7 children in this country report having been victims of online bullying and stalking on social networks. We need to change this. On the subject of prevention of and response to violence and sexual exploitation of children, we also participated in a regional forum of ECPAT INTERNATIONAL in Vienna. Again on the topic of online safety, we had the honour of presenting the position of ECPAT organisations across Europe for a safer digital world for children at the 2024 WeProtect Summit in Abu Dhabi.
Important changes to the Civil Registration Act
For months, in support of our partners from the Trust for Social Alternative, Habitat, Initiative for Equal Opportunities and others, we have been insisting to the responsible institutions, including the Parliamentary Group for Children of NNC, to resolve the issue of the impossibility to issue identity documents due to lack of address. The amendments to the Civil Registration Act that were adopted at second reading were a huge success. The new texts will change the lives of over 120 000 Bulgarian citizens over the age of 14 who do not have ID cards, in addition to over 13 000 with expired ID cards (data as of March 2024). The adopted amendments will guarantee identity documents for every person, even if they have no address. Thousands of cases of children, young people and parents in need of support have been stalled for years because of the inability to issue an ID card to a parent or young person simply because they are in poverty and have no property with an address.
Още няколко теми, които бяха наш фокус през годината и по тях работихме с институции и организации:
НМД изпрати до Парламента становище относно споделеното родителство
Децата са еднозначна ценност и не могат да бъдат повод за предизборен популизъм и демагогия
Основни наблюдения и застъпнически каузи, свързани с правосъдието за деца в България
Спечелихме окончателно делото в защита на дете-косвена жертва на незаконно наказателно обвинение
And here is the place to note that at a time of severe political crisis and division, the NNC’s Reportcard again served as an invaluable source of data and recommendations, and as a basis for constructive dialogue between the government and the civil sector on many key reforms.
Deserved recognition
On 20 November this year, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by 196 countries, including Bulgaria, 35 civil activists received awards from Prime Minister Glavchev for their contribution to the well-being of children and families. We are extremely happy that most of the honoured experts are from NNC member organisations from all over the country. Their dedicated work for better policies for children and families in our country has received well-deserved recognition. The awards were presented on the same day as our annual Voice It forum, the largest youth forum of its kind in the country, where children ask politicians what the solutions are on issues important to young people.
10 years amplifying the voice of youth
Our favourite activity is the work of the Megaphone Youth Network. For 10 years, NNC has amplified the voice of children. That’s why this year we celebrated our anniversary with the biggest event of all the Voice It Youth Forum editions. Our youth now have their own podcast. Listen to its first episode here. In it, Megaphones discuss the importance of extracurricular activities with Vasil Lozanov, Deputy Director at the Spanish High School in Sofia. As we do every year, Megaphone youth were again key participants in the Network’s Annual Meeting, where we identified over 30 policy priorities in education, child health, justice and early childhood development, and family care. We are also delighted that Tiana Krasteva, part of the Children Explorers team, a joint initiative of the National Network for Children and Eurochild, and a volunteer at the P.U.L.S. Foundation’s Youth Club “Let’s Be Friends” , is the new Bulgarian representative on the Children’s Council of the international Eurochild network.
Helping specific children in need
This summer, families suffered from fires. In July and August, with the help of a huge number of donors, we raised the total amount of 12 628,56 BGN for children with a burnt home in the village of Voden. With the help of Procter & Gamble, we donated more than 10,000 pieces of hygiene materials to children and families in need, as well as to crisis centres, children’s homes and community support centres.
We also granted a record number of children’s wishes for specific books in record time in the fifth edition of Make Magic. Give a Book to a Child!” Over 4,200 children from across the country found their magician and are now receiving their dream book for Christmas! Thank you!
The “Golden Apple” Awards
For the 14th year in a row, we honored the children’s heroes with the Golden Apple Awards. New this year are the Corporate Partnership Awards. And this is also the place to express our gratitude to all the companies and small and medium-sized businesses that have recognized children’s policies as a common priority and supported our daily work as well as a number of our initiatives.
We would like to thank Lidl Bulgaria, who for yet another year have supported the largest youth forum Voice It and who with all their initiatives prove that they want to be an active partner on important issues for young people and in the social dialogue for a better tomorrow.
We would also like to thank the wizard helpers, our partners, without whose invaluable support it would not have been possible to realize the fifth edition of the campaign – Experian Bulgaria and UniCredit Bulbank, who are long-standing financial partners of the initiative, DHL Express Bulgaria, Siela Bookshops and Ozone.bg, thanks to whom buying and sending the children’s wishes was easier and more convenient than ever. We would also like to thank Greenwich Junior Bookshop and Enthusiast Publishers for supporting us with the organisation of the second event of the campaign.
To Domino’s Pizza Bulgaria for our #PizzaCause campaign in which we raised 31 382 BGN, thanks to which the NND continued to advocate for real changes in Bulgarian education.
To BECA Before Creating Academy, who donated part of the cost of their photography courses to support the educational initiatives and causes of NNC.
To Procter & Gamble, who donated over 10,000 hygiene supplies to benefit members of the National Network for Children. The products were distributed to needy children and families, as well as to crisis centers, children’s homes and community support centers. The aid was distributed among 26 organizations, members of the NNC.
The advertising agency Saatchi&Saatchi, who developed the new visual identity of the “Digital Children” initiative. Their team never stops supporting us with ideas and campaign distribution and believe that supporting children’s causes is a meaningful effort.
To NovaNews and the show “Social Network”, which all year round through the column “The school we want” shows the best examples and gives the floor to young people, teachers, experts and politicians about the important topics and changes that our school environment and education system needs.
What parents and children told us
A record number – more than 3 200 adults and children and young people up to 18 years of age took part in our surveys on the work done by the state in the last year in policies for families and children in our country. Their evaluations in 9 areas were included in the monitoring report “Notebook 2024 – What is the average success of the state in caring for children?”, which we presented at the end of April. The most important area for parents is “Education” and for children – “Sport, culture and leisure”. All put protection from violence as the third most important topic.
They will be our focus in the new year 2025!
