Closing institutions

Our mission is simple: to lobby for the detrimental effects of institutionalisation to be recognised and for a national programme of closures to be implemented. To this effect we have already funded specific closures projects and we will continue to support progress in this area but our ultimate goal is to enable the Bulgarian government to complete its policy of deinstitutionalisation.

We provide funding and support for our partners, such as local NGO s, local municipalities and service providers, and child protection agencies, who work with the relevant government departments to push through the closures. The baby homes are where it all begins to go wrong for most children in care in Bulgaria. By closing them, we will dramatically reduce the need for care homes for older children, too. Our first success Our first successful closure of a baby home is already underway.

TBACT is funding the project, working closely with the Hope and Homes charity and the Bulgarian NGO , Equilibirum. The institution is due to close in April 2011 and the building will be used as a centre for social services, benefiting the whole local community.

32 babies and young children will be resettled into loving homes through adoption, fostering or with their biological family. With your support, we aim to fund the closure of another institution during 2011/12. By successfully working with our local partners to close these homes, and to provide much better alternatives, we hope to encourage others to follow our lead, closing more homes and showing the way to a brighter future for Bulgaria’s abandoned children.