Bulgaria's abandoned children

Last night on BBC2, I watched one of the most distressing documentaries I have ever seen 'Bulgaria's abandoned children'. Kate Blewitt visits a so-called care home over a period of nine months. The institution is in Mogilino in the north of the country where 75 children with a variety of handicaps were sent, as their parents were unable or not interested in bringing them up themselves. Some were only deaf or blind but many had more serious afflictions which would need specialist care. The children were never allowed outside and lack of stimulation resulted in most of them rocking back and forth and becoming mute. In general, the staff were not cruel except for the laundry man who hit a couple of the boys; the requirement was that they washed and fed the children which they did, however, the food itself was mostly 'mush' and lacked any vitamins. This resulted in many of the kids displaying terrible malnourishment and resembled scenes of the famine in Ethiopia in the 80s. What was unbelievable was that the staff didn't seem to think anything was wrong and that their conditions were acceptable. I was sobbing all the way through the programme but one little girl in particular had me so distressed, I didn't know what to do with myself. Kate Blewitt noticed that clearly the girl had broken her leg, and was crying out in pain. The staff were oblivious and seemed to think that it was the malnourishment was the cause of pain, and then curiously applied some ointment to the bottom of her foot! I don't know what period of time had passed but on the next visit, the girl had a makeshift splint on her lower leg and was bedridden. At the end of the documentary, you could see how bad the treatment had been because the bone was angled and hadn't set properly. Many of the children who had become bedridden because they could no longer walk, ended up in the nearby cemetery.

There was one girl of 18 called Didi who didn't have an awful lot wrong with her - she was sane, could talk fine and was fairly intelligent but there was no-one to interact with. Her mother told her she was going to collect her on a certain date which was a lie but Didi was holding on to that promise. When it didn't happen, she ended up rocking in her chair which was very sad. As an adult she would be transferred to another institution, and you just fear the worst for her future.

Unloved, no care, forgotten....how the hell can this type of thing happen in a EU country? The director of the institution basically shrugged off any responsibility and blamed the problem on the staff who work there. Apparently, since the documentary was made, many international charities have attempted to get involved but the Bulgarian government has refused.

Update taken from the website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/bulgarias-children.shtml

Friday 16 November 2007

Some changes have taken place since the first showing of this film on BBC Four in September 2007. A team of Non Government Organisations (NGOs) is working with the government to bring about changes to the lives of disabled children growing up in the state institutes in Bulgaria. This NGO alliance is made up of teams who have been working on the ground in Bulgaria for years.

The children in the home in Mogilino have recently been assessed by a medical team, and rehabilitation plans are being put together for each child. Specialists like speech therapists and physiotherapists are being assigned to Mogilino to work with the children. In the long term the plan is to either build purpose-built small group care homes for the disabled - or to relocate the children to better environments with Day Care Centres and potential schooling.

Well at least that's some positive news. I would have been very surprised if nothing had been done about this appalling situation. I can honestly say, those images will remain with me for the rest of my life.