Last Friday, on the new Bulgarian government’s very first day in office, our Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, travelled to Sofia to launch the global Children in Care campaign alongside Bulgaria’s new Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Health, Labour and Social Policy well as Education, accompanied by renowned actor Barry Keoghan – who shared his own inspirational story with us.
Foreign Minister Georg Georgiev also hosted a bilateral meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on joint priorities for our strategic partnership, including combatting irregular migration and our steadfast support for Ukraine.
Bulgaria has a powerful and moving story to tell in closing its orphanages over the past 30 years and ensuring that all children have a loving and safe family home. By the end of next year, the final three large-scale children’s homes will have closed, bringing down the shutters on a system that housed tens of thousands of children in the 1990s. It is hard to overstate what a wonderful development this is. The overwhelming majority of Bulgaria’s children in institutional care are from Roma backgrounds. Under the old system, thousands of traumatised survivors turned to substance abuse funded by crime and prostitution. Even more tragically, many did not even make it to their twentieth birthday.
Ensuring that all children have a family is the single best intervention to turn the situation around. And that’s just what the Bulgarians have done. Launching the global Children in Care campaign on the new Bulgarian government’s first day in office was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate Bulgaria’s success and good practice to share with the world.
Huge thanks to our partners, Hope for Homes, UNICEF, National Network for Children, SOS Children’s Villages, the For Our Children Foundation, Concordia and Maria’s World as well as Kingly, Forum Film and the Odeon Cinema for their generous support in the finale to the visit – a screening of Paddington 3!
