Majority of Bulgarian 'Orphans' Have Parents

Thousands of abandoned children live in Bulgaria's orphanages. Photo by BGNES

Almost all children accommodated in orphanages in Bulgaria have parents, according to data of the National Statistics Institute, NSI, released Friday.

At the end of 2011, 2 278 children, or 98.2% of the children accommodated at the so-called the Homes for Medical and Social Care had one or two parents. Only 41 children were complete orphans, which is 1.8% of the total number of accommodated children at the end of the year.

The number of social homes for children at the end of 2011 was 31 with total capacity of 3 756 residents in them.

2 319 children were accommodated there, of them 1 278 of were boys and 1 041 – girls.

The noted trend of decrease of the total number of children accommodated in the social homes continued in 2011, and at the end of the year it was down by 5.5% compared to the end of 2010.

As of December 31, 2011, children up to 1 year of age had the highest share of accommodated children – 31%. Those aged 1 to 2 years were 20.9%, children from the age group 2 - 3 years were 18.0%, and those 3 years and over were 30.1% of all children.

2 508 children entered social homes in 2011. 63.6% of them were up to 1 year of age, 14.7% belonged to age group of 1 to 2 year-olds, 10.7% were 2 to 3 year-old and those 3 and over were 11% of all children.

2 565 children were discharged from the social homes in 2011. 171 (6.7%) of them were transferred to another institution due to completion of age, 2 394 children left through adoptions or application of different protection measures in compliance with the Child Protection Act.

As of December 31, 2011, the coefficient of institutionalization of children aged up to 3 years, expressed by ratio of the number of children accommodated in social homes per 1 000 of children of the same age group of the population is 8.3 per 1 000.

The coefficient is almost without change in comparison with 2010.

In 2011, medical care and attendance of children in social homes were  provided by 2 728  staff with labor contracts.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!