It is estimated that over 10,000 children are living in residential institutions in Bulgaria (Source: State Agency for Child Protection). Most of these children have at least one living parent and are placed in institutions because their family is poor or under severe stress. Many children with disabilities are institutionalized and a disproportionate number of children in these institutions are from the Roma minority. A very low percentage of the children in institutions (between 1 and 3%) are actually orphans. The majority of the children come from families living under unfavourable social conditions. The difficult and unstable economic situation, which has led to broken families and single mothers living in extreme poverty, must be regarded as the main reason so many children are abandoned and placed in institutional care.
The Scouts are organising a range of activities, including five special camps for children who have committed unsocial acts, acts of aggression, or who live in selected residential homes. It is hoped that this programme will help to integrate these children back into society. The activities will include teambuilding and leadership training. Their project will be a new model for addressing problems of aggression in schools, and young peopole will be actively involved in all parts of the project. The Scouts will explore reasons for aggression and unsocial acts, and identify ways in which they can gain the trust of the young peole involved in those acts.
In addition, the Scouts are running a national essay competition in which people will be asked to consider the question “Friendship or Aggression – which is more frequent at school?” On 22 February 2007, in Plovdiv, as part of the celebration of the world day of Scouting a one-day national conference will be held entitled “Ways of overtaking aggression amongst children and adolescents”. During the conference the results of the essay competition will be announced.
In March/April 2007, Scouts from Plovdiv will organise a charity bazaar of objects made from wood, plaster, and metal that have been crafted by the Scouts together with the children with whom they are working. The money raised from the sale of these souvenirs will be given to the residential homes.
1000 copies of a leaflet explaining the purpose of the project, the activities ran, and the expected outcomes, will be produced.
In order to promote the results of the activities and working methods, at the the end of the project 500 CDs will be produced which will include photographs from the activities and comments from participants. The CDs will be distributed to school directors, and leaders of the institutions that are working with groups of children at risk.
The main beneficiaries of the project will be the young people who have committed the unsocial acts, and the children from the residential homes. In addition, Bulgarian Scouts will benefit from having worked with such groups of children and adolescents. It is also hoped that the project will attract many new people to join Scouting, as well as enhancing the reputation and profile of the Scouts.