[size=75:2hupatie]novinite 23 February 2010

Bulgaria Capital City Sofia Plans Child Street Beggar Ban

Child beggars are to be banned from the streets of Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, from the middle of March.

Yordanka Fandakova, Mayor of Sofia, has announced on Tuesday the creation of a mobile task force to deal with street children in the city.

Nine teams, formed of representatives of various institutions, including the Interior Ministry, the Social Support Directorate and the Agency for Child Protection, are currently undergoing training for their imminent duties on the streets of the city.

The teams will patrol across the city, targeting in particular those areas where begging by children is concentrated.

"
There is no register of the children in the streets,"
said Mina Vladimirova, the Director of Sofia's Social Activities department.

"
Our work with the begging children will be on an individual basis,"
she said. "
In those cases where families have the capacity, the family itself will be supported to tackle the problem. Children who are at risk and have no stable family environment will be housed in the four crisis centers of the municipality."


Children identified as coming from outside Sofia will be referred to the social services of their town of origin.

Yordanka Fandakova stressed that the municipality was unable to cope with this problem on its own, and therefore relied on collaboration with official institutions and the NGO sector.

"
We are talking about continuous action, not a campaign. There may be be cases where the same child will be identified as begging several times,"
explained the Mayor.

Begging in public places is prohibited in the Ordinance of the Municipality of Sofia. Current penalties are between BGN 10 and BGN 50, but this has not deterred the growing numbers of children begging in the streets of the Bulgarian capital.

Bulgaria Capital City Sofia Plans Child Street Beggar Ban


"
Our work with the begging children will be on an individual basis,"
she said. "
In those cases where families have the capacity, the family itself will be supported to tackle the problem. Children who are at risk and have no stable family environment will be housed in the four crisis centers of the municipality."


Children identified as coming from outside Sofia will be referred to the social services of their town of origin.


This seems to be a positive move sincerely hope it goes to plan.

Oddy

Well done Sofia

Maybe the local Mayors should get these people to work. Clean thier own rubbish up for starters.

I dont think this will work,unless this is an eu thing to make them look good,i watched a program about 2 months ago filmed by the bbc on orphanages in Bulgaria,i was gobsmacked,the way the children were treated,for example not doing as they were told beaten,male carers looking after teenage girls in showers,i think they should put right what they already have in place before starting new projects



Mike

there has for a long time been concern over bulgaria,s lack of care for the vulnerable and those with mental health problems. the eu has made demands for improvement in these areas and hopefully with bulgaria being more accountable, we may see improvements in care.

I do hope so,and that they spend the money off the EU on things that matter,not to line pockets





Mike

[size=75:156so80w]novinite 29 March 2010

Bulgaria Capital Cracks down on Child Beggars

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Over 30 children and 40 adult beggars have been detained since March 18 in Sofia, the City Hall informs Monday.

On February 23, Yordanka Fandakova, Mayor of Sofia, announced the creation of a mobile task force to deal with street children in the city. 9 teams, formed of representatives of various institutions, including the Interior Ministry, the Social Support Directorate and the Agency for Child Protection, underwent training and have been working on the city's streets since mid-March.

The majority of the children caught begging have been forced to do so by their parents. All adults have been issued official written warnings. 3 of the children are placed in specialized centers, 5 – in the Crisis Center for Children Victims of Abuse and Violence. The remaining 22 and their parents have received special social assistance.