Social Workers Return 1,100 Children to Their Families in 2014

Sofia, June 17 (BTA) - Over 1,100 Bulgarian children were
returned to their families in 2014 and the abandonment of
another 2,900 kids by their parents was prevented, the Social
Assistance Agency reported earlier this week.

The efforts of child protection departments are focused on
preventing the abandonment of children by their parents and the
reintegration of those who have already been abandoned (i.e.
their return to their biological families). This is accomplished
 by providing social, psychological and financial support to
parents, the agency said.

Attempts at reintegrating 1,898 abandoned children in 2014
resulted in the successful reintegration of 1,157 of them.
Failures were due to a number of reasons, including low parental
 capacity, too many children in the family, lack of education,
low social status, reluctance to discharge parental duties, or
unwillingness to cooperate with social care institutions.

Social workers tried to prevent 4,346 new cases of potential
child abandonment in 2014 and eventually prevented the
abandonment of 2,894 children. Work on the remaining cases
continues.

Also in 2014, child protection departments received 34,550
alerts about children at risk, but in 14,991 of these cases the
risk was not confirmed. Overall, the departments worked on
36,576 cases of children at risk. Such alerts come from
children, parents, other members of the public, institutions and
 the national children's helpline at 116 111.