Bulgaria's Abandoned Children - An Urgent Call for Help

Before you read on, you need to sit down and watch this documentary: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9176914173325307126

It is beyond belief and beyond words.
The documentary is about a social care home in Mogilino, Bulgaria where 75 unwanted children are growing up. Most of the children can not talk because no one has ever spoken to them. Some are abused by the staff but are unable to report it as they cannot speak.

The children are severely malnourished and several die every year due to neglect. Some are the same age as me but look much younger as they are wasting away (the girl in the picture is 18). They are locked away at night with only one member of staff to care for all 75 and most never get to go outside. With nothing to do all day, they simply sit and rock backwards and forwards - a typical human response to lack of stimulation. In the mornings they are herded to the showers naked and not even given towels to dry themselves. The younger children sit on potties for most of the day, just rocking.

What is deeply shocking is that this is not the only home like this - in Bulgaria, 1 in 50 children grows up in an institution such as this one. They are abandoned and disowned by their parents due to disabilities such as mild autism, blindness or 'mental retardation'. All these children really want is someone to love and care for them.

To learn more, visit www.abandonedchildren.org.uk.
To make an emergency UNICEF donation, go to http://www.unicef.org.uk/emergency/emergency_detail.asp?emergency=41.

Help save Bulgaria's abandonded children.