Bulgaria and Romania will cooperate in the field of child protection

Street children, school dropouts and trafficking victims are among the priorities in the cooperation between Bulgaria and Romania in the filed of child protection.

A letter of intent for cooperation in this field was signed Wednesday at the Labour and Social Policy Ministry under the Protocol for Cooperation between both countries’ social ministries of June 11, 2003. The document was signed by Romania’s State Secretary, and head of the national authority for the protection of children’s rights, Bogdan Panait, and Bulgarian Deputy Labour and Social Policy Minister Ivanka Hristova.

Protection against abandonment, foster care, restructuring and closing of specialized children institutions, reintegration of children of Roma origin in schools are also in the focus of the development of the social services for children included in the letter of intent for cooperation.

The document provides also for the interaction for decentralization of the social services, negotiation of management and provision of social services, standards for their quality and a monitoring system through licensing and supervision.

Both countries will cooperate in supervising the children rights protection and building of an information system on child protection.

The cooperation is already a fact after an expert group started work last week in Pomorie (on Black Sea) on the foster families system, where Romania has better experience, Hristova said after the signing. According to her, Romania is interested in the Bulgarian experience in the standardization of social services for children as well as in the conclusion of contracts with non-governmental organizations in this field.

"At the working meeting in May in Sinaia we were acquainted with the realities in Bulgaria. We understood that a significant progress was achieved in this respect and that interesting programmes in the field of child protection were developed", Panait said.

According to both countries, the agreement is a solid basis for exchange of experience and will be of mutual benefit.

BTA