Now more than ever

World at Play's role in Bulgaria
-by Dorian Needham

Throughout the world, countless children are in desperate need – of food and shelter, definitely, but also of simple attention. As we have detailed elsewhere on our website, World at Play is committed to addressing this last need by involving needy children in sport and games. In such an effort, we are not alone: More and more countries and organisations are joining the growing international consensus supporting play as a tool for development on both individual and community levels (link to section of the website with this information).

What sets World at Play apart from these governments and charities, however, is its focus on children who are disadvantaged – socially, mentally, or physically. In too many cases, these children live on the fringes of society, denied access to services or opportunities that – though they may be paltry compared with those available in the developed world – are taken for granted by the rest of the population. Too often, these disadvantaged children are “swept under the carpet,” with devastating consequences for their growth and potential. At World at Play, we hope to correct this disparity. We hope to bring joy to the lives of disadvantaged children through sport and games. We hope to respond to those most truly in need.

Perhaps nowhere is the need – and, by extension, the potential for World at Play to do its best work – as great as in Bulgaria. As publicised recently in the UK’s Sunday Times, orphanages and child care centres in Bulgaria are hopelessly underfunded and understaffed. (1) Unlike neighbouring Romania, the Bulgarian government was not subject to a massive campaign of publicity and international pressure regarding the plight of the children in its care, and improved childcare was not included as a condition of EU membership. As a result, “bleak and unwelcoming” facilities staffed by “unqualified supervisors” are crowded with children “crammed side by side in small rooms.” Amnesty International describes the conditions in such homes as “amount[ing] to inhuman and degrading treatment.” (2) Such a situation would be alarming in any country; however, the scale of the problem in Bulgaria is tragic. With their numbers – estimated at as much as 0.4% of the total population – reaching the highest proportions in Europe, Bulgaria’s institutionalised children are in desperate need of help. (3)

Such help is unlikely to come from the government. Human Rights Watch reports a “lack of funds” in state institutions for children; Amnesty International calls the funding “grossly inadequate.” (4) As a result, institutions – particularly those in less developed or more remote areas – depend (and are expected to depend) nearly entirely upon private donations.

Private donations, in many cases, can barely compensate for the “chronic lack of resources” in Bulgaria’s child care institutions. Amnesty International describes the disturbing behaviour of some children – including hitting their own heads and biting their own hands – that resulted in some homes from a “lack of interaction” and a “lack of anything more meaningful to do.” (5) The Sunday Times, too, reported “a paltry scattering of toys and no visual stimulation,” concluding that “[t]he children are left to stare into space.” (6)

This desperate situation is likely to worsen in the near future. Bulgaria is set to accede to the European Union in January 2007; consequently, international organisations are already withdrawing their support. The UK’s Department for International Development, American aid officials, and Save the Children either have left Bulgaria or will be leaving soon. (7)

World at Play is thus ideally poised to work with child care institutions in Bulgaria. As a charitable organisation, it can supplement paltry state resources to address the chronic lack of attention that plagues far too many disadvantaged children throughout the country. With its expedition team of dedicated and caring young people, World at Play can offer the “love, opportunity, encouragement” that paediatricians insist are needed by disadvantaged children – but that, all too often, are lacking in Bulgarian institutions. (8) As an organisation dedicated to promoting and upholding human rights, World at Play can help to ensure that disadvantaged children in Bulgaria “enjoy a full and decent life, in conditions which … facilitate the child’s active participation in the community,” including “recreation opportunities,” as required by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. (9)

In short, World at Play has a valuable role to play in Bulgaria. However, children in many other countries also need help; Bulgaria provides only some of the many examples of situations and places in which World at Play can be of service. In the spirit of humanitarianism and development, we at World at Play will continue to fulfil our mandate, regardless of borders and politics. We will continue to visit children in need, in countries near and far. We will aim, now and in the years ahead, to speak the universal language of play to all those who are ready to hear.

References:

(1) Nicola Smith, “Plight of Bulgaria’s Lost Children,” The Sunday Times, 16 April 2006, Times Online, available at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2136163.html (accessed 27 April 2006).

(2) “Bulgaria,” Report 2005, 2005, Amnesty International, available at http://web.amnesty.org/report2005/bgr-summary-eng (accessed 27 April 2006). This is particularly true of children from the Roma (Romani) minority group, who are often victims of state discrimination and form a higher percentage of those in state homes. For more information on discrimination against the Roma, see “Children of Bulgaria,” Publications, September 1996, Human Rights Watch, available at http://www.hrw.org/summaries/s.bulgaria969.html (accessed 27 April 2006); and Bernard J. Hibbitts, “Bulgaria,” Jurist Legal News & Research, 2003, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, available at http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/world/bulgaria.htm (accessed 27 April 2006).

(3) Smith, “Lost Children.”

(4) Hibbits, “Bulgaria”; “Bulgaria: Far from the eyes of society – Systematic discrimination against people with mental disabilities,” Library: Online Documentation Archive, 10 October 2002, Amnesty International, available here (accessed 27 April 2006).

(5) Ibid.

(6) Smith, “Lost Children.”

(7) Ibid.

(8) Dr. Richard Newton, paediatric neurologist, quoted in ibid.

(9) Articles 23(1) and 23(3) of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child of 20 November 1989, available at http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/44/a44r025.htm (accessed 4 May 2006). Bulgaria is a signatory.