Contributed by: Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, Bulgaria National VAW Monitor

More than 370 children- and families-at-risk have received psychosocial and therapeutic help in the framework of a project funded by the PHARE Programme and implemented by "Association Animus." The project "Helping Children and Their Parents to Find, Build and Keep the Family They Need" was finalised today after nearly two years of work. In the framework of the project, several programmes have been elaborated and implemented, which are directed toward children who are victims of domestic and sexual violence, children from institutions, parents who are in the middle of divorce proceedings, and people who cannot have children. The establishment of a 24-hour Crisis Unit turned out to be very popular, and 19 children have been accommodated in it due to problems in the family. A typical problem is the violence exercised under a particular form, explained the psychologist Katya Krastanova. "As a result from the project, 11 children were prevented from going into social institutions while two other children were oriented to such cares," she said. The total sum of the project is 102 000 Euro.

Compiled from: 370 Children and Families Received Therapeutic Help, Arenamedia.net, 30 June 2008.