February Charity Pub Quiz

The Cedar Foundation Team is happy to announce that the next Cedar Pub Quiz will be held on 29th of February 2012 at JJ Murphy's on 6 Karnigradska Street. The initiative is organized in partnership with Hilton and Cleves.

Again we offer you a great night with much fun and nice prizes. All the proceeds raised on the night will benefit The Cedar Foundation in our work to improve the quality of life of children and young people with intellectual disabilities in Kyustendil.

As spaces are limited, please, be among the first ones to confirm the participation of your team in the Pub Quiz by contacting Toni Stoykova at toni@cedarfoundation.org or call +359 889 45 11 79 by 25th of February 2012.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

A Cedar project for users’ involvement approved for funding

A Cedar project called “Users’ involvement in the decision making process – a step towards complete social integration” was approved for funding under the Human Resources Operational Programme by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.

Cedar partners in the project are the Municipality of Kyustendil and the Welsh non-governmental organization Learning Disability Wales.

The project plan envisions the delivery of training by British experts to personnel of the family-type homes “Siyanie” and the Municipality of Kyustendil. The topic of the training is the adequate approach to the children and adults with mental disabilities for understanding their desires and making sure their right to participate in the decision making process regarding their life is protected.

The rest of the project activities include an overview and analysis of the legal framework regulating the participation of the social service users in the decision making process and the development of recommendations for changes in a direction towards their empowerment. Other project initiatives will be the development of a Kyustendil municipal strategy for inclusion of the persons with disabilities in the decision making process, the development and dissemination of a book of reference and a visit of Welsh social services by Bulgarian partner representatives.

The budget of the project amounts to 162 061,67 leva. It comes at the right time due to the recent ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. According to Article 21 persons with disabilities can exercise their right to freedom of expression and opinion equally with the other persons and have an access to information in suitable formats.

The project will start right after The Cedar Foundation and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy sign the contract for its implementation.

Bulgaria ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

On January 26^th the Bulgarian Parliament ratified with a consensus the UN Convention on the rights of the persons with disabilities. The minister of labour and social policy Totyu Mladenov stated that within the next 6 months the Ministry will develop a 2-year program for protecting the rights of the persons with disabilities.

“I am convinced that this is the right way and in Bulgaria the rights of the persons with disabilities will be guaranteed.” said Totyu Mladenov in the Parliament.

The Cedar Foundation welcomes the ratification of the UN Convention by the Bulgarian government. “This is a significant step forward to respecting the rights of persons with disabilities in the country. The next one is the ratification of the associated Optional Protocol and making sure that these rights are exercised in reality.” said Mark O’Sullivan, a Chairman of the Cedar Foundation Board of Directors.

“As a service provider of community based social services we face on a daily basis a lot of challenges in front of the social integration of persons with disabilities, especially of those with intellectual disabilities. We hope that with the ratification of the UN Convention Bulgaria will take a new direction regarding respecting the fundamental rights of persons with disabilities.”

Bulgaria is the 20^th EU member that has ratified the UN Convention. The treaty entered into force on May 3^rd, 2008 and was ratified by the EU in December 2010.

How is social inclusion happening in Bulgaria?

The Cedar Foundation team acclaims the cooperation between the Bulgarian government and the European Commission for this complex process of Deinstitutionalization that gives perspective and hope to the residents of the institutions for an integrated life into the community.
Parallel to that, due to the practical experience Cedar has in closing an institution and in the provision of residential community services, we have identified problems which can prevent the reform from achieving its ultimate goal – the complete social inclusion of the individuals currently living in the institutions.
We find the low budget for the new services for children with disabilities a major problem. According to the Action Plan on Deinstitutionalization 420 young people will be accommodated in 35 residential family-type centres and 850 children will live in 70 such centres which mean 12 young people and respectively children living at one place. This contradicts with the idea that the new community services will be of a family type and runs a risk of them becoming mini-institutions. Another consequence of the lack of a more solid investment in the residential community services is the small number of the personnel. It is not realistic for a specialist to apply an individual approach and meet the specific needs of each person when he or she has to work with 8-10 residents at the same time.
The Cedar Foundation also recommends that the new community services should not be created in the buildings of the old institutions and is strongly against the establishment of an institutional care under a different name.
We think that the success of the reform requires the involvement of the social service providers in the Working group and the Monitoring Committee as well as in the process of revision of the regional social service strategies. According to the Action Plan on DI all stakeholders were supposed to be invited.
You can acquaint yourself with the overall Cedar statement by opening the link to the pdf document: The Cedar Foundation Position Paper on the DI reform in Bulgaria

Christmas masquarade in Kyustendil

An awesome holiday initiative organized by Cedar and widely supported by some of our great sponsors and friends took place in Kyustendil family-type homes on December 10^th. The masquerade party with tasty treats and dances was a blast for the children and young people with disabilities living in the homes. The best part for them was Santa Claus presence and of course, all the great gifts they received from him.

The party guests had the chance to buy some of the art items made by the children and young adults during their art therapy sessions.

We would like to express our deep gratitude to all Cedar friends who personally bought and packed the individual presents for the children and young adults. You made their holiday an awesome one.