Representatives of Alumni 2010 of the Bulgarian School of Politics visited St. Pantelejmon Social Institution for Children with Disabilities in Vidrare Village, Pravets Municipality. On 15th January 2011 they met and discussed with the Director – Mr. Evgeni Dimitrov, about the opportunities which the project “Young Leaders Assisting the Social Integration of Children from Institutions”, financed from the Bonita Trust Foundation, provides for support and socialization of the children.

The goal of the meeting was to discuss the main deficits of the Social Institution and where to focus the efforts of BSP Alumni 2010 representatives. A member of the foundation “Institute Nikolay Dobrev” also attended the meeting. In spite of the good conditions into the Social Institution in Vidrare and the availability of equipment and space for working with children with special needs, a shortage of specialists was identified. Remoteness of the Institution from big towns and law level of payments were discussed as the main reasons for vacancies for a psychologist and a speech therapist. The ambition of the Alumni 2010 of BSP is to partly overcome this problem by engaging an expert in special pedagogy to develop a suitable program for art-therapy. The program will be implemented by students and PhDs in special pedagogy, who will work with the children on a volunteer basis. During the visit, the children from the Social Institution received gifts and sweets. The meeting in Vidrare was the second one within the Project. Before Christmas, representatives of Alumni 2010 of BSP met with the children in Sofia and gave them presents. The engagement of Alumni 2010 of BSP to the Social Institution in Vidrare started last year. Then the trainees from the National Programme of the Bulgarian School of Politics implemented several donor initiatives, organized a visit of a puppet show to the Institution and provided funds for purchasing 4 000 liters of fuel for heating.