EQ publications
Transforming Lives
On the 28th December 2010, the Bulgarian Council of Ministers announced the official closure of Teteven Institution for children 0 to 3 years old (officially named ‘Home for Medical and Social Care for Children’ – HMSCC). The decision was in line with the National Strategy ‘Vision for Deinstitutionalising the Children in the Republic of Bulgaria’ as well as with the concept for deinstitutionalising the children from the baby institutions approved by the Ministry of Health.
The closure took place within the project ’Restructuring of the Home for Medical and Social Care for Children (HMSCC) in Teteven and development of alternative social services for children and families (Centre of Social Support)’ implemented jointly by NGO Equilibrium (Bulgaria), Hope and Homes for Children (United Kingdom) and the Municipality of Teteven (Bulgaria) and supported by the Bulgarian Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the State Agency for Child Protection. This support was ratified in formal agreements that guaranteed a smooth transition between institutional care and the operation of a complex for social services for the children and families from the community. The project was conducted over a period of 24 months - from January 2010 until December 2011.
‘Transforming Lives’ describes the closure model covering the operational outline, significant financial and management criteria and key learning points.
You can read the full text here
It's Child's Play!
"Child Participation is a fundamental principle of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The “participation rights” enshrined in the CRC are summarized by UNICEF as follows – “Children are entitled to the freedom to express opinions and to have a say in matters affecting their social, economic, religious, cultural and political life. Participation rights include the right to express opinions and be heard, the right to information and freedom of association.”
This discussion paper on the subject of Child Participation is being written at a time when leaders of western society (on both sides of the Atlantic) are being forced to radically reassess the dynamics of institutional and social relationships between adults and children. Some commentators have argued that widespread indecision, knee-jerk proliferation of child-oriented initiatives and the multiplication of boards, committees and quangos to deal with the entire process of rearing, socialising and educating children signal a crisis of adult authority."
David's book "Child Participation - It's Child's Play" is uploaded here. If you'd like to have the original, send an e-mail at office@eq-bg.com or d.bisset@eq-bg.com and we shall get back to you.
Creating a Centre of Excellence
The international network known as COPORE (Competencies for Poverty Reduction) was coordinating a large project involving 14 partners. In February 2010 a competition for European organizations actually working in the field of poverty reduction was held under the banner of COPORE. David Bisset prepared an article to present Equilibrium's 'modus operandi', difficulties and achievements in the delivery of integrated social services based on our experience in managing the Ruse Complex for Social services.
The COPORE team chose nine different organizations - EQ was happy to be among that number - that attended an international conference in Amsterdam to present a variety of models of best professional practice. You can read the article in question here.
Experiential Education
This manual has been designed for use by teachers / youth workers who are concerned to adopt informal, interactive teaching methods that introduce children to ‘experiential learning’.
Experiential Learning basically means learning from physical engagement and a process of exploration rather than from instruction. The Equilibrium team believes that it is important that, as far as possible, this takes place within the community that surrounds the school that the children attend. Participation in civic society permits children to positively contribute to cultural life and social development as they learn.
We also encourage exploration of the natural world so that children become ecologically aware and conservation conscious on the basis of their own experience of the issues as opposed to learning these things from educational formulae or the manifestos of environmental organisations.
Sexual Politics among Bulgarian Teenagers
Bulgaria’s criminal ‘insurance’ rackets of the early 1990s have been dismantled but the Neanderthal bortsi, the hired muscle, remain influential and ubiquitous.They are widely emulated and, as a social group, they represent a highly demonstrative clan among the well to do within urban society. Their offspring strut their stuff in the corridors of the elite schools. Disembarking from upmarket, foreign cars (characteristically, jet black or crimson) at 8.15, they enter school, mobile phone glued to ear, intent on making a fashion statement sufficient to knock the socks off any US pop idol. They are frequently disdainful of their classmates and teachers. The average teacher hasn’t the skill or the courage to curb their brashness. What can the school directors do? Threaten expulsion?