Bulgaria's Abandoned Children - Part 6
A prominent social scientist once said that the level of civilisation achieved by a society is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable. This is the BBC documentary that Bulgarian MEP's did not want the rest of Europe to see - 'Bulgaria's Abandoned Children'. Bulgarian MEPs tried to stop the screening of this documentary at the EU Parliament but were unsuccessful. What would cause such consternation that this documentary would even be screened at the EU Parliament in the first place? At the time when this documentary was aired, Bulgaria was still bleeding from the scandal of the Bulgarian nurses indicted in Libya for the manslaughter of over 300 babies by infecting them with AIDS. At first the government of Bulgaria did not care about the "Libyan Medics" until they were sentenced to death for their criminal negligence causing the eventual death of over 300 babies. Bulgaria viewed the Libyan medics on death row as an indictment upon the entire Bulgarian medical profession, and therefore began an hysterical campaign to "free the medics". Bulgarians insisted on painting the sentence of the Libyan judges with political colours despite the reasonably good relations between Libya and Bulgaria. To the Bulgarian establishment, the death sentence of the Libyan medics was a "conspiracy against Bulgaria". No attention was paid by the Bulgarian establishment to the plight of the 300 Libyan babies that will soon die due to the medical negligence of the Libyan medics (Bulgarian doctors and nurses). After much political wheeling and dealing the Libyan medics were pardoned and released. The Bulgarian medical profession felt that it was vindicated by this political move that denied justice to 300 Libyan babies who are now without a future. The fate of the institutionalised Bulgarian children in this video now raises further questions about the competence of the Bulgarian medical profession and the corruption that plagues the system. We see in this documentary that many (but not all) of the nurses employed in the Mogilino home are not genuinely concerned with the welfare of the children. The screening spans over a period of 8 months during which we see children losing weight and suffering from malnutrition. The dietary intake of the children was chosen by the director of the Mogilino home, because of whom many of the children died from malnutrition. In any other EU country the director and certain staff of the Mogilino home would be charged with multiple counts of homicide resulting from criminal negligence. But not in Bulgaria where the director and culpable staff are still free. Bulgaria has more institutionalised mentally and physically disabled children than anywhere else in Europe. This film is a heart-rending look into the life of one such institution. Director Kate Blewett visits a children's care home in Bulgaria where 75 unwanted children are growing up, and investigates the conditions in which the children live. The care home is the main employer in the small village of Mogilino, over an hour from the nearest town. Few of the children can talk, not necessarily because they are unable to, but rather because no one has ever taught them how. Kate meets the children in this tragic, silent world, such as Milan, the gentle giant who spends his days doing chores and watching over the others, and mildly autistic 18-year-old Didi, who is able to talk, and has plenty to say, but no one to speak to. The children that surround them suffer a variety of problems, many are blind or deaf and some are unable to leave their beds, many are literally wasting away. Abandoned into the hands of the staff at Mogilino these children inhabit a bleak uncaring world, so devoid of normal everyday stimulus that many have taken to rocking slowly and constantly in their chairs just for something to do.
