Parents of Children with Disabilities Staged a Protest outside Parliament

Mothers of children with disabilities staged a protest outside the Parliament on 30^th of June. They insist that their demands be heard and that laws be changed so that their children receive adequate assistance and care. At the request of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, MPs debated the policies for addressing the disability issues in Parliament today.

Katya Yordanova, a protesting mother said that the parents were here to remind about the people with disabilities. “Their lives depend on the work of MPs. They are the most vulnerable part of the society and the MPs have to take care of them," she said.

Nelly Antova: "I hope they finally make a decision: a personal assistance law would be very useful.”

“A Personal Assistance Act as a wish is nice, but it is something that is very expensive,” the Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Bisser Petkov, said to journalists after a debate in Parliament in relation to the question of MPs from the BSP regarding the policies for solving the problems of people with disabilities. The adoption of the Personal Assistance Act is a request of parents of disabled children.

The Minister explained that the adoption of such a law is related to the provision of a significant financial resource, because the idea in it is for people with disabilities to receive a monthly resource to the amount of three minimum wages and choose personal assistants. In his words, much more social and richer than Bulgaria countries have given up this kind of support.

Instead of that, the Ministry is working to increase social services for people with disabilities as well as to prepare and quickly adopt a new Social Services Act. Some useful things in the draft of the Personal Assistance Act are also under consideration in the reform in this area, the minister said. He added that one of the concepts in the draft Social Services Act is the mapping of the social services so that they are tailored to the respective needs of the people with disabilities in any particular region.