Symbolic action under the slogan "We are pushing children's healthcare"

Symbolic action under the slogan "We are pushing children's healthcare"

On October 16 Foundation "For the Good" will hold a symbolic action under the title "We are pushing children's healthcare" – a quiet but insistent invitation to conversation and action. The organization’s team and volunteers will pushing a child's hospital bed on the streets of Sofia – from the pediatrics on Geshov Blvd. to the Ministry of Health.

"This is not a protest, but our way of taking our demands for encounter and understanding to another level. This bed is the symbol of a system that for years has not seen children as individuals, but as diagnoses and paths. For more than 5 years we have been working and learning how to improve the environment in children's healthcare. Expectations for us are growing, it is time to get help," the Foundation says.

 Why we do it?

For The Good Foundation working to change the children's hospital experience through the project "Firefly" more than 5 years – the initiative that transforms pediatric wards into brighter, more humane and safer places for children and their parents. With this, we have proven that civil organizations, donors and volunteers can transform children's wards in the country. The latest ward at DOBRICH Hospital won an international award for interior design in the "Hospitality" category.

So far:

• are 10 pediatric wards renovated in various cities of Bulgaria;
• 30 medical specialists undergo training in therapeutic (healing) communication – the first of its kind in the country;
• have been made official proposals to the Ministry of Health to start National Firefly Program.

Despite numerous letters and attempts at dialogue with the Ministry of Health, the Health Commission, to date no no official response of our desire for cooperation.

What do we expect?

The Foundation insists on:

1. Long-term commitment from the state for the implementation of National Firefly Program – to improve the conditions and environment in pediatric wards across the country.
2. Incorporating therapeutic communication in the education and training of medical professionals.
3. Create a new account – child life specialist, to support the child, the family and medical professionals in the hospital environment.

"We are pushing children's healthcare because it can't go alone.
We push it because the peeling beds in the wards are difficult to move on their rusty wheels. We push it because The lack of conditions pushes medical teams to the brink of exhaustion.We push it because The lack of empathy and broken trust in communication pushes children and parents to mental exhaustion and leaves lifelong scars in the souls of child patientsWe push it with all our remaining strength because we believe that If we push it together – parents, doctors, institutions – it will get to a place where goodness is the standard, not the exception.", they are convinced by the Foundation.

The For Good Foundation is member of EACH – European Association for Children in Hospital and Healthcare, the European organization that advocates for the rights of children in hospital settings and sets the child at the center of care.Project "Firefly" is the Bulgarian path to this standard – a path of trust, humanity and responsibility.