„"The conditions were unworthy of a human being, let alone mothers with babies. The ward had not been renovated in years. The rooms built for one mother and child were being used for two, with the mother sleeping in the same bed as the child. There was literally no air to breathe. The toilet was infested with flies and unusable. The room was falling apart..."“
This is an absolutely accurate quote from a letter addressed to the For Good Foundation, describing the condition of a children's ward in a state hospital in the country. We receive dozens of such letters. We have both photos and videos.
In fact, the Foundation exists precisely because each of us was once that mother – and chose not to settle.
We are not writing this text to respond to Ms. Vanya Grigorova.
First, she is not the only one who repeats the thesis about "harmful NGOs.".
Second, she is essentially right: the state really should do everything we do. But it doesn't.
Over the past 10 years, hospitals in the country have requested 182,219,258 leva from the Ministry of Health for repairs and equipment of children's wards. Nearly 36 million leva have been allocated, of which 20 million are for construction. This means that about 16 million leva have actually been allocated for capital expenditures – approximately 10% of the required funding.
Only during the period of existence of the "For Good" Foundation, over 3 million leva have been invested in children's wards in the country under the "Firefly" project.
Believing that it was time for the state to take on its role, we proposed to the Ministry of Health a National Firefly Program. With a budget of 15 million leva, all children's wards in regional hospitals could be transformed. With an annual healthcare budget of 5 BILLION EUROS, the answer was: "No need, everything is fine."„
We urge anyone who has doubts about the role of the NGO sector to examine the activities of any organization. And every time they encounter a lack of accessible environment, denial of treatment, absence of palliative care or policies for vulnerable groups – to check if there is a non-governmental organization that has been working on this very problem for years.
If we're being completely honest, it would be far easier on our nerves, finances, and families to knit socks.
We work and dream that one day this will be our only concern.
But while we receive letters like this at the beginning, we will continue – between cooking and knitting – to repair hospitals and train teams.
EN 
BG