2020 Report
Introduction
A good thing timely done is twice good.
Our mission is to enforce a high standard for children’s healthcare and education.
We rally people, organizations and communities to modernize the environment for treating children, to protect child patients’ rights and restore trust between children, their parents and pediatrics specialists.
Although we are living in a technologically advanced century and are part of the European Community, the status of children’s healthcare in Bulgaria increasingly worsens – old and decaying material base, old and ineffective medical equipment, lack of medical equipment, a shortage of doctors and specialized staff. Decades-old issues in children’s healthcare that are only worsening are a result of institutional insensitivity to problems and a lack of responsibility in the state, lack of competency, policies and priorities.
We are encouraging our community to transform children’s and child patient’s lives with empathy, cooperation, exacting more and working hard in finding the best solutions.
We protect the rights of child patients to recover and be educated in a friendly environment.
We act with urgency because every day counts and every child’s life is priceless.
We are actively working on making progress with the Goals for Sustainable Development of the Global Contract.
“Za Dobroto” Foundation is a legal entity as of Devember 2020 but its work began in 2019 as an informal civil initiative called #ZaDobroto Project that brings together over 10 000 volunteers and benefactors.
The causes of Project #ZaDobroto and “Za Dobroto” Foundation answer needs and deficits of the community. We work faithfully and transparently, most often by providing daily reports to patrons and the media during each campaign.
Until the creation of the Foundation #ZaDobroto Project had organized 9 successful campaigns for children’s healthcare and education and healthcare in general. They were all entirely completed with donations and volunteer efforts. Our partners in gathering funds were the donations social network Platformata.bg and the BCause Foundation: In Support of Charity – an authority in the area and expert non-government organization of international acclaim and more than 20 years of experience in beneficence and social investment. This collaboration is continuing with the Foundation.
The Foundation’s founders are amongst thе force behind the national civic initiative “For a Real Children’s Hospital” who submitted a petition to the Bulgarian Parliament for the building a modern pediatrics hospital meeting the highest standards in children’s healthcare and treatment. Building such a hospital is strongly needed but denied to society, doctors and medical specialists in pediatrics for the last 40 years. 
І. #ZaDobroto Proejct – a civic movement of benefactors and volunteers
Renovation and equipment additions for children’s hospital departments
#ZaDobroto Project began as an initiative led by parents shocked by the poor conditions for patients and medical staff in the only specialized children’s hospital in the country – “Prof. Dr. Ivan Mitev” in Sofia.
We began by repairing the nephrology department. We did a complete renovated the department, replaced the electrical grids, repainted and decorated the rooms and corridors to create a friendly environment for treating child patients. We also donated new equipment.
In the end of 2019 the Intensive Care Department of that same hospital was closed following the resignations of two anesthesiologists and the shortage of both human and medical resources in providing quality care for children. Thus the second campaign of the #ZaDobroto began. The department was completely repaired and renewed, decorated and supplemented with missing equipment and beds and work and treatment conditions improved. The department reopened with a full medical staff.
Similar issues with decrepit facilities triggered our third campaign in the Intestinal Parasites Department of the Infectious Diseases Clinic at the University Hospital “St George” in Plovdiv. In 2020 we began a complete renovation which was then temporarily placed on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the eve of 2020 we gifted books and toys to tens of children’s hospital departments and homes for orphaned children.
We chose June 1st – International Children’s Day as the occasion behind the campaign Children’s Healing Beds. We organized a donations campaign and an online charity auction for children’s paraphernalia and toys, books and educational games, art and educational courses for children and parents. With the received funds we ordered and delivered 10 specialized hospital beds: 7 for the Specialized Children’s Hospital “Prof. Dr. Ivan Mitev”, 2 for the Neurosurgical Department at the University Hospital “St.Ivan Rilski” and 1 for its Reanimation Department. In addition we provided suitable mattresses and children’s bed linen.
The aim of the specialized children’s beds is to provide comfort for the children and protect them from injuries or a fall. The lack of this basic safety condition for child patient in hospital wards force parents to be by their children’s side day and night.
Ski school for children without parents
In February 2020 we organized a ski school for 22 children between the ages of 7 and 18 from the family-type centers “Paisiy Hilendarski” and “Ivan Vazov” (homes for children without parental care).
The kids spent 3 days in nature and learned new skills and gained knowledge thanks to the BGN 3400 worth of donations and donated free use of ski, ski suits, lessons, transport, food, gifts and other necessities. It was important for us that children felt surrounded with love and attention. This initiative was a step towards socializing the children from the two centers led by the understanding that we as a society have to provide a chance for them to develop so that they can learn to dream and create their own life project.
The Covid-19 Pandemic
The initial wave of the pandemic brought to light serious gaps in the healthcare system and the lack of institutional readiness to react to crises placing at risk the life and health of first-line doctors and medical workers, as well as patients.
Hospitals and specialized Covid-19 departments lacked the necessary personal protection items and medical equipment. Within the first week of the announcement of a state of emergency in mid-March 2020 we started the donations campaign #ZaDobroto Project Against Covid-19 to urgently provide personal protection items to first-line doctors, medical workers and non-medical staff and respirators for serious cases. Hospital began calling us as their initial option for help.
We bought, donated and organized delivery in over 100 hospitals nation-wide of hundreds of thousands of medical gloves, face masks, shoe covers; thousands of non-disposable protective suits, goggles, disinfectants. We donated 10 medical ventilators for first-line hospitals, a big number of medical equipment and its required consumables. Volunteers – engineers, dentists and owners of 3D printers organized a massive safety helm production. They were joined by companies-manufacturers who volunteered and began secondary production. We provided over 12 000 helms to hospital staff in Covid-10 departments in the first three months of the pandemic.
In the course of a few weeks the campaign collected over BGN 570 000 in donations by private individuals, corporate benefactors and diplomatic missions in the country. Adding in material donations, services and volunteering hours and the donations of supporting campaigns the total worth reached BGN 1 million. For the moment #ZaDobroto Project’s campaign is the largest civil initiative in the country during the pandemic in support of medical workers and patients.
The second wave of the pandemic was a new challenge for authorities and benefactors. The overload of the healthcare system with patients was followed by long hours of working until exhausted and long hours without meals for the medical teams. #ATasteofHope began in collaboration with Gorata.bg as a local to Sofia and Plovdiv campaign to provide hot and quality meals to on-call teams in the emergency departments and Covid-19 wards. The initiative, however, grew quickly and spread to 15 cities in the country beginning a life of its own, creating new local campaigns, new communities of volunteers and patrons.
From the beginning of November to the end of the year over 100 restaurants and catering businesses prepared hot meals for the medical workers and many companies joined as volunteers in transporting and delivering the food. With the funds collected via Platformata.bg – nearly BGN 10 000 we paid for part of the food produce, bringing the good to a full circle by supporting restaurants closed because of the pandemic who were volunteers and patrons of the campaign.
Throughout November and December #ATasteofHope delivered over 5000 hot meals daily to Covid-19 wards and emergency centers. But the taste of hope was even sweeter as it also brought a message of hope and care to the first-line medical workers.
#A Taste of Hope created a campaign within a campaign: children from tens of schools drew and sent cards with messages for first-line medical workers. And they replied back with their own messages and thanks.
#A Taste of Hope continued throughout 2021.
ІІ. “Za Dobroto” Foundation
Our initiatives and wide network of volunteers, the trust of the community and patrons naturally led to the creation of the legal entity “Za Dobroto” Foundation in the beginning of December 2020. This was a way to shorten the distance between patrons and us and to begin to independently manage the campaign funds for which we are responsible. (Until now donations bank account were managed entirely by the BCause Fondation: in support of charity.)
In addition we created the Fund for the Children of Heroes that requires us to be contractual party for beneficiaries contracts.
Scholarship Fund for the Children of Heroes
The second wave of the Covid-19 Pandemic took many casualties amongst doctors, medical and non-medical staff in hospitals and teachers working first-line By the end of 2020 186 of them are diseased (71 teachers, 79 doctors, 20 nurses, 9 medical assistants, 5 ambulance drivers, 1 lab tech and 1 medical orderly)
We found the Fund for the Children of Heroes together with the teacher Petar Velkov and the BCause Foundation to support the small children of diseased doctors, medical workers and teachers. The Fund provides monthly grants of BGN500 (BGN 6000 yearly) so they can continue their education with fewer material worries that undoubtedly can occur after the death of a parent in an active age. The scholarships are a way of showing appreciation for the sacrifice of their parents and a way of letting the children and spouses know that they are not alone in their tragedy and are present in the collective minds and hearts of our society.
By December 31st 2020 9 grants were approved for children between the ages of 3 and 16. The children receive the funds as of January 1st 2021.
(As of January 31st 2021 the recipients of the Fund are now 17. The funds for the new 8 recipients will be paid as of February 1st 2021. A review is underway for 5 more potential recipients.)
Compared to the number of diseased teachers and medical workers the number of children benefitting from the Fund is not high. This comes from the fact that most of the diseased were aged over 60.
The children of the Fund will receive grants until they become 18 or complete their high-school education or education in one of the specialized professional schools with longer educational course. The Fund is a long-term project that will continue at least in the next 15 years. For now the youngest child in the Fund is a 3-year old.
Fundraising will continue throughout the year, every year. Accepting and approving documents will cease with the end of the pandemic. Decisions to approve grants will be made by a Public Council formed by representatives of the founders of the Fund, public figures of authority, representatives of partnering non-government organizations and large benefactors – private individuals and companies.
We created a special Facebook page to tell stories about the children of the Fund, carefully keeping their names and faces private to protect them of unhealthy curiosity or ill intent. There we share reports from Public Council meetings, donations appeals led by us or influential public figures, our thanks to patrons.
We are grateful for the wide public and media interest and support. Several national medias are our partners in reporting news for the Fund and donation drives. Amongst them are the Bulgarian National Radio, the healthcare platform CredoWeb.bg, newspapers 24 Chasa and Sega, websites Manager.bg, Segabg.com MediaCafe.bg. We keep our own subpages in CredoWeb and MediaCafe.
Our partners in the campaign are the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Hospital Association. We are supported by numerous non-government organization of authority.
At the end of 2020 we are in possession of the funds for the full yearly grants for the first 9 recipients as well as funding for 4 more grants – BGN 82 377 thanks to 420 benefactors.
5% of the funds or BGN 4119 will be deducted in accordance with the general terms of the Foundation for its upkeep and development.
The funds are collected via the Foundation’s donations bank account, via the charity platform Platformata.bg or the DMS platform (via text messages to mobile carriers).
Corporate donations are collected via internal campaigns organized by the companies’ teams or management.
Amongst the biggest contributors to the campaign for 2020 are:
- SAP Labs Bulgaria
- Unicredit Bulbank
- Infragistics Bulgaria
- the Bulgarian Society of Cardiology
- Burgiss
- Checkout X
- Hub Ahead,
private contributors who chose to remain anonymous.
Antimicrobial Lights Against Covid-19
The campaign for donations of antimicrobial lights to hospitals and emergency center began as a continuation of the March 2020 initiative to urgently support hospitals in the pandemic.
The devices are used to disinfect hospital spaces where there is an especially high risk of the virus spreading.
After carefully researching the market we began negotiations with a Bulgarian manufacturer who is both licensed and offers a quick delivery and support services. The model we chose, UV-C1, comes with a stand which makes it easy to use and move between rooms. The lights are suitable for use while spaces are populated as time is of the essence for both patients and doctors.
By the end of December 2020 we donated and delivered 57 antimicrobial lights to 34 hospitals and emergency room centers in the country. There is an upcoming delivery of further 17 lights to hospitals planned for the first weeks of 2021.
Part of the lights were purchased using leftover funds of our #Za Dobroto against Covid-19 which also marked its official conclusion. “Fund manager of financial instruments in Bulgaria” JSC donated further 10 000 leva for 24 more devices.
5% of the funds or BGN 500 will be deducted in accordance with the general terms of the Foundation for its upkeep and development.
III. Financial data for the year 2020
“Za Dobroto” Foundation
In 2020 received donations in the accounts of the Foundation are a total of 92 377,35 BGN.
As of to 31.12. 2020 the Foundation’s financial funds amount to:
- BGN 83 006,05 in bank accounts
- out of which provided for scholarships for the Children of Heroes Fund campaign 78 258,48 BGN.
- out of which provided for upkeep of the Foundation 4 614,87 BGN.
Expenses for 2020:
- Donation for the Foundation’s campaigns:
24 antimicrobial lights for the value of 9 504 BGN.
- Other expenses of the Foundation:
Stationery for the value of BGN 120.
Bank taxes for the value of BGN 34,60.
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For its brief existence the “Za Dobroto” Foundation aimed all its efforts in the areas of children’s healthcare, children’s rights, care for institutionalized children, environment improvements, community development and motivating civil activism.
Our key values are humanism, sensitivity, charity, solidarity, compassion. We work with respect, understanding and in dialogue with vulnerable groups and communities, as well as partner organizations and institutions.
With the understanding that trust is at the heart of society and its most valuable asset we accumulate that asset in our hearts, honestly and transparently. They say we inspire and motivate. Sometimes we are crushed by life stories that cause a lump in one’s throat. But we never lose hope and faith that the good, done timely is twice as good. And is infectious.
By the team of the “Za Dobroto” Foundation
- Kremena Kuneva – Founder and Chairperson
- Svilena Georgieva – Executive Director
- Dimitrina Spirova – Founder, Deputy Chairperson and member of the Management Board
- Nadezhda Boyadzhieva – Founder, Deputy Chairperson and member of the Management Board
- Vanya Karadzhova – member of the Management Board
- Polina Trayanova – member of the Management Board
- Mariela Tsekova – member of the Management Board
- Zhaneta Dzhoneva – member of the Management Board
Date: 29.01.2021г. (Kremena Kuneva – Chairperson)