Three projects were awarded by the jury of the "Project of the Year 2011" of Tulip Foundation

Three projects were awarded by the jury of the traditional awards "Project of the Year 2011" for civil society organizations working in the social sphere, organized for the seventh time by Tulip Foundation.

 
This year's jury was composed of Ognyan Donev, Chairperson of the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria /CRIB/; Sevda Shishmanova, Program Director of Bulgarian National Television; Daniela Petkova, Executive director of Pension Assurance Company Doverie; Anna Zaharieva, Executive director of FairPlay International and His Excellency Matthias Höpfner, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany.

 
During the ceremony, held on 29.03.2012 in the Chamber Hall Bulgaria, Daniela Petkova - Executive director of PAC Doverie and Ambassador Höpnerf presented and awarded the project "Parents for Contact", implemented by the Association of Children with Congenital Facial Anomalies and their Parents.

 
The aim of the project is to implement high-quality prevention of abandonment of children with disabilities. Within the framework of the project, parents of children with facial disabilities were trained and prepared to voluntarily provide psychological and informational support to new parents with similar problems.

As a result of the work of the 15 trained contact parents, a total of 83 families have sought support since the beginning of the project; 2 children with congenital facial anomalies who had been placed in the Home for Medical and Social Care for Children have been returned to their families; 9 pregnant women were prenatally diagnosed, and none of them had an abortion or abandoned their child after birth.

The Association works in collaboration with parents, patients and medical professionals to prevent the abandonment of children with facial anomalies and to improve the quality of treatment for these children. The award was received by Ms Zhana Angelova, chairperson of the Association, with some of the project team members and contact parents on stage. The other two winning projects were presented and awarded by Anna Zaharieva, Executive director of FairPlay International and Ognyan Donev, Chairperson of the Management Board of the Confederation of the Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria – Early Intervention to Prevent Abandonment of Children with Disabilities of Karin Dom Foundation in Varna.

 
The aim of the project is to development and to implement on the territory of the municipality of Varna of a model for early intervention to prevent the abandonment of children with disabilities - a transition from expert to family-oriented approach in services. The project supports families so that they feel knowledgeable, capable and confident in their parenting role. As a result of the project, over 150 children and their families have received one-to-one support in their own home. Some of the children were at risk of institutionalisation, but thanks to the programme this has not happened. Karin Dom Foundation has disseminated its early intervention model to 10 civil society organisations from 8 municipalities in the country, which are implementing scaled-down early intervention services in their settlements. The award was received by Ms Veselina Vassileva, Early Intervention Program Coordinator at Karin Dom Foundation.

 
Ms Sevda Shishmanova, Programme Director of BNT and Mr Vladimir Penkov, Member of the Management Board of Tulip Foundation - "Let's better protect and take care of the health of our children living along the Danube" of the Association of Danube Municipalities.

 
The aim of the project is to improve the conditions and access of children in 17 municipalities of the Danube region to specialised medical care, prevention, timely diagnosis and appropriate treatment. In 4 of the target municipalities there was no specialised paediatric surgery. In 13 of them there were such clinics, but they desperately needed renovation and reconstruction and modern medical equipment. The project renovated and furnished the paediatric consulting rooms with modern medical equipment and devices for the work of paediatricians and provided waiting rooms for children and their parents with toys, benches, slides and other entertainment. As a result, the conditions and access of approximately 58 thousand children in the Danube region to specialised medical care have been improved. The award was received by Mr. Peter Stoykov, Project Coordinator at Danube Association.

 
The "Project of the Year 2011" award is a sculpture specially made by Prof. Georgi Chapkanov, accompanied by a certificate and an incentive grant from the Tulip Foundation.

 
The awarded projects were selected from 31 projects from all over the country, awarded with the recognition of the people who nominated them. The diversity of the submitted projects, aimed at improving the quality of life and opportunities for certain groups of people, is impressive.
Eleven of the submitted projects are being implemented in small towns and another eight projects are being implemented in large cities across the country. Eight projects are implemented in Sofia and four projects are implemented by local organisations in villages. One of the projects is implemented in 17 municipalities in Northern Bulgaria and the other two have national coverage. The projects were nominated by civil society organisations and partners; by team members; by representatives of municipalities, libraries and schools; by volunteers and participants in the activities.

 
The submitted projects were evaluated on results; sustainability of the activities over time; financial efficiency; participation of the target groups and the local community; innovation and applicability of the idea in other localities.