Child Prisons also known as Bulgarias Baby Institutions

Worlds apart...

Upon leaving Sofia we began the three hour drive north to a small town called Pleven, there had been a few issues with the institute there so we had an afternoons notice and were off on the bus Sunday lunchtime.

It's quite a daunting prospect going to a small town here, i have had the privilege of travelling a lot of different countries over the past few years yet I have to say i was most apprehensive about travelling through Bulgaria.
I think it is a combination of many things from the very little English spoken here to silly things like the different alphabet that make it a difficult place to get around, esspecially when you aren't here living like a tourist but as a local.

The main thing for me is the completely different attitude towards life and people in general , out of everywhere i have been the atmosphere and attitude felt the most foreign to me. Ironic as it is a mere 3 hours away from home.
I have never understood or looked into much about communism or the effects it has on the people that are subject to its rules, arriving here i could almost see it on every persons face that i have come across.
This real sense of hopelessness etched on everyone's faces, like they have given up on everything, been oppressed for so long that having freedom back in their hands left everyone at a loss with what to do with it. I guess it isn't until i felt this that i realized how much hope and excitement is in the air in the UK, believing that we can achieve any dream we set our minds to is something we take for granted when it is so special. In my experience people here aren't as blessed or lucky to have been raised with that outlook.

Arriving into Pleven in the late afternoon we were greeted by the institutes psychiatrist ,Grigor, someone that over the course of the next week would touch my heart and alter my views on life and Bulgarian culture forever.
After dropping us off at the apartment Grigor left and we arranged to meet for coffee later to discuss the current situation at the institute.

Pleven is almost exactly what you expect from a small eastern European town in the countryside; very quiet, almost eary. 
A scattering of people at little cafes/ resturaunts but not to many,a very hot, dry heat and lots of communist influenced buildings everywhere.

We met Grigor near the flat at a coffee shop an hour later, having someone like him to sit down with is/was my idea of heaven,i have longed to speak to someone that has experience and a complete understanding of institutionalization from beginning to end.

Grigor is an incredibly personable man that speaks with such an overwhelming amount of passion, i was in awe of his opinion and thoughts on the subject from the word go.
I think what struck me the most was that despite the fact he has worked in this system for so long he hasn't become desensitized to it, he is still here everyday working away and striving for change as if he had just discovered it.
With that in mind i fired my 10,000 questions over to the poor man and left with an overwhelming feeling of excitement for the week ahead, knowing that we had access to understand so much more through Grigor was an incredibly exciting feeling.

Emotions on the first day..

Our first day in the institute came and i was much more nervous about the way i would feel then when i entered the small group home.. this wasn't 7 children in a nice home anymore, this was 160 children in an institution.
As we approached the institute after our 20 minute walk from the flat it looked how i expected, like a huge old Eastern European Prison... everything looking very old and falling apart.
There is a park that sits out the front of the main entrance, filled with Babas and their designated children. An amazing sight to see, 47 Babas in total meaning that over half of the children in Pleven have 5 hours of one on one interaction and development 5 days a week. When you see what they are subject to for the remaining 19 hours of the day this is simply invaluable.

Upon arrival at the institute the director wanted to interview myself and Ruth to find out why we were there, what our backgrounds were with children etc... this was a result of of the problems they had had the previous week.
I am unsure of the exact detail but know that the two volunteers practically had to beg to be allowed in just to help the children, so we were in full knowledge that we may have a fight on our hands.
Grigor had called on the director who said she was busy, we waited out on the steps playing with the kids in the park, hours went past with Grigor off doing his job and coming back out every hour apologizing that the director was being so uncooperative. He had scheduled in time with her but now she had decided she was to busy to see us, typical volitile behavior of a director over here.
Five hours later, we were suddenly allowed in, no interview or questions asked - an example of how things work here in the 'care' system, not by logical thinking just by what the people in power feel like doing that day, that hour, that minute.

What we were about to experience would show how the behavior from the top filtered through to the very bottom and shocked you through to the core..

Hells.x