Karin Dom Received Savior of Childhood Award
The National Association for Foster Care handed out Saviors of Childhood awards for the second time on the occasion of Foster Care Day. Foster parents, doctors, teachers, social workers, human rights defenders, adoptive parents and professionals were awarded prizes for investment in foster care. Special guests of the evening were the deputy minister of social welfare Rositsa Dimitrova and the deputy minister of education Tania Mihailova.
Karin Dom was one of the tree NGOs to receive the Saviors of Childhood award. The award was given for the support and care provided to many children with disabilities who live in foster families. They suffer not only physical but also emotional pain. Karin Dom was nominated by the foster parent Nikoleta Naidenova for the contribution of the professionals to the change in her child’s life.
“Karin Dom is a place where every child is accepted what he or she is, no matter the seeming difference. I have been a foster parent for 11 years, but I hadn’t taken care of a child with disability until a little girl was placed in my home who had multiple health issues and required more specific care in addition to the love and care given to every child. When we took her home, she had many difficulties. But, despite the physical deficits, the most severe was the emotional desolation we observed when she arrived. With the support of Karin Dom early intervention team we rearranged the environment in our home to meet her special needs. With a great patience and professionalism the speech therapist Svetla and the physical therapist Vladi were not only helping the child but were teaching me and the rest from our foster family to take of the child when they were not with us. With their support we felt safer and better prepared for the challenges we encountered. We felt their support day and night and this made us more courageous foster parents. Now we see an improvement in the development of our foster child. She is eating with a spoon. We are better working on her fine motor skills. She can sit stable and her crawling turned into walking. I am sure that if these two girls were not in our life, we wouldn’t be able to achieve all this. The key for the success of our little foster princess is the understanding of the adults for shared care, professionalism, mutual trust and.. the big hearts that people from Karin Dom have.”
During the ceremony on behalf of Karin Dom the award received Nadia Bezeva, our friend and former colleague.
