The “Mama and I” Clinic with a donation campaign to improve services for children

“Time for direct donation to the able, the knowledgeable and the doers – to the creators of children’s healthcare in Bulgaria, to raise our national expertise to a global level and cover the country territorially.

We only accept named donations, transparently, by bank and electronic transfer only – with full accountability to donors.”

This is a campaign announced by the Maternity and Children Clinic “Mama and I”, Pleven.

The head of the clinic – Dr. Velimir Simov – announced to BNR that the mayors of Burgas and Pleven are the first donors:

“They are mayors of cities where our structures work and they know what they get from these structures. Many ordinary people, medium and small companies, many insurance companies have already donated money and this money is being used in a targeted and momentary way to improve services for children”.

Dr. Simov was adamant that the teams at the Mama and I provide urgent health care to children:

“We follow the laws and it is free for children up to the age of 7 and parents do not pay anything extra. And for children in critical condition undergoing intensive care, regardless of age, they pay nothing extra.”

“Every day, many parents raise funds through TV shows, social networks and foundations for their children’s treatment abroad. Some manage to meet the high costs, most – never. And why don’t we in Bulgaria develop our own network for paediatric help and care with world-leading expertise and make it fully accessible to all? N a t i o n a l Children’s Hospital. And there won’t be any soon, because after the ‘Mama and I’ project in Sofia 20 months ago brought together doctors and patient organisations, the state got around to choosing a site. The interests of politicians and parents still diverge. So we took the development into our own hands. We have never bothered the public with pitches, needs analysis and projects – we know it all, we do it ourselves – we practice state-of-the-art paediatric medicine on the evidence. Foreign experience is also important, even for our modest scale – a closer and an unattainable example:

More than 40 million euros have been raised by donations (350 thousand individuals and more than 8 thousand companies) in Romania for a specialized children’s oncology hospital with 187 beds. The project has been completed in four years and the facility is now operational.

More than 850 million Swiss francs have been raised by the private Eleonore Foundation in Zurich for a 230-bed children’s hospital that will open at the end of 2024. The hospital is neither state-owned nor belongs to the cantonal university hospital.

Diana Yankulova’s interview with Dr. Velimir Simov in the “12+3” programme can be heard in the audio file (available in Bulgarian).