IA Bulgaria: Healthy Girls & Boys Under Three

My friend "K" and her husband have been waiting for the referral of a healthy girl up to 36 months of age from Bulgaria.  "K" has been diligent in tracking the wait times and the kinds of referrals that are being issued by MOJ.  Her placing agency has been doing the same.  "K" shared with me her findings that she recently discussed with her placing agency and she gave me permission to publish them here.  Below is "K's" research.

"I compared my tracking sheets with [our program manager's] and we matched across the board. I have been tracking all IAC session referrals since September 2012 of children under the age of 36 months (boys and girls; "healthy" and not). Here's what I have found through my own tracking (all confirmed by our program manager):

• Average wait time for girls under the age of 36 months (regardless of health or family history) has remained static at 32 months.
• Average wait time for "healthy" girls under 36 months has steadily increased each year from 42 months in 2012 to 47 months in 2014.
• The total number of referrals for children under 36 months has stayed consistent (even increased ever so slightly), however, the percentage of referrals of "healthy" children has sharply declined and is on track to further decline in 2015.

                                2013        2014        2015YTD*

Total referrals        109        119            10

# healthy                   41           33             2

% healthy                  38%       28%         20%

*2015 Year to Date through 2/19/15

Healthy children are considered any who do not have a note of "Features: Health Status" and/or "Family History" in the IAC session results. Also does not include children referred from profiles on the MOJ website (i.e. waiting children).

The above stats are consistent with what our program manager has heard from [our Bulgarian NGO]--the MOJ is referring more children categorized with having special needs. The problem with that is how the categories are understood, defined and applied. Some children are deemed "healthy", but do in fact have needs. Some children are labeled with needs that don't exist. The discrimination of Roma children continues to be a problem, and makes it hard to understand these labels."

Thank you, "K", for your efforts in compiling this information.