Bulgaria is again in the news.  More specifically, the New York Times. When this happens it's generally bad.  American's don't seem to care about the good things that are happening in a country it's the bad stuff that sells from natural disasters to corruption to war.

That's why this headline caught my eye: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/world/europe/06bulgaria.html?_r=5&amp;pagewanted=1&amp;ref=europe" target="_blank">Unlikely Allies in Bulgaria Reveal Fatal Mental Health Neglect</a>. First I had no idea what the headline meant and second because issues of neglect, mental health, children and death break my heart.

Interestingly, the first two paragraphs of the article play up the shock factor:
<blockquote>An unusual investigation that brought together prosecutors and human rights lawyers has revealed a grisly picture of neglect at Bulgarian state homes for mentally disabled children: 238 deaths since 2000.More than three-fourths of the deaths were found to have been avoidable: 84 from physical deterioration caused by neglect; 36 from exposure to cold or long-term immobility; 31 from malnutrition; 13 from infections caused by poor hygiene; 6 from accidents; 15 were unexplained.</blockquote>
These numbers seem appallingly high given the fact that Bulgaria is a part of the EU.  This said, the death of children is always shocking but in my mind, the death of children who cannot advocate for themselves is that much worse.

What's notable is what's being done to investigate these deaths. Basically, Bulgarian prosecutors and humans rights lawyers have teamed up to collect evidence.  <!--more-->Yeah, they are working together to confront this problem. Apparently:
<blockquote>The effort represents a strategic break from the familiar pattern of advocates’ naming and shaming governments for appalling standards of care for their societies’ most vulnerable citizens.

Evidence was collected to identify those guilty of crimes and build legal cases to send them to prison.

“It’s about ending impunity,” said Margarita Ilieva, legal director at the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee. “This will instill a fear of criminal liability, and that will change the behavior of the executive branch of government.”

Last month, the Bulgarian prosecutor general announced criminal investigations into 166 of the deaths and 30 more cases of abuse of children still living in the homes. More than 80 percent of the deaths in the homes were not reported to authorities — as required by law — and the bodies were buried without autopsies.

Several legal experts working in the region said they could recall no case of anyone ever going to jail for crimes in state institutions for the mentally disabled.</blockquote>
So, it turn out that something is happening. Maybe it will even prevent deaths in the future.  And this it turns out is an article about good things that are happening because of a bad situation. Clear it would be better if these deaths had never happened but in my book, it's definitely worth noting that steps are being taken to confront the problem.

I seriously hope that this marks a step forward for the rights of disabled children living in state homes in Bulgaria.