WHY HESED
Our mission is to promote opportunities for personal and community development, health and social well-being in socially excluded communities.
CURRENT SITUATION
“In Bulgaria we no longer talk about a demographic crisis. We talk about a demographic catastrophe.”
We are facing a steep decline of the working age population – more serious than in any other country in the world (World Bank, 2013). According to a UN estimate, in 30 years our workforce will have decreased by about 40%.
At the same time 25% of all new labour market entrants in Bulgaria today are ethnically Roma, and this percentage is projected to rise in the coming years. They are our future physicians and nurses, engineers, teachers, builders, microbiologists. They are the future employees and managers at your company. Their professional and social skills will have a critical influence on the results of the Bulgarian economy and business in the coming years.
Today more than ever Bulgaria needs the implementation of a new model which can change the course of development of communities like the Roma’s, as well as create the necessary conditions for development in our economy and society.
Hesed offers such a development model.
DEVELOPMENT MODEL MIR
“There are two periods in life which are key to the formation of personality – early childhood (ages 0-5) and adolescence (ages 12-17), when the child is socialized as an adult.”
The model for integrated development (MIR) targets the most important periods of personal development and simultaneously makes solvable both main problems – education and work. The program for children and parents ensures successful integration in school while the development of social skills among teenagers improves their participation in the labour market.
MIR is the first model which has been created as a result of many years of professional work in the community. It offers a set of integrated services which can solve the problem of Roma integration within 15 years. Unlike traditional social policy that focuses on people with serious problems, our services work preventively, i.e. long before the problems become hard to reverse. MIR acts complementary to the current state measures for the integration of the Roma community (compulsory education, full-day school, qualification courses, etc.) and makes them truly effective.
EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS
“The foundation is a provider of social services licensed by the Agency for Social Assistance and the National Child Protection Agency.”