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Day Care Center “Sunbeam” Shumen at 10

19.06.2009 

With a garden party and many guests the Day Centre for Children and Adults with Disabilities "Sunbeam" - Shumen celebrated its ten year anniversary. A rich musical program was prepared by the hosts. Part in it took graduates of the social establishment, and special invitees for the event: dancers from dance club "Fairy Dance" at the Youth Centre Shumen and children from the youth dance ensemble “Zvanche” at the Cultural Center Todor Petkov, Shumen. 
In response to the special invitation of the director of the Daycare Center Ms. Valya Taneva, our association “Shining Dawn” took part in the preparation of the anniversary. Poems written for the special occasions reflecting the difficult path of establishing such an institution was our surprise to Mrs. Taneva who impressed us with his exceptional charisma, energy and desire to achieve a good environment for the children with disabilities . 

A specially prepared CDs with videos depicting the past and present of the Day Centre "Sunbeam" was our gesture to the staff and parents of children using the services of social institution. With it, we wanted to express our deep respect for all those who made their choice to take the hard path of commitment and care in  defence of the right of a meaningful life for people with disabilities. 

Day Care Center for Children and Adults with Disabilities "Sunbeam" is the first such center opened in Shumen, providing social services for people with special needs since 1999. It started as a home for children with disabilities and originally was housed in the suitable for this purpose building of the former kindergarten “Red Riding Hood ", Shumen. It had two special rooms for the its patients - a bedroom and a study; its service staff is of three people - one - staff and two orderlies. 

Its capacity was 24 places then, but at its official opening on 01.11.1999 the center began with only 5 children. At that time, the task of the director Mrs. Valya Taneva was very heard; she had to face a society completely unprepared for the problems she was to address, society of prejudices, mistrust and ignorance of the people with disabilities. Many parents did not trust the center and were even hiding from everyone around them that they had a child with a disability. 

So along with the problems of the renovation work and fire safety of the premises, there was the resistance of the parents of the children, attending the kindergarten in whose yard the Day Care centred was situated. There were calls for separation of the two social institutions with a barbed wire and even moving out. For a while there was no building for this institution, but in late summer of 1999. the Day Center was granted a space in the building of the former Kindergarten № 6 at the industrial work KTA Madara, where staff began working with a group of children. At the end of that year, the Day Center received the entire kindergarten building and let nine more children. After a directed campaign in a year and a half the social institution reached its full capacity of 24 children. 
     Today the Day Centre "Sunbeam", Shumen is a modern social institution, with a cabinet for individual work with a speech therapist, a psychologist, a social worker. It has a hall for corrective-compensatory work, a room for rehabilitation and physical therapy, a classroom, a medical room, a chapel, etc. Currently 36 children and 12 people over 18 years use the full time services which it offers. The center works with the Subsidiary school for the provision of educational qualification of children with special education needs. It provides hourly service for children from mainstream schools. For all of them it makes available on a daily basis its qualified team of specialists, consisting of a psychologist, a rehabilitation therapist, a speech therapist, a physiotherapist, a social pedagogue,  a social worker, a nurse and special educators. Thanks to the experience gained over the years, other similar day care centers were opened in Razgrad, Dobrich, Gorni Senovets, Kyulevtcha and Kubrat. 

We wish all the staff of Day Care Center "Sunbeam" more professional successes, good health and strength in their invaluable work! Let the noble path of your work continue, lit by the sunbeam of hope! 

Only in this way - with determination and love we will build a more humane society and a better world for our children. 

Happy Birthday!
 



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