The Sofia municipality is going to sign a contract with UNICEF Bulgaria for BGN 600,000 to build two family type centers for the children from the orphanage in Mogilino, the Sofia Municipal Council decided on Thursday.

The UNICEF fund are going to be used to remodel and furnish buildings where alternative social services, resembling family life are going to be offered to the abandoned children.

The Sofia Deputy Mayor Albena Atanasova said before the Darik radio that one of the buildings already exists and would undergo renovations while the second one would be built after the municipality finds a suitable plot.

Children, currently placed in Mogilion, but who are Sofia natives would be living in the two houses, Atanasova explained, adding that there would be between 6 and 8 children in each house.

The children would have the opportunity to receive individualized care and a chance to be reintegrated in a family environment.

The orphanage in Mogilino became publicly known last year, when BBC broadcasted a documentary dedicated to abandoned children in Bulgaria. The author of "Bulgaria's Abandoned Children" had filmed for over nine months at the home for children with mental and physical disabilities in the village of Mogilino near the city of Ruse.

The documentary was met with widespread controversy in Bulgaria while the film was shown in the European Parliament provoking a three-hours long discussion.

It has been announced earlier this year that the home in Mogilino will be closed. Recently the Social Ministry informed that by the end of May 16 children have been taken out of the home and have been placed at other special facilities. There are plans for 5 more children to be placed by the end of the year at a home in Varna to be raised in family-like conditions.

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