Last year the Bulgarian Christmas charity campaign was focused on children with congenital diseases and managed to raise the equivalent of 1,005,013 euro. Close to 500 children with chronic conditions and severe disorders received support and high-technology equipment for ten hospitals was purchased aimed at accurate diagnostics and state-of-the-art treatment.

Over the past 12 years about 3000 Bulgarian children with health problems had had the chance to get proper treatment owing to the Bulgarian Christmas campaign.

Every year about 3500 children with various congenital diseases are born in this country. 45% of them have heart conditions and need treatment or surgery. Associate Professor Anna Kaneva, Head of the Pediatrics and Pediatric Cardiology Clinic at the National Cardiology Hospital casts some light on this problem:

 „We receive from 850 to 950 children with heart conditions every year. Congenital heart defects are many and various. An early and accurate diagnosis is vital for their successful treatment. We need accurate equipment for diagnostics and for monitoring functions after surgery, as well as for ventilation of such patients. The Bulgarian Christmas has responded to our needs and has helped us. We now have one of the most advanced echocardiographic apparatus for placing a precise diagnosis. For the postoperative intensive care ward a system of monitors was provided that keeps track of children's functions. We have also received a first-class respiratory machine."

Assistance provided by the Bulgarian Christmas is very efficient, Prof. Anna Kaneva says and urges people to respond to the needs of children with serious health conditions. She adds that there is not enough financing for the whole range of equipment that hospitals and doctors need to be able to deliver adequate treatment to young patients.

On 1 December, the start was given to the 13th edition of the Bulgarian Christmas nationwide charity campaign. This season the motto of the campaign is Let us Help Children in Intensive Care. The host of the opening event was Dr Stoyan Milanov, CEO of Bulgaria's unique Pirogov Emergency Care Hospital. The new edition of the Bulgarian Christmas is under the patronage of the country's President Rosen Plevneliev.

„The Bulgarian Christmas is not simply an initiative of the Bulgarian head of state. This is a cause uniting the nation for the sake of children's health; a cause that gives people a chance to show empathy for the fate of children in distress and their families. And when awareness begins to change human lives, it grows more inspiring and society is given worthy examples to follow. The Bulgarian Christmas donates high-technology equipment to dozens of hospitals and clinics across the country and all this is due to the people who show solidarity, humanism and empathy. What if not a good deed would add meaning to human life? What if not a saved child's life, an extended hand in a dire moment would make us worthy people?”, the president asked rhetoric questions.

English version Daniela Konstantinova