Nurse Family Partnership Program in Bulgaria

Dear friends,

Since the end of last year, the Nurse Family Partnership team in Bulgaria has phased serious challenges trying to fund its continuation until we can apply for becoming a state funded service from the beginning of 2025. Thank you for your support over the last four months - it's greatly appreciated, especially in the uncertain times that we find ourselves in.

While the central team is engaged in intensive advocacy efforts, the field teams - the family nurses and health mediators who provide direct support to vulnerable young families - have continued going out in the poorest neighborhoods in Sofia and Plovdiv every day, providing high-quality care to young first-time mothers and their children. 

Nurse Family Partnership is the most studied early childhood development service and all the evidence shows it is extremely successful in achieving its ambitious goals. Recently, a study showed that in Bulgaria, mothers who have received the service breastfeed at least 0.8 months more; and they tell stories and read to their small children over 20% more than vulnerable moms who don't have a home-visiting nurse.

These shifts in parental practices are proven to be of great significance not only for the childhood of babies born in poverty, but for their success later in life. They are also just a portion of the many extraordinary results the service has achieved in Bulgaria. Nonetheless, our multiple meetings with key stakeholders have not led to the desired outcome of finding a temporary solution for funding the field teams until the end of this year. This is why we once again need to turn to you and ask for your help. Now more than ever, we need your contributions to continue providing this invaluable support.

Thank you in advance for your donations, and for sharing our appeal with your family, friends, and networks in this difficult time!