site.btaPhoto Exhibition Tells of Positive Effect of Foster Care on Young People's Lives
Foster care changes children's lives for the better, gives them confidence to cope with life and makes them dream - this is the message of The Changed Ones photo exhibition, which opened at Sofia’s Central Market Hall on Tuesday.
It features 20 portraits of young people leaving the foster care system after completing their secondary education. Each photo is accompanied by a short autobiographical text in which the youngsters share what foster care has given them, how it has helped them realize their potential after reaching adulthood. They also talk about how their lives continue after foster care.
The exhibition is organized by the National Foster Care Association Bulgaria. The event was attended by Labour and Social Policy Minister Borislav Gutsanov and Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva.
“Foster care is an opportunity for life, love and belonging,” said Alexander Milanov, member of the managing board of the National Foster Care Association. “This exhibition does not seek pity, but understanding,” he added.
The exhibition shows the faces of children in foster care after the age of 18 because until then they cannot be photographed.
“What foster parents do is the best possible thing in the situation in which the children shown in the exhibition find themselves,” the Social Policy Minister said. In his view, the exhibition affirms children’s right to equal opportunity in life.
Each photo is a human story that tells of trust and love in the foster family, the Ombudsman said. She stressed that she would work on developing and strengthening foster family care in Bulgaria.
“I have known these children for five or six years before they graduated. You see their smiles, but you don't know what they have been through. These children move forward despite the difficulties,” one of the photographers, Vladimir Bichev, said. “I wish all of them an equal start just as the rest of their peers,” said the other photographer, Radich Banev.
The exhibition is open until September 3.
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