Tulip Foundation organised a presentation of the adaptation and the implementation of the Sure Start programme in Hungary so that professionals from various spheres in Bulgaria get to know in details the way it functions and the effect of it. Zornitsa Roussinova, deputy minister of labour and social policy, and Diana Kovacheva, deputy Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria opened the event.
Especially for the presentation of the programme Dr. Ph.D. Maria Herczog, a researcher, a lecturer, an activist, former member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and President of Eurochild, Chair of the board of Family, Child, Youth Association was in Sofia.
She shared the lessons learned from the adaptation and the implementation of the Sure Start Programme in Hungary on 30 May at a seminar in SOHO hall. More than 30 representatives of ministries, SACP, UNICEF and non-governmental organisations from around the country and Sofia participated. They raise various questions and comments.
The early childhood development becomes important for Bulgaria and Europe. It is especially important in the context of the reformation of the educational, health and social systems in Bulgaria and other countries.
Programmes for early childhood development exist for many years in Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries, North and Latin America. The Sure Start programme has been developed in the UK at the end of the 90-ties of the last century based on the experience of programmes like the Head Start and the Early Head Start in the US. The results of the programme are evaluated and documented. In 2004 Hungary initiates the introduction of the programme which in stages is introduced in the whole country.