Mama counts bottle caps on the table, the child asks - Mama, what are these for? - For a child who is waiting and fading, for a hospital with no open door. Fifty years of promises, still nothing, death keeps knocking, taking hundreds away. In Brussels they call us Europeans, but our children are dying today. Bulgaria, do you love your children? Or does your love die on election day? Cap by cap - the people are saving lives, while those in power are looking away. We collect caps, we light candles, we pray, for Iva, for Martin, for Simo who's gone. The caps couldn't save him in time he slipped away quietly, before the dawn. Bulgaria, do you love your children? Or does your love die on election day? Cap by cap - the people are saving lives, while those in power are looking away. Is there another country in Europe where children are saved with bottle caps? Probably not. Only here. Only us. Only our tears. "Wait until 2030!" - they say with a smile. "The plot isn't suitable" - they shrug and move on. How many children will die by then? Who counts them? Who mourns them? Only moms. Bulgaria, do you love your children? Or does your love die on election day? Cap by cap - the people are saving lives, while those in power are looking away. Bulgaria, do you love your children? Or does your love end with empty vows? Cap by cap, euro by euro, tear by tear - an ocean of sorrow. Poor but giving - that is the people. Stalling and taking - that is the state. The shame is not our country's to carry, the shame belongs to those who seal our fate. Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007. The only country in Europe with no national children's hospital. Fifty years of promises. Fifty years of waiting. While those in power delay and negotiate ordinary people collect plastic bottle caps. For an ambulance. For equipment. For medicine. So that someone's child might survive. Some survive. Some don't. They promise a hospital by 2030. How many children will live long enough to see it? How many - won't? Cap by cap - the people give from the heart. Decision after decision- those in power steal time from children. This is not the shame of Bulgaria. This is the shame of those who govern her. ************************************************** * Reference — Facts & Community Action In the European Union: Bulgaria ranks first in overall mortality in the EU for the fifth consecutive year. Latvia, Hungary and Croatia follow. Child mortality in Bulgaria is 1.5 times higher than the European average, despite reaching its lowest recorded value of 4.5‰ in 2024. According to scientists from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria has approximately twice the child mortality rate compared to the European average. The only country in the EU without a national children's hospital is also first in mortality. Is that a coincidence? How the Bulgarian people support their sick children 🧢 Bottle Caps — the symbol of people's love Over 7 years, thanks to the "Caps for the Future" campaign, various medical institutions across the country have received 22 incubators, 6 children's ambulances, 2 off-road ambulances and over 40 medical devices. The funds are used to purchase incubators, ambulances and medical equipment intended primarily for children. Just over a year after the partnership with Lidl, the collected packaging exceeded 22 million items -over 420 tons of PET bottles and over 85 tons of aluminium cans. 💊 Foundations and donation platforms The BCause Foundation manages the "Fund for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Children", which covers expenses for medicines, medical consumables, glasses, hearing aids and therapies not funded by the National Health Insurance Fund. The goal is to ensure that necessary treatment is never interrupted. The "Donors Bulgaria" Foundation was created in support of sick children and operates with full financial transparency - updating every donated and spent lev for every campaign. 🚑 Charity events and blood donation The "I Believe and Help" campaign collects bottle caps and small coins with a goal of raising 500,000 BGN ( about 250,000 Euro) to help thousands of babies and children. It also provided the first children's ambulance in Varna and the first mobile blood donation unit in Bulgaria. This is a vast, living, unending wave of love from ordinary people. While the state delays the hospital the people are building healthcare themselves, one bottle cap at a time.
