00:01in bulgaria an innovative project is helping parents back to work boosting good quality
00:07child care and offering unemployed people a stable job da разбira se che iscam da se
00:13vrna na работa ne samo poradi finanzovi причini super is it's a horror kato me ni za tia
00:19kato takam moze da robot at kachi chitame che ima dvain положitelen efekt
00:29finding accessible affordable and good quality child care is a big barrier to mothers with young
00:36children who want to return to work the search for solutions is underway and we're here in sofia
00:41to see one example in action
00:49it's time to drop off the children and head to the office for kristina rujdanava this single
00:55mother searched for three months before she found the right person to care for her two-year-old son
01:00dimitar while her daughter goes to school and she goes to work it was extremely hard for me to
01:20despite those challenges kristina was determined to take up a new job as an accountant at the italian
01:26embassy in sofia
01:38while kristina is at the office her son receives one-to-one professional care
01:43from galina ilieva who is happy to have this work opportunity
01:59the project that offered kristina a child care solution is called parents and employment and it
02:04addresses a very specific need here in bulgaria where only 22 percent of children under three are
02:11in early childhood education and care compared to an eu average of 40 percent the project meets the
02:17shortfall in nursery places by offering parents up to eight hours a day of free child care
02:22it's financed from a 33.5 million euro five-year budget which includes 28 million euros from the
02:30european social fund plus one of the most innovative aspects of the project is it not only offers mothers
02:37who want to work a free child care option but also offers job seekers the chance to be hired
02:44there's a steady flow of candidates to both unemployed people and parents looking for child care
02:49the employment office vets every case carefully and then the matching process begins
02:56as soon as the parents encourage the child watcher
03:01they can start to document the agreement and the designation
03:07but in the same way they find the return of the potential child watcher
03:12we actually find the encouragement of the parents
03:15the process is proving successful over 3400 eligible families have signed child care contracts since the
03:29current project began in 2023 and 3500 child carers have been employed
03:37offering accessible affordable and high quality child care is also a means to reduce inequality
03:43brussels-based child care expert christian morabito says even the youngest children benefit
03:50evidence shows that uh gaps in skills appears early before the child entered to primary education so
03:59providing these services child care service especially to poor children is essential for them to reduce this
04:05gap but also for parents through allowing them accessing the labor market especially women to reduce gap in
04:13income back in sofia and galina is playing with dimitar who spends most of his summer days outside in the
04:20park
04:32then at the end of the day mom christina receives a warm welcome home from work
04:43expanding childhood education and care is considered an economic social and gender equality
04:48priority in europe it's calculated that raising the employment rate of women could boost eu gdp by up to 1
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