Supporting Vulnerable Young Children and Families During COVID 19

ISSA Member: Trust for Social Achievement and Worldwide Foundation for Vulnerable Children, Bulgaria
 
What happened?
In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic imposed strict lockdowns across Bulgaria. As families, including many from marginalised groups like Roma, found themselves isolated at home, access to early childhood education, play, and developmental support abruptly stopped. Local services closed, and traditional means of engaging children and parents in learning and care were disrupted.
What was needed? How did they respond?
 
Urgent needs included:

• Continuity of early childhood development and parent support, despite service disruption
• Accessible, home-based resources for learning and skill-building
• Strengthened local capacity and flexibility among service providers
   
  TSA and the Worldwide Foundation for Vulnerable Children joined forces to address these urgent needs. Operating through local grassroots partners, they quickly shifted to home-based support strategies:
• TSA mobilised its network of community organisations to sustain early childhood services and advocate for affordable access to care and education.
• The Worldwide Foundation for Vulnerable Children deployed its “Element of Play” program—a trauma-informed, play-based approach using play, music, and storytelling—to reach vulnerable children at home, through remote means or small-scale local delivery. To meet the needs of vulnerable families with children staying at home during the pandemic, WFVC developed a version of the program “Stay at home, play at home” that provides parents with ideas for games using materials they have at home.
• Together, the organisations emphasised the importance of adaptability, collaboration, and a human-centred approach, reinforcing the core values of empathy, solidarity, and resilience during crisis.
   
  Key Challenges
• Lockdowns forced the closure of in-person early education, leaving gaps for children's stimulation and learning.
• Families from disadvantaged backgrounds—particularly Roma—faced greater barriers in accessing digital resources or quality home-based support.
• Local grassroots providers needed rapid upskilling in remote delivery and trauma-informed care, while maintaining trust within the community.
   
  Solutions:
• TSA, with its established community connections, and the Worldwide Foundation leveraged their networks to deliver responsive, localised early childhood care via remote consultations, resource sharing, and community outreach.
• The “Element of Play” method continued to support children’s development, even under lockdown, through engaging, restorative play, storytelling, and music, adapted for home or caregiver facilitation.
• Community-based organizations and health and educational mediators are a vital link between disadvantaged communities and the important services children and families need, particularly in times of crisis.

 
TSA, along with other civil society actors, pursued policy-level advocacy to ensure more inclusive access to early childhood services, while also equipping local organisations with tools, data, and training to sustain their work under uncertainty.
 
The experience of TSA and the Worldwide Foundation during the pandemic underscores a vital lesson: flexibility saves services. Local organizations that were able to pivot swiftly to home-based and digital solutions ensured that vulnerable families continued to receive care and developmental support. At the heart of these efforts was play. Far more than a pastime, play proved to be a lifeline for children, offering both learning opportunities and emotional resilience during a time of uncertainty and stress. These initiatives also highlighted the power of collaboration: by bringing together TSA’s advocacy expertise and the Worldwide Foundation’s specialised, trauma-informed play methodologies, the response addressed not just immediate needs but also systemic gaps in early childhood provision.
 
What’s in place? What’s missing?
Today, Bulgaria has more experience in preparing for future crises than before the pandemic. Community-based organizations have been equipped with tools for remote and hybrid service delivery, while the “Element of Play” program stands as a proven model for maintaining continuity in early childhood development, even under restrictive conditions. TSA’s advocacy efforts have also strengthened the conversation around equitable access to early childhood services, ensuring that affordability and inclusion remain priorities on the policy agenda.
 
Yet, significant gaps remain. Sustained funding is critical to avoid losing the progress made and to keep crisis-adapted services operational in the long term. Digital inequity continues to pose a serious challenge, as many marginalised families lack the devices and connectivity required for remote learning. Moreover, while trauma-informed, play-based approaches have demonstrated their value, they are not yet fully integrated into national early childhood systems—leaving room for policy innovation and structural reform.
 
Being part of a regional network: Advantages of ISSA membership
Being part of the regional network of ISSA felt truly empowering during COVID. It offered a supportive space to share not only successful approaches that can help others, but also the worries and challenges we all faced along the way – as experts, and as individuals. Knowing there’s a community of like-minded professionals to turn to during difficult moments provided comfort and strength. We felt more hopeful and more united in our mission to make a real difference in children’s lives across the region.
 
Recommendations
National Policymakers:

• Institutionalize crisis preparedness plans that prioritize continuity of services for vulnerable children and families.
• Foster multi-sectoral collaboration among government, civil society, and private sector to ensure inclusive access and systemic reforms.
• Develop policies that promote flexible, remote, and hybrid service delivery models for early childhood education.
• Integrate trauma-informed, play-based approaches into the national early childhood development policies.
• Secure sustained funding to support digital infrastructure, especially targeting marginalized communities to bridge digital inequity.
   
  Local/National Actors:
• Strengthen local capacities through continuous training in remote service delivery, trauma-informed care, and community engagement.
• Utilize local networks and community-based organizations to facilitate outreach, trust-building, and service delivery during crises.
• Strengthen capacity, training and provide sustainability to the role of health, educational mediators as a vital link between communities and services.
   
  Private Donors:
• Support capacity-building initiatives for local organizations to enhance remote and trauma-informed service delivery.
• Fund advocacy and policy reform efforts aimed at integrating innovative, flexible and trauma-informed approaches into national systems.
   
  Professionals/Practitioners:
• Adopt flexible, culturally sensitive play-based methodologies to support children’s emotional and developmental needs during crises.
• Increase skills in remote delivery techniques, digital tools, and culturally sensitive engagement with families.
• Collaborate closely with community mediators and local organizations to build trust and ensure effectiveness of outreach.
• Stay adaptable, continuously updating practices based on emerging evidence and community feedback.
• Advocate within their organizations/professional networks for policies and resources that support inclusive, flexible, and trauma-sensitive early childhood services.
   
  Explore further: Member in Focus: TSA and Worldwide Foundation for Vulnerable Children | ISSA