The Prime Minister inaugurated the center together with Ms. Dagfrid Hjorthol, chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in an official ceremony on 29 April 2011. Bulgarian Minister of EU Funds Management Tomislav Donchev, the Minister of Interior Tsvetan Tsvetanov and the Deputy Minister of Health Gergana Pavlova were also among the guests of the event.
The Daily center is a pilot one for Bulgaria. It targets specifically children and adolescents and works on a specialized programme for prevention of substance abuse and free support to young people with drug problems. Municipality of Sofia provided the premises for the establishment of the center, which were totally renovated with a grant from Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein under the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area (EEA Grants) and co-financing by Bulgarian Ministry of Health.
“This is a very good example of how international donors, local and national authorities can combine their resources, in order to achieve better results”, noted Ms. Dagfrid Hjorthol at the opening of the center. Prime Minister Borissov thanked the governments of the donor countries for the support and stressed that prevention of addictions needs attention.
The Daily consultation center is part of a broader project on improvement of preventive measures and raising awareness on substance abuse problems. The project is implemented by National Center for Addictions in partnership with Sofia Municipality Center for Addictions, the Competence Center of the City of Oslo - Agency for Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Regional Project Office for South Eastern Europe. As part of the project activities a free telephone line for consultation on drug and alcohol addiction issues has been set up and almost 900 specialists have been trained in special techniques for screening and early intervention, telephone consulting and work with children. The awarded EEA grant for the project covers 85% of the initially estimated project costs and equals 413 605 euro.