Over 2,679,999 leva has been raised so far under the Bulgarian Christmas charity campaign, BTA reported Wednesday. A charity concert within the initiative was staged at the Ivan Vazov National Theatre Tuesday evening.

The charity campaign is organized for a fifth successive year at the initiative and under the auspices of President Georgi Purvanov and his wife Zorka Purvanova.

The funds raised will be donated for the medical treatment of 37 children. Twenty-six of the children have received assistance under previous editions of the campaign and the funding of their treatment will be continued while eleven of the children in need will be helped for the first time. Part of the funds will be used to purchase medical equipment and consumables for 13 hospitals across the country.

The Bulgarian Christmas will also finance the purchase of new equipment for genetic examination of pregnant women and children at the National Genetic Laboratory with the Maternity Hospital in Sofia. The laboratory is the only medical facility in Bulgaria offering this type of diagnostics.