Families for Children program to help Ukraine's homeless kids (07/17/05)

Families for Children program to help Ukraine's homeless kids

by Yana Sedova
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - A Families for Children program implemented by Holt International Children's Services and financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development will be launched in Ukraine in September.

The goal of this three-year, $2.4 million program is to return children to their original families and help them stay together. In cases where this is not possible, models then promote adoption to ensure that children have a permanent family in a foster or group home.

"Let's get the homeless and parentless kids out of cold, heartless institutions and into families, where their lives may take on some hope," said Karen Hillard, the USAID regional deputy mission director, who has adopted her own 8-year-old daughter from Nicaragua.

Back in October 2004 Families for Children had already launched pilot projects as models of family care in the Kyiv, Cherkasy and Dnipropetrovsk Oblasts.

USAID will distribute grants to qualifying Ukrainian and international non-governmental organizations based on applications submitted by August 5.

"We want to embrace 5,000 children and families," said Alyona Herasymova, the director of Ukraine's Families for Children program. "If children return to their families, we will consider the task accomplished."

To many Ukrainians, it's ironic that only since independence from the oppressive Soviet Union has the term "homeless child" returned to the national lexicon. During the Soviet period, any child without parents was required to live in an orphanage; teenagers were sent to hostels. Running away wasn't a viable option.

About 103,000 children in Ukraine are officially deprived of parental care, according to the Ministry for Youth and Sports. They are either orphans, or they come from broken homes from which authorities had to remove them for their safety.

The majority of these children live in public institutions, such as shelters, children's homes and hostels.

The situation surrounding parent-deprived children is a "national problem," said Tetyana Kornyakova, the assistant to the Procurator General.

Parent-deprived children often get involved in crime, she said. So far this year, they have committed about 15,000 crimes, she said, 9,000 of which were serious.

More than 6,000 children are registered with the Ministry of Health because of drug addiction. Prostitution flourishes among them.

"We have many examples that these children can be rehabilitated," said Ludmyla Volynets, the director of the Department of Childhood of the Ministry for Youth and Sport Affairs. "The only thing they want is to be heard and loved and respected by somebody."

Homeless children live in a harsh world of the streets where they must act and think as adults in a game of survival. They learn how to cope in Ukraine's frigid winters and how to scrounge up money for food. But, at the end of the day, they are still children who need love and care.

"We must accept these children as they are," said Kostiantyn Shenderovskyi, the director of Kyiv City Center of Social Services for Children, Families and Youth, which shelters 784 children and 1,500 families. "Every minute a child that needs help appears in Kyiv."

The Ukrainian government and non-governmental organizations finance 93 shelters in the country, said Ihor Zhohlo, the chair of the Office of Preventive Work in the Department for Children's Rights. Children can request medical examinations, psychological help and either stay there in the daytime or spend the night, he said.

"More than 400 children have turned to our center since the moment it opened" in March 2000, said Vira Koshel, the president of the Aspern Foundation, an international charitable organization dedicated to children and youth projects. "A child who gets encouragement from adults has a future, but one who doesn't could be lost."

The quicker a child is taken off the streets, the better, Mr. Zholo said. After only a year on the streets, it is almost impossible to bring a child back to a family, he said.

"Through panhandling, they can easily earn about $15 a day," he said. "Despite all the discomfort, they consider life in the street as one allowing the most freedom."

In addition to reuniting and helping families, the program will provide temporary family care with foster parents or in group homes, in order to meet the needs of children in crisis or transition, Ms. Hillard underscored.

"We will also qualify personnel to work in government schools and try to prevent trouble by monitoring families that need special attention," Ms. Herasymova said.

Reaching a child in an early-crisis situation, in which there are serious family problems, is necessary, said Harry Garner, the president and executive director of Holt International Children's Services.

About 145,000 children currently live with an estimated 80,000 families that are experiencing problems which may wreck their homes, according to the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

"The earlier [the intervention], the easier to prevent something worse," Mr. Garner said.

Non-governmental organizations aren't the only ones acting. On July 12, President Viktor Yushchenko signed an order on taking measures on children's protection in Ukraine.

"The main idea is to create a State Department for Adoption and Social Care of Children," Mr. Zhohlo said. "It would concentrate on the whole sphere of problems affecting children in Ukraine."

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