Everychild

Breaking the vicious cycle

EveryChild's James Georgalakis describes how they are keeping children out of Ukraine's soviet era style baby homes.

I used to find it difficult to understand how anybody could believe that their own child would be better off in an orphanage than at home with them. On a recent trip to Ukraine, I saw for myself how this can happen and what EveryChild is doing to help.

Anna's story is a typical one in Ukraine. From a very poor family that had migrated from neighbouring Russia, Anna was in desperate trouble when at 18 she became pregnant. Her family simply could not afford to feed another mouth and the child's father was unwilling to support her. The overriding attitude in Ukraine, after years of Soviet rule, is that the state should look after the babies of mothers who are unable to cope. Anna felt no choice but to give her baby up to one of Ukraine's large institutional baby homes.

However, Anna was one of the lucky ones and found a place in EveryChild's new parent and baby unit. After a stay of just over a year she will leave to a home of her own and a job with which to support herself and her child. Anna told me "If it wasn't for the parent and baby unit, I would have probably abandoned my child."

When I asked her what she thought about people who insisted that state-run baby homes were the best thing for abandoned children, Anna said: "I am sure the social workers and other staff in the homes do their best to give love to the children. But why put them there when they could be with their own mothers? I now totally understand I need my child and my child needs me."

The parent and baby unit where Anna lives with her son is in a town just outside Kiev. Tamara, Director of the Unit, explained the ethos behind it "The idea is to prevent child abandonment by intervening at the point when families are most likely to break up. New mothers end up here when there is a very serious danger of them abandoning their child. By keeping them together in the first few critical weeks of the child's life we prevent separation taking place. After staying here for just a short time they tell us they cannot even begin to imagine ever wanting to abandon their child again."

At the unit, parents receive both emotional support and practical advice. They also get help with accessing state support and registering the birth of their child. Depending on their age they are enrolled in a local school, some form of further education or job training and eventually found somewhere of their own to live and a job. Social workers from the unit continue to monitor and support the parents and babies after they leave.

I found 26 year old Karina in the unit's communal kitchen with her little boy Yosyp. Karina was abandoned by her own parents when she was 11 years old. She spent the rest of her childhood in an institution for abandoned children. Karina broke up with Yosyp's father after she became pregnant and faced the daunting prospect of supporting a child on a small salary of a part-time waitress. She found herself seriously thinking that the best thing for Yosyp would be for him to go to an institution. But the parent and baby unit took her in and now she is determined never to be parted from her son.

She said: "Coming here gave me a chance to think about what to do with my life and how to support my child. I have had so much support and I now realise the importance of mother and child staying together. I am determined that my son will not grow up abandoned and alone like I did."

Half of all mothers at the unit are orphans themselves or, like Karina, were abandoned and grew up in an institution. Their lack of experience of a normal family environment is a major factor in their vulnerability.

The unit is certainly a world away from Ukraine's baby homes where as many as 100 babies can be found. Just a handful of these children will be genuine orphans. Despite this, most will grow up without any contact with their biological parents. The lucky ones are eventually adopted or fostered but many stay in institutional care for their entire childhoods. For those with disabilities it is normally a life sentence.

The challenge EveryChild faces in reducing child abandonment in the region is a tough one. However, parent and baby units like Tamara's are making a real, lasting difference.

The names of Anna, Karina and the children have been changed in order to protect their identity.

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Breaking the vicious cycle