One of the greatest but little known achievements of the expansion of the European Union eastwards has been the reformation of Soviet-era institutions for children. “Orphans”, often a euphamism for disabled children with parents, were dumped in hell holes. The system regarded them as disposable. The “orphanages” were to enable their parents to work and “they can then produce a healthy child”.
In contrast, the EU vigorously advanced improvements because of the commitment to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (which the USA has not signed) as part of the accession transition. A specific case was Romania where negotiations included demands for rapid improvement and in 2001 was forced to suspend international adoptions. Other abominations like “cage beds” in which the children were incarcerated if they were too disruptive, a practice in many of the former Soviet satellite countries, have been banned.
Recently the BBC’s Disability Correspondent, Nikki Fox, has examined the situation in Ukraine in a documentary “The Forgotten Children of Ukraine” for BBC News’ “Our World” strand. Nikki uses a motorised wheelchair. She found a mixed, if emerging, situation. Too many are still being warehoused in large homes until they die. With little physical or mental stimulation that could be decades. Some may simply been abandoned in a room alone to die. The worst tend to be furthest from the capital in remote areas. Even the best of these institutions are inadequate to meet the needs of their charges and their senior staff unable to understand the concept of the disabled living happily in the community. The situation is made worse by the lack of funds in Ukraine and the inherited atitudes. This means the support structures that should be in place to enable the children to live full and happy lives is simply not there.
There have been improvements like a recent law requiring mainstream schools to teach disabled children but the funds are not available to ensure this is made easy. Nikki showed the parents of one young man who has cerebal palsey (pictured above). They live on the third floor of an apartment block without a lift and the school similarly has no such provision to enable easy wheelchair access. Instead his devoted father has to carry him in his wheelchair around the school. He is progressing well and want to study further after graduating. He loves learning so much Dad now disciplines him by threatening to not allow him to go to school.
The greatest source of hope in the documentary was the visionary Children’s Rights commissioner who has a masterplan for closing every one of the “orphanages”. For those already in them, the ideal for many will be for foster parents to take them into their homes. The commissioner himself had helped one young man by appearing in his post on social media. Bright and intelligent despite his physical disability, it was heartbreaking to hear him tell how his new family has a small farm with chickens etc. Previously he had never had an opportunity to even hold one. Now he helps out looking after them. He plans to study further. Sadly ingrained atitudes and lack of support services mean that this will be a limited option for the tens of thousands. The commissioner explained that this was a reason that international adoptions would have to continue in the best interest of the children. In the country, small community homes will be established for those leaving the large institutions.
He is facing a backlash from those running the existing homes. Nikki interviewed the director of an otherwise stimulating environment who trotted out the old “how will they cope” and “they are here to enable the usually single parent to work and prosper” arguments showing what we would consider extreme prejudice against the disabled. That was despite Nikki interviewing a young woman with mild Down’s syndrome who was already helping to look after the other inmates. Unlearning such atitudes will be difficult for the staff involved and even longer will be needed to change the traditions of the society.
Clearly the financial situation in the country and Putin’s invasion makes rapid progress a problem but I am hopeful that with the international co-operation the commissioner has requested, his progressive ideas will bear fruit. He knows what has to be done and the ultimate goal of most living in their community, ideally with their own parents and later independently, will at least start to happen.
The above link to the bbc.co.uk site should redirect to the .com site and I hope you can view the documentary there. There is a download of this documentary available on an ed2k file sharing link here, you can use a program like Emule to download this type of file.