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04/04/08
Openess of Ukrainians, engagement of people and Kiev’s traffic jam
With this words Eva, an expert of World Childhood Foundation, and a social anthropologist and a nurse by her background, described her first impressions from Ukrainian monitoring trip aimed to complete the evaluation of the Chernigiv Mother and Baby Unit Project.
“My expectations about the visit were very positive, I was strongly encouraged by my husband, who likes Ukraine very much, to come and see this beautiful country and meet these open and friendly people”, - she explains.
During her visit, representative of World Childhood Foundation met with the recipients of services in Chernigiv, social workers of Mother and Baby Unit and was informed of the progress achieved by the institutions in implementing the project. At the unit, apart from accommodation, young mothers receive both emotional support and practical advice. Social workers assist them with state financial support and registering the birth of their child. Young mothers have an opportunity to continue their studies at school and take vocational training to get a better job and start independent living.
“The Project I saw in Chernigiv is really impressive: the progress that has been achieved by project team in place, the engagement of EveryChild staff in Kyiv can’t be underestimated. But what surprised me most, is that all is well structured: work, documents. You can only imagine how much work was done to achieve this!” – Eva says.
Social workers from the unit continue to monitor and provide support for the young parents and babies after they leave. Expert of World Childhood Foundation also had an opportunity to visit one of the former clients of Mother and Baby Unit. “I found it very interesting to see one of the young mothers in her small apartment telling us her story about how she got to the center and what she is doing now, lives with a father. It is just the case when you can see a very clear result, and the baby seems to be fine”, - she sums up.
As with many countries, child abandonment in Ukraine is a serious issue with many children all over the country ending up in children's homes. The early intervention services and such Mother and Baby Units allow to prevent abandonment at the very early stage.
Eva underlines, that despite the negative heritage of the past time, Ukraine makes a stable progress in social work: “From my mission I am really impressed with the work of social workers. Their engagement changed attitudes towards these mothers. Before, authorities and society as a whole didn’t want to do anything with them. And as I see it, if you want to achieve changes, you have to work in society, the cooperation with authorities, development of working methods, continuing training and PR are critical”.
