12/09/08

Want to meet a pregnant girl...

According to National Statistical Data more than 600 babies become “social orphans” during the first hours of their lives. EveryChild Ukraine starts information campaign in Kyiv and Kyiv region aimed to convince mothers that their child is not a burden, moreover – it’s a chance to change life for better.

Advertisers serve children’s interests

In cooperation with Kyiv regional Centre of Social Services for Families, Children and Youth EveryChild Ukraine locked arms to create an information campaign during September-December to raise awareness and direct young mothers in crisis to the services, resources and organizations that can help them not to leave their child in an orphanage.

Soon lamp posts, public transportation vehicles and institutions of Kyiv and Kyiv region will be flooded with the announcements containing the following intriguing request “Want to meet a pregnant girl, without work, without support, and without a place to stay”. And it’s not a practical joke.

These announcements are a part of a fairly serious information campaign aimed to prevent abandonment of infants and babies in terms of project “Prevention  of Child Abandonment”, supported by World Childhood Foundation. EveryChild Country Director Volodymyr Kuzminskyy launched the campaign during the press-conference in information agency UKRINFORM.

Campaign «Want to meet...» will continue six months and contains of outdoor advertisements (billboards, transportation, institutions), posters and stickers and publications in regional and national media. First 50 billboards with announcement and phone number of a trust hotline of Kyiv city center of social services will be placed in Kyiv with the support of All-Ukrainian Association of Outdoor Advertisement on pro bono basis. 

Then financial support will continue from organizers of contest «Social campaigns forum – Ukraine 2008», in terms of the project of foreign aid of Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2008.

Campaign materials were created in the result of contest by advertising agency «PROVID». Сyril Chichkan – creative director of the agency said during the press-conference that after analysis of target audience of the project, creative team came to the conclusion that the best ways of communication in this circumstances are announcements just the same as people usually post on lamp posts.

«Many girls of our target audience – are care leavers, who read advertising announcements in order to find job or place to stay. Therefore we decided to use this type of advertisement. Each phone number will be written by hand, which shows the individual approach to every girl. We also confirmed the ideas for the videos and now we search the opportunities to produce them in high quality and for reasonable price» - Chichkan added.

«Social work  provides opportunities to make very powerful works, which can bring success and  fame of the advertising company, therefore advertising industry expresses a wish to make high quality social advertisement» - says Alexander Gorlov pointing at new initiative of All Ukrainian Advertising Coalition – Social Advertisement Market.

Every Child Needs a mother, not a baby home

According to scientific research, first 2-3 years of life are crucial for the brain development of  the child. A new born has 25% of an adult brain volume. Up to three years it grows till 75%, and until 7 – completes its development.

For the best development of one’s brains, child needs to have a constant contact and attention from a close person. A lack of attention results in hard disorders starting from 2 months. Children, who became “no ones” as a result of an abandonment and spent several months of their lives in a hospital, not only remain behind “family” children of their age, but they feel deeply depressed.

Ukraine leads by the numbers of children who are being abandoned immediately after birth by their mothers. But thanks to successful work of centers of social services and consultation points situation changes rapidly. Whereas in 2005 in Kyiv region there were 119 cases of abandonment, in the first half of 2008 – only 24. During last two years Kyiv social services prevented 142 cases of abandonment – which means 2 baby homes were not created.

One has to admit that women who are to abandon a child are not drug or alcoholic addicted. In the most cases they are girls from crises and low income families or care-leavers – they remain without resources, without place to stay, without a man and support.

Country Director of EveryChild Ukraine underlined that frequently reasons for the abandonment are connected not with real difficulties, on the contrary – with the lack of knowledge about the network of social services, which can help to overcome these difficulties.
«Sometimes reasons for an abandonment are connected with psychological problems – feeling of inconsistence  and lack of confidence in own power to overcome hardships.  Vast majority of these women are not aware of existence of absolutely free and accessible social services. Therefore we decided to start an information campaign to help mothers and society learn about the work of social services», – he said.

«The best way to protect a child – is to provide timely help for his or her biological family. That is why the aim of campaign is to show women a range of services available on free basis and in time» - added director of Kyiv regional social center for social services Ludmila Nikolayenko.

Approach the social services

Today in each district of Kyiv region there are specialized early intervention services, which monitor crises situations and unite maximum efforts to prevent child abandonment. Social workers assist with documentation, birth certificates – gaining material and psychological support.

Starting from 2006 in Kyiv region there is Mother and Baby Unit, where young mothers who have no shelter, can live with a newborn up to 2 years. During this period women have opportunities to complete education, parental experience, local authorities try to solve their problems with housing.

Young mother Svitlana along with her daughter Vlada were present at the press-conference. Some time ago due to poor housing conditions girl wanted to place her child into a baby home temporarily, then someone adviced her to approach local center of social services. There she get to know Fastiv Mother and Baby Unit. Svitlana says that she was warmly welcomed there, she was trained to look after her child, provided with psychological support. Girl learned how to cook and made friends with other girls. Now she is happy that she avoided the mistake of separation her little wonder Vlada.

• If you do have ideas how to support our activities, please write info@everychild.org.ua

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