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A house to replace the parental home

City of Happy Children opens in Kyiv

Photo by Serhii REVERA THE FEAST WILL BE FOLLOWED BY AN EVERYDAY ROUTINE: REHABILITATING TRAUMATIZED CHILDREN, CATCHING UP ON MISSED SCHOOL LESSONS, AND BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH PEERS AND ADULTS

Until recently, five-year-old twins Mykola and Oleh lived in a run-down rooming house and were often beaten by their parents. The kids became incapacitated and spent a lot of time in hospitals. Their mother is an unemployed alcoholic, and the only relative who cared about the children was their 60-year-old grandfather, who works as a driver.

Now they are living at the City of Happy Children Relief Center, which was opened on the initiative of Kyiv’s Deputy Mayor Denys Bass in order to help children whose parents are unfit.

The center has everything for a child to get a complete education. Decorated in pastel shades, the interior evokes the atmosphere of a cozy home and serene peace. The gym is equipped with everything that is needed to improve the children’s health, and the manuals and brightly-illustrated books in the classroom will spark an interest in studying. And let’s not forget the key component of a real home: toys.

A professional psychologist and a doctor will be monitoring the health and normal development of each child. “But the main thing is love, care, and affection, which will heal the psychological traumas of these children,” said the center’s director Lesia Sviatenko. “We can accommodate 21 children. Right now, we are filled to capacity. Our center caters to younger children aged 2 to 11. We receive information about problem children and the conditions in which they live from Children’s Services. These are mostly children who do not have parents or those whose parents are hindering their normal development. One way or another, these kids do not know what normal food is. Some of them are emotionally unstable and fearful as a result of the serious traumas and stresses they have experienced. So our main task is to make an all-out effort to restore their normal psychological and physical condition and to create as friendly, peaceful, and cozy a family as possible, where everyone will feel needed, loved, and cared for. We don’t want a single to shed even one tear, and every smile will be a reward for us,” Sviatenko emphasized.

Life often creates unavoidable tests, but there is hope that the center’s employees will succeed in instilling genuine values and moral standards in these children.

The Day’s FACT FILE

According to the Kyiv City Administration, 600 children are orphaned in Ukraine’s capital every year. As of the beginning of 2008, there were 2,770 orphans. Last year there were 864 children in Kyiv orphanages, including 35 percent born in Kyiv and 65 percent in other regions.

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