Preventing children from being abandoned in Ukraine

In Ukraine, the number of young children (under the age of three) placed in state care institutions has been growing over the last 10 years. In 2004, there were an estimated 3,500 abandoned young children living in these homes. The majority were left at birth due to circumstances such as family poverty, the young age of the mother, and HIV status (around 20 per cent of newborns born to HIV-positive women are abandoned, regardless of the baby’s HIV status).

Children without parental care find themselves at a higher risk of discrimination, inadequate care, abuse and exploitation. Many children are placed unnecessarily and for too long in institutions, where they receive less of the stimulation and individual attention they need to grow to their full potential.

Inadequate care environments, including the juvenile justice system, can affect children’s emotional and social development and leave them vulnerable to exploitation, sexual abuse and physical violence.

Soccer Aid 2006 funds have supported:

• Mother and Child Centres which support mothers in difficult circumstances to help them keep their babies. This is done through timely psychological, social and medical assistance, as well as helping mothers to develop a close bond with their child.
• The training of government workers to reach vulnerable women in hospitals and antenatal units.
• UNICEF’s programme to protect children in the law enforcement/juvenile justice system. This programme works on the prevention of violence and abuse against children in the juvenile justice system, re-socialisation of minors in conflict with the law, and prevention of juvenile delinquency.
• Our work with the Government to improve the law and regulation of the national system that monitors violence against children and domestic violence.

Read the story of Oksana and her baby

Read the story of Natalia and her family

With your help, we can prevent more children from losing out on the chance of growing up in a family in Ukraine.

Watch a film of UNICEF Ambassador Elle Macpherson meeting children in a UNICEF-supported childcare centre in Ukraine.

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