Love & care for abandoned babies Ukraine & Moldova

ChildAid provides 100% of funding for a room in the Children’s Hospital in Dneprodzerzhinsk, Ukraine, in which babies and children who are orphaned through parental abandonment and neglect can be treated for their medical needs, cared for and loved.

 
This story illustrates the plight of the children our partners have cared for:
 

Anton was only one year and one month old when he came into our care. His parents were extremely young, both recently having themselves left an orphanage and possessing no parenting skills. The boy could not do anything normally expected of a child of this age and was undernourished. While in hospital he put on 5kgs in weight. In the meantime the parents were legally deprived of their parental rights and the child sent to the Baby Home.
 
 
Your support for this area of ChildAid’s work means that we can bring loving compassion into all these situations and at the nearby Baby Home too where we continue to supply much needed food and nappies.

ChildAid has for many years supported one nurse in the children’s hospital caring for babies without mothers.

Another charity had worked with Abandoned Babies for 9 years, and for a wide variety of reasons, decided to cease this aspect of their ministry. This, quite obviously, created gaps in the care of neonates and young babies which could not be allowed to continue and, accordingly, ChildAid has recently expanded its work to fill them.

So we now support an additional three specialist staff working in a Baby Home in Ukraine, one of whom is a physiotherapist. The advantage of doing this, despite the attendant additional costs, is that it enables us to provide a seamless and structured system of care from abandonment to sickness and so on, providing among many other things, health hygiene, creams, food, medication, nappies and additional help for those who live with disability.

The Baby Home is very small but currently cares for 53 children, all of whom are aged from 0-4 years. 11 are under one year old. 6 live with disabilities and 36 have been abandoned because their parents are simply unable to cope with them – often for financial reasons.

Aolina was unable to hold her own head up and could not walk. Her eyes continually reversed into their sockets. Otherwise she cried and was a disturbed child. After 2 years intensive treatment by our partners which included mental and physical stimuli and play in a shallow paddling pool Aolina is now able to walk very carefully and slowly. She smiles and understands when people speak to her but cannot (yet?) respond. Aolina is 4 years old.

Another child weighed only 600gm, or 1.3 pounds, at birth and was, of course, extremely unlikely to survive more than a short time. Our partners made a quick and emergency medical intervention to ensure that life could be sustained and feeding take place through a series of tubes. Today this child is able to walk and play with bricks, draw and hold spoons and begin to eat properly.

2 other children were born to mothers who had been drug users during pregnancy with the consequence that the babies were addicted too and are now having to undergo “withdrawal treatment”. 4 more children were born to alcoholic mothers. These infants are very nervous, unstable and constantly rock back and forth; our partners have taken charge of their therapy and recovery.

Links:

• http://www.childaidrr.org.uk