Ukrainian Orphanage Blogs: Kramatorsk

I blogged that information on specialized (handicapped) Ukrainian orphanages and internats (orphanages for children 7 years and older) is available on the internet.

There is no grand conspiracy to hide the truth about these orphanages. Life is hard. I remember hearing of a Ukrainian orphanage in 2003… 25% of their children died from Chicken Pox. When a child’s immune system is weakened due to poor nutrition anything can and does happen.

Does this happen all the time? No. But children can and do die in orphanages. And when this happens it should be investigated by the Ukrainian government. And it is investigated.

And there is oversight on the orphanage directors. The orphanages have always had “inspectors”. These “inspectors” have to approve adoptions and keep their eye on the orphanage’s operations.

When adoption was moved from the NAC to the SDA, so were the orphanages. The orphanages now have “inspectors” come from the Family and Sports department.

Every single orphanage director that I know is complaining about the new inspectors. The inspectors are very tough. The inspectors are very picky about the food and cleanliness.

I think this is great…. oversight = good

Continuing with my list of places to find information and photos on Ukrainian specialized orphanages and internats.

(Note: I am use the “cool stuff” photo because these bloggers are doing very cool things.)

Stephanie and Marina volunteer with Life2Orphans. In early September 2006 they visited the Mykolaivka Internat in Kramatorsk, Donetsk. Donetsk is a city name and an oblast (state) name. Part 1 of their trip report is published here. Photo is Marina standing in front of her Kramatorsk hotel.

Mykolaivka Internat houses 220 children from 4 to 17 years of age.

(Disclosure: I volunteer with Life2Orphans. I coordinate donations for my daughter’s old orphanage; Green Forest Specialized Orphanage. And I post blogs. Typically I don’t write the content. So I get an early preview. I highly recommend reading Stephanie and Marina’s trip report. It will probably be broken over 6 different blogs.)

Ukrainian Orphanage Blogs
Ukrainian Orphanage Changes: Family Style
Berdyansk, Vinnitsa, Uzhgorod, Zhytomyr
Dnepro, Volhynia, Odessa
Crimea, Donetsk, Kyiv, Kharkiv
Kramatorsk

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