New project started for rehabilitation of the disabled

For 29 years Anhelyna Bukasova and husband have been raising their daughter Olesia, who was diagnosed as mentally retarded. Having worked for thirty years as a civil engineer, Anhelyna never let slip a word about her problems to her colleagues and always hid her daughter from strangers for fear of their condescending glances and fastidious attitude toward her family. After retiring she even started to think of taking the veil together with her daughter, but later an idea occurred to her to create a center for people with similar fates, to bring some comfort to their dismal lives. Thus she became president of the Holosiyivo Society designed to support not only the parents of disabled children but also families with adult physically or mentally handicapped members.

Last week Kyiv NGOs aiding such people obtained a chance to familiarize themselves with practical steps in solving problems of the disabled. According to the Healthcare Ministry’s data, almost 300,000 persons are officially registered as mentally handicapped, with one-third of them having disability status. Social service to these people is rendered by public organizations or institutions created by local self-government bodies and the executive power. However, the legal guarantees and budget support are far from sufficient. Today state disability pension amounts to 64 hryvnias, while Ukraine’s law in force offers no alternative to sanitariums.

Now projects are being worked out in Kyiv to create a wheelchair-friendly environment, social supervision for the handicapped persons throughout their lives, social adaptation for children, support for people’s mental health, and programs for families’ social protection. The first mini-dormitory for the mentally handicapped and a daycare center for the seriously mentally retarded are being created on the basis of the Dzherelo [Spring] Benevolent Foundation. Eighteen people with no family to take care of them will live in the dormitory. Every room will host two or three persons, who will spend the day at the Dzherelo Center, where experts will organize their activity according to their abilities. This year the city budget gave 300,000 hryvnias to remodel the dormitory premises. The Kyiv budget also envisions rendering various social services as compensation for families that decline to place their disabled members in a sanitarium. As an experiment, in 21 Kyiv families those taking care of their handicapped members were granted the status of social worker with a corresponding salary. Next year it is planned to increase their number to 200.

Incidentally, professional social workers claim that families themselves can make up for the state’s insufficient aid to handicapped children. All they need to do is to work out a system for supporting their family and not be afraid of telling their relatives and friends about their child’s problems, because there always are people willing to help. State assistance can be obtained by turning to the district doctor who will send all the required documents to the district social welfare department and psychological, medical, and pedagogical commission. This makes it possible to solve the issue of the disabled child’s education and sending him or her to kindergarten.