Abandoned children stand a chance

A militia precinct in Mykolaiv received a call from a local food market where an abandoned child had been found in a pavilion. Several days later, a similar incident took place at the Kyiv Rail Terminal, where a baby carriage was discovered. The mother had even left diapers and a blanket.

What led these women to abandon their children? Only they know. Unfortunately, there are many such women in Ukraine. Around 30 abandoned children are found each year in Kyiv alone. At best such women leave their kids in public places — rail terminals, food markets, near shopping malls, or in maternity hospitals and polyclinics, so they can be quickly discovered. There are cases, however, when children are found on dump heaps. I have no right to condemn such women, but every time I hear about an abandoned child I feel like crying. How can one leave one’s child on a trash heap?

To reduce the number of such cases, Ukraine plans to use the Polish and Czech experience; these countries have a special program known as “Windows of Life,” with special niches installed in hospitals or shopping malls where abandoned children can be left. Every such act is kept strictly discrete, without any security cameras nearby. These niches are equipped with sensors, so once a child is placed there the management receives an electronic signal and the child is retrieved.

Ukraine’s first windows of life appeared in Lviv, almost a year ago, in the maternity hospital on George Washington St. Not so long ago, such niches were installed at the Andrii Sheptytsky Hospital. These innovations were trigged by three tragic occurrences in early 2009, when young mothers had left their infants in the city dump.

“A woman who doesn’t want her baby for various reasons can leave it in such places without being identified. Anonymity is a very important component of this program. Although the law prohibits the disclosure of confidential information, our experience shows that this human right is often violated,” says Sheptytsky hospital manager Dzvenyslava Chaikivska, “the main goal of this social project is saving children’s lives, lest they be left to die in the streets. All the infants we receive will be transferred to maternity hospitals or children’s homes. There they will be examined and treated adequately. A child can spend up to three months in a maternity hospital, then it is institutionalized, unless it is adopted or its mother claims it, although this doesn’t happen very often.”

During almost one year of the windows of life in Lviv, only one child was left in a niche, a four-month-old boy. Luckily he was adopted and now has a real family. When asked about the absence of abandoned children, Chaikivska explains that women are probably afraid of being caught in the act or simply don’t want to leave their babies there, or maybe they just don’t know about such places. Volunteers hand out leaflets in churches and among so-called risk groups: in schools, colleges and universities. There are also street posters.

Chaikivska: “There many reasons why women abandon their children. These are mainly related to the fact that our society isn’t prepared to be tolerant towards people in difficult situations. There are also economic reasons, when a woman sees no alternative. Besides, unmarried mothers and women who get pregnant unintentionally are condemned or misunderstood by their families, and this plays its role. Our civil society is still poorly developed, and we want to prevent such situations. One must realize that abandoning one’s child is a desperate move. On the other hand, mothers shouldn’t be encouraged to use such facilities and feel free to part with their babies and go on with their lives.”

Considering that many women also abandon their children in Kyiv, a similar program will soon be launched here, too. The capital’s Health Care Department is deciding which medical institutions will have such windows of life. People at the Kyiv Children’s Home Berizka, however, believe that these facilities are unnecessary, that it would be a waste of money. Halyna Pomaz, Berizka’s acting chief physician, explained to The Day that there are enough regular medical facilities in Kyiv where women can leave their babies, and practice shows that in most cases they do just that: “If a woman wants to do this anonymously she will bring her baby to a polyclinic or a hospital, or a children’s home. Over the past several months few child abandonment cases have been registered because many women are encouraged to have babies by social payments at childbirth, though there are women who abandon their children after receiving such payments. However, neither the windows of life nor childbirth payments are a way to uproot this social problem. Work must be done with young people, young families planning to have children; families should be as precious for society as they are in the eyes of our Lord. If it were so, our government would consider the family to be the wealth of this country, and there would be no abandoned children. Our institution alone has 75 babies, some of whom are physically handicapped and HIV-positive. What chance do they stand, considering that children from normal families find themselves deserted.”

Be that as it may, children should be raised by families. But if a woman decides to abandon her baby, do we have a right to condemn her? Let her conscience be the judge.