What About Education? Part 3

Waiting to be used!

Basics in graphic art.

In What About Education? Part 2, I wrote that we would look at life in Ukrainian orphanages and compare them to other orphanage in other countries. We will begin by looking at a definition with some examples and statistics in different parts of the world.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphan

PBS portrays the America orphan in this story about the orphan train.  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/orphan/  In an earlier time, orphans were looked at as a social problem. They gathered them up and shipped them off to a facility.

After WWII, America changed its view on the institution of the orphanage and began to create a new answer to an old problem. Group Homes, a family setting with professional staff, created an environment where children could experience nurturing on a more personal level. In addition, Foster Homes provided a real family that would take one or more children into their home for a short, or extended, period of time.  http://people.howstuffworks.com/adoption5.htm

On every continent, the problem of children without parents is without a solution. Many programs are created with powerful goals, but in the end, few children leave the different systems of care, orphanages, or the various other facilities, and become successful in life.  http://www.sos-usa.org/about-sos/what-we-do/orphan-statistics/pages/global-orphan-statistics.aspx  There are many reasons such as fear in society, limited education, limited life skills, and the list goes on. There is no complete solution for the masses of orphans.

A little closer to my new (ten years) home in Ukraine, the story is equally sad if not tear jerking. Here are some statistics that prove the current system is not working.  http://ukrainetoutah.blogspot.com/p/facts-about-ukrainian-orphanages.html  The mentality in this country is somewhat different from what I am used to in America.

Sveta and I are helping two orphanages/boarding schools (the Ukrainian internat system). Both are set up for children with physical and mental disabilities. Our program focus is different for each, but we see education as the main player that brings change.

In both orphanages, computers are available for the children to use. In both cases, the government gave grants to purchase computers, but was not willing to add money to the budget for a teacher to teach computer classes. One orphanage moved forward, with a little incentive from my organization, while the other waits for money in their budget.

In one orphanage, after I realized that some of the children were sniffing glue, we encouraged a local church to expand their program on morality and drug and alcohol abuse to include the children at the orphanage. The orphanage no longer has this problem.

In What About Education? Part 4, we will look at the post-orphanage problems that the children face and what we can do to better prepare, (educate), the children. In Ukraine orphanages the percentages of failure are devastating.