Ukraine’s HIV+ Children Find Loving Homes
Nastya, 8, and Lena, 6, have life stories similar to that of many HIV-positive kids. Both girls had been abandoned in maternity hospitals right after birth; both subsequently remained in the hospital for almost a year; and both were finally placed in the Makeyevka Baby Home where they have lived ever since. Nastya and Lena have HIV and receive anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy. Now, both girls share something else in common: loving foster parents and a foster sister.
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Anna Z. with her foster daughters
Photo Credit: Larissa Kurashyna |
Anna Z. first heard about HIV-infected children needing homes in August 2006 from a friend who was working on a project implemented by the Cherkasy Regional branch of the All-Ukrainian People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) Network. The project, supported by the USAID Families for Children Program (FCP), was seeking families for HIV-positive children from the Makeyvka Baby Home in Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.
In spring 2006, FCP initiated a pilot project aimed at finding homes for 23 HIV-positive children from the Makeyevka Baby Home who would otherwise be transferred to boarding schools and institutions for children with disabilities. FCP sought to re-integrate children into their birth and extended families or place them into foster and adoptive families. To this end, the project brought together Ministry officials, regional and local child welfare workers, and HIV-service organizations to develop and conduct a targeted foster/adoptive parent recruitment campaign.
In November 2006, Anna applied for a mandatory training course for foster parents and completed it successfully a month later. She began collecting documents to register a foster family. In May 2007, Anna visited the Baby Home to meet the children, where she was introduced to little Lena, whom she took for a walk. In September, Anna returned to see Lena again and invited the child to come home with her. Lena was delighted, would not leave without her friend, Nastya.
Today, Anna has three beautiful girls—including her own 5-year-old—who love each other and bring great joy to their mother. Meanwhile, the effort to place children continues; to date, 13 children from Makeyevka Baby Home have found families.
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