Relief Nursery Helps Ukrainian Families at Risk
Sashko, age 6, can count, knows the alphabet, and can write his first and last names. But he is eager to learn more and looks forward to starting school this September. Each morning, Sashko’s mother, Hanna, takes him to kindergarten. She then returns home to take care of 3-year-old Mykola, Sashko’s brother, while her husband Serhiy is at work. Little Mykola enjoys everything from running about to helping his mom with daily chores, to the stories and jokes his older brother tells him when he returns from kindergarten.
It’s hard to believe that this loving and happy family was once considered among their community’s most vulnerable. Four months ago, social workers of the Uman Regional Children’s Department reported alcohol abuse and child neglect, and considered removing the children from the home. At that time, Serhiy was unemployed, and neither he nor Hanna had the parenting skills or positive childhood family experiences to fall back on.
When social workers first approached Hanna and Serhiy, they were rebuffed. But with patience and a proper approach, social workers gained their confidence. By helping Hanna and Serhiy to identify their strengths, the social workers gave them a chance to reevaluate their family’s relationship. While Hanna and Serhiy were developing their parental skills to help foster a positive and nurturing family life, caregivers put Mykola and Sashko in therapy to enhance each child’s potential.
Serhiy, Hanna and their two children, along with six other families from the Uman Rayon, were enrolled in the Relief Nursery, a program for families in difficult life circumstances initiated by USAID’s Families for Children Program (FCP). For more than two years, FCP has been building a continuum of services aimed at developing family-based care models for orphans and children deprived of parental care including children affected by HIV/AIDS.
Along with foster care and national adoption development, FCP also focuses on preventing child abandonment. The Relief Nursery (RN) aims to keep children within their families, while meeting each child’s safety and well-being needs. It targets low-income families with children between birth and six years of age who have a history of, or are at risk for, physical, emotional, or sexual abuse or neglect.
The RN model was introduced 30 years ago in Eugene, Oregon, in the U. S. The three main components of the model include therapeutic early childhood services, home visits and parental education classes. Services provided by RN staff have been acknowledged as highly effective in preventing child abuse and keeping families together and have been replicated in 10 sites across the U.S.
To help Ukraine reform its child welfare system and focus on a child-centered and family-oriented approach, FCP initiated a project to replicate the RN model in its three pilot sites: Uman city and Uman rayon in Cherkasy oblast and Brovary rayon in Kyiv oblast. To develop the RN model in these sites, the local social service centers received special purpose grants to cover the cost of remodeling premises, purchasing equipment, furniture, toys, literature and other resources for parents and children, as well as sustaining operational costs for the first six months. Future program activities would be covered by local government budgets.
FCP also developed a solid methodological base, and provided trainings for staff. Ukrainian specialists received a unique opportunity to visit the U.S. to learn about the RN model in Eugene, and to participate in a series of trainings. In Ukraine, U.S. specialists visited RN replication sites and, together with their Ukrainian colleagues, conducted trainings for parents, participated in home visits, and advised on the issues of parent education and early childhood development.
A significant role in the successful implementation of the RN model is assigned to the boards of directors formed in each of the three model centers. Board members represent local government, business and clergy, and are responsible for fundraising and promotion of public-private partnerships, raising public awareness of RN goals, and developing volunteer involvement.
The development and opening of RN centers in Ukraine is a result of close cooperation between local governments, local social service centers, children and health agencies and the departments of families, youth and sports. A multidisciplinary approach is crucial to the success and sustainability of the model. There is an expectation that the centers will be sustained with support from the State Department for Social Services, which has expressed its intention to support the newly developed centers after the grant projects expire. USAID anticipates that the model will be adopted and expanded throughout Ukraine.
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Mykola and Sashko at the backyard
Photo Credit: Tetiana Balkovska
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Workers are setting a children's room for the Uman Relief Nursery Center
Photo Credit: Natasha Kovalenko
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