Social Orphans in Belarus UPDATED

“The number of cases when parents are deprived of their parental rights in Belarus is very high compared to other European countries.

On the whole Belarus brings up more than 25,000 boys and girls in children institutions of various types. That is about 1,4% of all children or every 70th child in Belarus.

Every year state authorities reveal and send to children’s institutions about 4,000 of children deprived of parental care. True orphans make a small fraction of the total number.

Deprivation of parental rights cases because of alcohol abuse is one the most common reason for that.

Childhood’s Cruel Rival

In an absolute majority of cases when children are sent to orphanages their parents, or at least one of them, are alive. But at some point they found their small offsprings to be an unbearable burden, an obstacle for an easy life, or just forgot about their existence. Whatever is the wording, too often children lose  competition with vodka for the adults’ hearts.

According to the World Health Organisation, Belarus is in top-10 countries as per alcohol consumption. More than 10% of all population abuse it.

Alcohol goes among main causes for high mortality, suicides, violence. But still… the state increases the sales of alcohol and its costs stay low.

Alcohol-addicted people rarely refuse from children themselves. Usually the state officials come and take the unfortunate small human being away.

The state deprives unaccomplished parents of parents’ rights. For a child the immediate result of such a change is usually the same: getting to an orphanage.

Belarusian state authorities use a broad term with regard to children with alive parents but deprived of their care: “social orphans”. In fact, that usually means – “victims of nation’s alcoholisation”.

Bleak Prospects

Depending on the type of an orphanage, it can host from about 20 to 100 children. They get medical care, special education if needed, and nice toys.

Yet the consequences of upbringing in an orphanage are doleful. Developmental delays and disability physical stunting are common cases. Only about 10% of orphanage’s graduates can settle well in their future life. Violence, drugs, and, again, alcohol and abandoned children are far more common among orphanage’s graduates than among other youth.

The case is hardly a blame of orphanages’ staff. They are just unable to provide children with decent socialisation skills, and which is even more important – with parental love.

For state authorities the detrimental results of upbringing in orphanages are clear enough. Now they are making efforts to put children to alternative forms of family instead.

Professional families, children houses of family type, patronage are quite new institutions for Belarus, but they are gaining popularity and increasing in number.

In order to prove success of alternative forms of families state media like to point at decrease in the number of orphanages in the country.

Compared to 2005, the number of children in the orphanages declined by twofold.  But one should be very careful with such statistics: during this time the number of children has decreased in Belarus by 30% because of demographic trends.

Thanks to these positive changes, children get into the atmosphere, being much closer to what they can get in a family. Still the alternative family forms are not real ones.

Red Light For Foreign Adopters

Adoption gives a second chance for both real and social orphans. Being adopted as babies, children may never know that their parents are not biological ones. Even if they learn this in future, they anyway have already received a deal of parental love, which is of crucial importance for formation of a person.

On the one hand, the statistics on adoption reveal progress: while in 2006 Belarusians adopted only 337 children, in 2011 this number was already 510. On the other hand, Belarus has drastically minimised possibilities for international adoptions.

For years adoption by a foreign family loomed among the brightest wishes of small Belarusian orphans. The practise used to be quite popular and the number of cases of such polar shifts in children’s lives could exceed 700 a year (in 2003).

Not taking into account children’s interests, the state has decided their fortune in another way. In 2006, Belarusian Parliament amended the Code of Marriage and Family in the part of international adoption. Foreigners became able to adopt a Belarusian child only if state authorities find his or her adoption within Belarus impossible.

Of all the foreigners (excluding Russians), only Italians saved can adopt Belarusian children following a simplified procedure. That is because Belarus and Italy have launched an effective cooperation on adoption issues like monitoring the life of adoptees abroad. [Hmmm…]

Foreign adoption cases decreased by almost five times. Together with children chances for proper life in present and future.

Reasons for State Concern

The state can provide good arguments supporting its position with regard to foreign adoption. In 2004, Lukashenka claimed adoption of Belarusian children by foreigners was Belarus’ shame. A year later, the state claimed that international adoption was one of means for trafficking of people.

Culmination came in September 2006 when an Italian couple refused to return a Belarusian orphan – Vika Moroz – to Belarus after she had spent another summer in Italy. The Italians claimed that at her orphanage in Belarus the small girl suffered from physical and moral violence. They were hiding the girl for 20 days. At last, Italian police found Vika in a monastery and returned her to Belarus.

News from Russia exgagerated the tension then. Exceptionally violent treatment of about 18 Russian children adopted by foreigners got significant  attention in Russian media which are popular in Belarus. [Actually 19 DEAD in US alone and many more have had violence against them.] The cases enforced the negative attitude of state officials towards international adoption. Even more, it helped the tough state’s policy to get ordinary Belarusians’ support.

The state had its reasons to limit international adoption. But it is impossible to agree with Lukashenka that adoption of Belarus by foreign citizens is Belarus’ shame. The need for international adoption is only a consequence of a real cause for Belarus’ shame: alcoholisation of the rapidly declining population.”

Social Orphans in Belarus: Alcohol Takes Its Toll

[Belarus Digest 12/11/12 by Darya Fisava]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: ‘”The current state and prospects of Belarusian-Italian cooperation in the area of international child adoption were discussed at a meeting of Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Yelena Kupchina and Integration Minister of Italy Cecile Kyenge in Rome. Cecile Kyenge is the head of the International Adoptions Commission under the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of Italy, the press service of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry told BelTA.

Italy is the main partner of Belarus as far as the recreation of children abroad is concerned. In 1991-2012 about 500,000 underage Belarusians enjoyed recreation in Italy. Those were primarily kids, who live in areas affected by the Chernobyl catastrophe, residents of children’s homes and boarding schools as well as kids from single-parent and low-income families. In H1 2013 5,900 Belarusian children visited Italy for recreation.

The meeting also touched upon other matters of humanitarian cooperation between the two countries.

Yelena Kupchina is in Italy on 21-24 July. On 23 July she met with Deputy Economic Development Minister of Italy Carlo Calenda and Deputy Foreign Minister of Italy Marta Dassu.

At the meeting in the Economic Development Ministry of Italy the sides discussed major avenues of cooperation, focusing on accelerating the launch of the Belarusian-Italian intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation and the Italian industrial district in Brest Oblast. At the meeting hosted by the Italian Foreign Ministry the sides discussed the entire range of matters of bilateral cooperation as well as interaction between the Belarusian and Italian foreign ministries.

Apart from that, the Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister met with representatives of the management of the Italian company Danieli & C. Officine Meccaniche SpA, which is one of the world’s leaders in manufacturing equipment for metallurgy.

Italy is a traditional key partner of Belarus. In 2012 Belarus-Italy trade totaled $1.64 billion, with Belarus’ export to Italy at $689.1 million, 24.8% up from 2011. In 2012 Belarus’ import from Italy rose by 1.3% to $954.3 million.

In 2012 Italian companies invested $48.7 million in the Belarusian economy. Italy is one of the leaders in the number of joint ventures and foreign-owned companies set up in Belarus.”

Nearly 6,000 Belarusian children visited Italy for recreation in H1 2013

[Belarusian Telegraph Agency 7/23/13]