Transforming the lives of disadvantaged children and young people in Belarus, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine.
"The Light shines in the darkness"
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Isle of Hope (Minsk, Belarus)
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Children with disabilities form one of the most marginalised and deprived groups in the Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova. For generations, they were regarded as "mistakes" or “punishment for the sins” and locked up in institutions. The prevailing medical advice given to new mothers of disabled children was to put their child in an institution and “try again”. This legacy remains and it is still common for children with disabilities to be put into orphanages where they receive little or no stimulation or love.
It is common in the region for fathers to abandon their wives if they chose to keep a child with disabilities, leaving her alone to cope with the challenges of raising a disabled child at home. Having to provide constant care for their children, these mothers cannot earn enough money to support themselves, and so remain trapped in the poverty cycle. There is little or no support for parents choosing to keep their disabled child at home, leaving the parents little choice but to leave their child at an institution. State support to those parents who choose to keep their children from a life in an orphanage is inadequate making it common for children with disabilities to be brought up in poverty and often in an institution.
Isle of Hope provides free therapeutic rehabilitative services, together with day care aimed at providing as much independence for 45 young people living with severe learning difficulties as possible.
The centre is open weekdays allowing parents to hold employment and support their families.
For a profile on the country we suggest the BBC website on Belarus
Current Services
At present the services include:
Future Plans
There is currently a waiting list of over 100 young people whose parents would like them to be able to take advantage of such services. Isle of Hope is an example of best practice for work with young people with mental disabilities in the region but has no more capacity. It can only be hoped that government can be encouraged to adopt this model for many other young people and their parents.
Founded in 1996 by a group of desperate parents, mainly single mothers, who needed to create a solution to their problems of caring for their disabled children. This was also triggered by a number of suicides of mothers unable to cope.
Supported by ChildAid since 2003.
Director Lyudmila Hutsko
E-mail isle_of_hope@yahoo.com
Post 9 D. Serdicha Str
Minsk 220082
Belarus