Children should not suffer for someone to profit from it: human rights activist supported Prosecutor General Kravchenko's initiative for a large-scale inspection of orphanages

Shocking cases of child rights violations in state institutions, pointed out by volunteers of the "City of Goodness" child assistance center, became the basis for Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko's decision to conduct a full inspection of all orphanages in Ukraine. As Inna Miroshnychenko, a lawyer defending the rights of orphaned children, noted in an exclusive comment to UNN, dozens of children live for years with false diagnoses, without treatment and without basic conditions, so the "zero tolerance" announced by the Prosecutor General could be the beginning of systemic changes.

Context

Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Kravchenko, after visiting Ukraine's largest charitable children's shelter "City of Goodness" and hearing a number of shocking stories of young Ukrainians there, announced personnel decisions, as well as a full inspection of all orphanages across the country. In particular, he called on the ministers of health and social policy, social services, heads of children's institutions, heads of regional and district state administrations to conduct an independent review of the diagnoses of all children, to check the conditions, medical conclusions, care for children, and in case of violations and inaction, the prosecutor's office will act quickly and harshly. Kravchenko also emphasized that from today, the principle of zero tolerance for violence and negligence towards children is in effect in Ukraine.

Details

"I am very happy that he went to the 'City of Goodness' and saw it with his own eyes. And this is what we have been shouting about for a long time. The case that was described in the post (of Ruslan Kravchenko – ed.), for example, about a child in Mykolaiv region, tied up – this was our monitoring, when we established that this child was tied up. Then, for half a year, no joke, for half a year we fought to have this child transferred to the 'City of Goodness'," Miroshnychenko said.

According to her, the monitoring then revealed that the child was sitting tied to a chair, having contraindications to sitting, constantly experiencing severe pain. However, because the child could not speak, she could not say anything about it.

"And in such conditions she was there, without any rehabilitation and treatment. We fought with Mykolaiv region for half a year to have the child transferred to the 'City of Goodness'. And absolutely free of charge, with charitable funds, we provided her with the full range of services," Inna Miroshnychenko noted.

She added that she visits this child and noted significant changes. "It's just heaven and earth. How unhappy she was in the Mykolaiv orphanage. How happy she is now, her intellect is preserved, she just doesn't speak, she has many different disorders and lesions. And it's clear that she is loved, she had an operation, she can already sit. This is what the state did not do for this child for 9 years. It's just awful," Inna Miroshnychenko said.

The human rights activist emphasized that the need to inspect all institutions where orphans or children deprived of parental care reside has long been overdue. According to her, the children's questionnaires in these institutions do not correspond to real medical data. "There are children who have a number of diagnoses attributed to them, just so that they are in the system, no one would adopt them, so that they would feed this system. There are children, on the contrary, who are underdiagnosed, no one studies any of their health problems, there is no individual approach. No allergies, gluten intolerance, lactose intolerance are even mentioned in the institutions. You have a bun for breakfast, if it has butter, you're lucky. Just a bun. And no one cares that you have celiac disease and you can't digest it, because there's no such thing there - such an analysis is not done," Inna Miroshnychenko said.

She noted that representatives of the Ministry of Health were involved in one of the monitoring efforts so that they could see the children and their medical records and understand that they did not correspond to reality.

"Therefore, what has come out now, honestly, we are ready to celebrate. This is what we have been talking about for two years, that there is an urgent need for this. And we are very happy that it has finally reached the right level. And if it doesn't get lost somewhere along the way, I think that finally it will advance reforms and show that children are not hostages of the system. They should not suffer there just so that someone can profit from it," the human rights activist emphasized.