Donetsk, Feb 6 — DAN. Some 95 percent of Donetsk People’s Republic children who lost their parents are brought up in adoptive families, Director of the DPR State Service for Affairs of Family and Children Svetlana Maiborodoa told the Donetsk News Agency on Monday.
“We had 80 percent of orphans in families as in Russia while now it’s 95 percent. Just a handful is in orphanages. Evacuation of children to Russia is ongoing because of the hostilities, ” Maiboroda said.
As the fighting increased in the region, many children were taken to temporary accommodation centers in Russia to be placed with adoptive families later on, she added.
“After Mariupol (the fight for the city and its liberation — eds Donetsk News Agency), the children whose parents had been killed, were handed over to the families of the next of kin, their grandmothers and grandfathers took them in. All the children were accommodated, ” the director said.
Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova told Russia 24 channel that the project “All Donbass Children in Families” had been launched. It will help to work out new regulations integrated in the Russian legal system for comprehensive work towards helping the children without parental care. Maiboroda told DAN that her department already had information on the project but refused to disclose details.
At present, the presidential commissioner for children’s rights is touring the Donbass regions to develop a comprehensive child protection system. She met with DPR Acting Head Denis Pushilin and LPR Acting Head Leonid Pasechnik to present the project “All Donbas Children in Families.” Some experts believe that the regional authorities, together with the children’s ombudsperson, seek to fully settle the problem of orphans, as did the Chechen Republic where some orphans were placed with adoptive families and some were adopted by their close or distant relatives after the end of hostilities.
Experts and psychologists share the opinion that a child brought up in an adoptive family has more chances for well-being in the future than the children from orphanages. Adoptive families facilitate socialization, development and emotional connection to a parent whereas a child from orphanage will keep encountering routine problems throughout their lives, such as inability to come to terms, sharing responsibility or social adaptation.*jk