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Have become independent

Main Target groups Children and young people with special needs-Have become independent

ABOUT 50 DISABLED PEOPLE RESTORED IN THE LEGAL CAPACITY IN THE CHILDREN'S HOUSE- BOARDING INSTITUTIONS

       Thanks to the start of a new project and the work of WWB in implementation of it during the period of 2011-2013, for the first time, 5 young people with disabilities who lived in the house-boarding institution in Bogushevsk were restored to legal capacity.

To date, about 50 young people have been restored in their legal capacity and this is almost one house- boarding institution.

Let's give a family to children who are in the house-boarding institutions! This is our main task today!

We would like to tell some stories about them.

          ALEXANDER B., b. 1981 and her younger brother were taken to Bogushevsk house- boarding institution due to the deprivation of mother's parental rights. The guy constantly remembered the house during his stay there. He is very economic and knows how to do any housework: lay paving slabs, cement floors, nail something, paint. He loves animals, especially horses. He knows all their habits and features. The restoration of legal capacity allowed him to find a horse breeder in the Bogushevsk. Yesterday's resident of the house-boarding institution became an employee who helped specialists to rehabilitate children with disabilities through hippotherapy. A year later, the young man began to work in the municipal services of the city of Bogushevsk. But the home was always a beacon for Alexander. He moved to the city of Glubokoe to his mother. However, difficulties arose with work and he came to work in an agricultural estate in the village of Ratomka. He is still there and he is one of the best workers . He helps his mother, pays for all utilities. He constantly visits his younger brother who is in Glubokoe neuropsychiatric house-boarding institution and even takes him home for the holidays. Alexander’s dream is to have his own house to do household work.

OLGA N. was born in 1989. Olga arrived at the house- boarding institution after graduating from the first branch of a secondary school in 2006. Until the age of eleven, the girl lived in a family with mom and dad. But when mother died and father was persuaded to take his daughter to a house-boarding institution. For a long time it seemed that Olga was happy with everything and that she was not burdened by life there. A sort of phlegmatic fashionista and beauty. Accumulator. All is on the shelves. Everything is in order. Embroidery and beads in rehabilitation workshops, singing and dancing on stage, group assistance, television and reading in the free time. And so from year to year. But last year, Olga matured to be independent. She decided herself or maybe with the help of her aunt (they closely maintained relations, aunt visited her niece and took her to visit). And maybe it was not without tender feelings ... Former resident Andrei, also having recovered his legal capacity   could not forget Olga, came to visit, invited her to his place. In the process of restoring legal capacity, at a preliminary hearing, the prosecutor asked Olga a question: “What do you do in your free time?” “I'm reading detectives.” - "Hmm ... detectives ... why are they interesting to you?" The answer struck everyone: "Of them, I learn what I can’t do." Of course one couldn’t learn her to answer to such a question in advance ... Olga left for Logoisk. Her aunt continues to support her niece. Andrey is always near. No, they have not married yet. But the life is ahead ...

SERGEY I. was born in 1986. Until the age of 16, Sergey lived in a family with parents and sisters, but after the death of his parents, he was sent to the house- boarding institution. The younger sister was identified as a guardian family, the older received vocational education. The guy had difficulties with health and difficulties with the assimilation of educational material, he was engaged in the program of the auxiliary school. “ I had to meet adult life in the house- boarding institution where everything was different than at home”. This aroused hostility in Sergei, his reluctance to get used to new conditions and his behavior was of a conflicting nature. However, there were good helpers nearby who motivated Sergey to overcome these difficulties. Restored legal capacity in 2014. The dream to live independently and work came true. He began his career as a worker at a wood processing enterprise in the city of Bogushevsk and today he works in an agricultural estate in the village of Ratomka. Gratitude is a distinctive character of Sergei. He remembers the birthdays of all the employees of the house- boarding institution who worked with him and does not forget to congratulate everyone and sometimes to give a gift. Friendly, honest, always ready to help those who need it, has a sense of humor. Maintains the warmest relations with sisters and their families. One of Sergey’s important plans is the intention to create his own family, because “only in the family you can feel 100% necessary and significant”.

Alyona S. was born in 1979. Parents were deprived of parental rights in relation to Alena and she was sent to a boarding school in Begoml and after her graduation to Bogushevsk house-boarding institution. The presence of disability, the subsequent deprivation of legal capacity , lost ties with the family - all together created a not happy picture of the future for the girl. Alena is the owner of a single-minded character: she never agreed with the existing state of things in her life, had a heightened sense of justice, she always protected the weak, shared the latter with everyone who was nearby. She always actively participated in sporting events, did an excellent job with needlework - made crafts from beads, straws, drew, had a musical ear and a good voice. February 2013 became a new frontier in her life. Alena was one of the first to be restored in legal capacity and became a full citizen of the Republic of Belarus. Despite the second group of disability, she got a job. The first workplace was Bogushevsk house-boarding institution and after two years and for 5 years already Alena has been working as a seamstress at the Nit enterprise, has the 3rd professional rank and was awarded a diploma for conscientious work. Alena lives in the hostel of the enterprise. Alena actively maintains relationships with friends throughout Belarus. Alena did not harbor grudges against relatives who had not taken an interest in her life all these years. She herself found them through the “Wait for me” program, collected the necessary amount for a trip to Kazakhstan and visited them. Today, family members maintain relationships with Alena through social networks and mobile communications. Neither social orphanhood, nor boarding houses, nor diagnosis and disability became obstacles for Alena to become an independent and free person.

"Normalization. Integration. Equality"

The Swedish organization “ERIKS development partner” , in cooperation with the Belarusian partner CPA “World without Borders” implemented the project Normalization. Integration. Equality".The project contributed to reducing poverty and improving the quality of life of children and young people with special needs in accordance with their rights guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.The project was implemented in the direction of achieving the Millennium Development Goals in terms of eliminating socio-medical and educational qualification poverty. It contributed to the integration of the residents of the house-boarding institutions for children with disabilities and young people with disabilities with special needs of psychophysical development in society.

The fundamental direction of the project activity was the reorientation of the system of work of stationary institutions for children with disabilities and young people with disabilities from the principle of full life support to the principle of personal development and help in self-sufficiency.

In January 2005, on the basis of the Bogushevsk house-boarding institutions for children with special needs, the Swedish-Polish-Belarusian project “Development of alternative types of childcare with special needs in the Republic of Belarus” was launched. The goal of the project was to help children with disabilities living in specialized orphanages, their parents, people who are close by - specialists of these institutions and local residents. Considerable work was being done to familiarize people who had responsibilities of caring for children with a difficult fate. New forms and methods of work were presented.

Now, CPA“World without Borders" cooperates with all house- boarding institutions for children with disabilities in our country. The work of the association is aimed at changing the attitude of society towards people with special needs in development and improving the quality of their life.

Among the events - seminars for specialists and staff of the institutions, holding open days for parents and relatives, acquiring the necessary equipment and providing educational material for the development of mental and motor activity of the residents, familiarization with successful experience in these areas, including in other countries.

The close cooperation of the association with the administration and employees of the house-boarding institutions, constant contacts with their residents pointed out the problems of children and young people with special needs and required immediate resolution. The problem of self-realization and integration of this category of people in society was especially acute.

In this regard, in 2006, WWB began work on the program to prepare the residents of the house-boarding institutins for independent living. In the Bogushevsk house-boarding institution for children with special needs an experimental house of independent living was created. The main goal of the program was to prepare children living there for independent everyday life as much as possible, to give them the opportunity to live like everyone else. The completion of the pilot project involved independent living and adequate employment of young people with special needs, their social adaptation and integration into society. And that ment that these boys and girls would live, feeling like full citizens of our country. The experience of the Department of Independent Living on the basis of the Bogushevsk was discussed at the Republican Methodical Council under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Belarus and considered as a very good one. The project received a positive assessment, both from the institution itself and the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection. In the course of this work, the areas of responsibility of various actors in the intersectoral rehabilitation space were identified with the aim of improving the protection of the rights and interests of children and young people with special needs and their successful normalization and integration. There was a need to introduce a program for the integration of children with disabilities and young people with disabilities and the opening of such Departments, as well as training groups for independent living in other house-boarding institutions.

The innovation project was implemented in close cooperation of public associations with the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, local authorities, social services, specialized institutions for children and young people with special needs, educational institutions, regional centers for social services and families of children and young people. The focus of the work of the created model was a child or a young man with special needs in development, his rights and needs.

The goal of this project is the introduction and development of a model of social adaptation of the residents of the house-boarding institutions for children with disabilities and young people with disabilities with special needs in the practice of social work of the Republic of Belarus.

Children with disabilities and young people with disabilities with more severe forms of the disease, the diagnosis of which will not allow them to switch to independent living, were also participants in the project. Work with them was aimed at improving the quality of their life, developing personals’ potential, introducing alternative forms of work with children and young people with severe psychophysical diseases.

Primary target groups of the project: residents of the house-boarding institutions (including those who, due to the diagnosis, cannot live in departments of independent and accompanied accommodation);

graduates of the departments of independent and accompanied residence;

employees of the house-boarding institutions;

administration of the house-boarding institutions.

Secondary target groups:

Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Belarus, local authorities;

Familiesof the residents of the house-boarding institutions;

other charitable associations and foundations.

The project envisaged working with all target groups aimed at achieving their close, sustainable, long-term interaction in the interests of successful normalization and integration, and therefore achieving equal rights for children and young people with developmental disabilities living in the house-boarding institutions.