The government is preparing a large strategy to support motherhood: its importance for children during the war.
In a country that has been living under a military regime for more than four years, the issue of protecting the life and health of a child, supporting motherhood and a dignified childhood is turning from a humanitarian issue into a state security issue. Children who are under fire, evacuated from occupied territories, growing up in families where the father is at the front or has died, are formed in conditions of trauma, instability, broken social ties and constant anxiety. And this imposes a special responsibility on the state. Every month of delayed decisions on childhood issues is years lost for the future of the country. That is why maternity support should be a structural component of national stability.
Oksana Zholnovych, Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine stated that the government is preparing a major strategy to support motherhood. It is about one-off benefits or payments, as well as a comprehensive approach that takes into account the conditions of war, the needs of mothers and the dynamics of the social environment. This strategy aims to preserve motherhood, make it possible, feasible and protected in the realities of a protracted armed conflict.
Zholnovych is blunt: in the current system, a woman who has given birth to a child actually finds herself on her own with a full package of caregiving responsibilities. And in the conditions of war, when some families lose their breadwinner, are forced to evacuate, live in rented accommodation or without constant access to medicine and education, this situation turns into chronic exhaustion.
“Now there are several initiatives to “relieve” a woman from caring for a child,” – said the minister.
It is about temporary help, as well as a change of principle: a woman who has given birth to a child should not become isolated from the labor market, the professional community, and development opportunities. Especially if it is a family of immigrants, if the child has a disability or a complex behavioral history after the experience.
“Very often those children do not grow up in any way and do not become less responsibilities for their parents. For me, it is fundamental to start a program in September to ensure care and development at schools. Although I understand that schools are the least prepared for this.” Zholnovich added.
One of the tools already in place is the “municipal babysitter” program, but it is currently limited in its availability — mainly for internally displaced women. A new step will be to expand the program to all women who go to work and have a child under the age of three.
“We want it to be available to every working woman. If a woman goes to work in the period from 1 to 3 years of age of the child, it is still much more economically profitable for the state to pay such a nanny than to leave the woman and deprofessionalize her.” — emphasized the head of the Ministry of Social Policy.
According to her, it is planned to increase the amount of support to 8 thousand hryvnias per child. But the program allows you to reach more — if a separate agency or registered legal entity is created, then one nanny can take care of up to five children.
Ukrainian mothers today are not just women who raise a child. These are refugees, widows, evacuees, women who have lost their homes, jobs, and partners. They live in crowded apartments with relatives, in shelters, in foreign countries. Often without support. The state must either help them raise a child in decent conditions, or accept the fact that new generations will grow up lacking basic care.
According to Zholnovich, the new maternity support strategy is being prepared to start from the new budget year – from January, which will include a complete system of decisions: financial, organizational, educational and personnel.
