Behind the high fences of boarding schools and orphanages, far from the eyes of society, lives silence. But this is not peace, but a muffled cry that no one hears. This is the cry of children who should have been given a second chance at a happy childhood, but instead their lives were turned into constant fear. Where they should find protection, they are sometimes met with indifference, violence and loneliness. These children – the most vulnerable, the least protected – become victims of a system that turns places of care into traps from which there is no way out. Their pain is silenced by closed doors, but can we remain indifferent to this cry in silence?
Broken destinies
In Ukraine accrued 751 residential institutions where more than 105 thousand children stay:
- in the system of the Ministry of Health, there are 39 institutions where 2,773 children live and are educated;
- in the system of the Ministry of Social Affairs, there are 132 institutions – 5,087 children;
- in the MES system, there are 580 institutions – 97,923 children.
At the same time, 92% of children have families and only 8% are orphans.
For in words Minister of Social Policy Oksana Zholnovich, 20,000 children in Ukraine live in boarding schools with their parents. The reasons are quite trivial – poverty, inability to get an education at home due to disability or special educational needs. 5,500 children have their parents deprived of their parental rights. That is why such children are forced to live in boarding schools. 17.3% of children living in boarding schools have disabilities.
At first glance, such institutions look like places of safety and protection, but the reality is shocking. One of these places was the educational and rehabilitation center in the Lviv region, where the management of the institution became famous for the fact that instead of care and rehabilitation, it carried out psychological, physical and sexual violence against children who were already in difficult life circumstances. Orphans, children deprived of parental care, children in difficult life circumstances and children with special educational needs found themselves in even worse conditions than they could have imagined.
It is shocking that the abuse of defenseless children has continued all this time, while the National Police and local children’s services and the Department of Education have remained blind and deaf to the pleas of children and advocates who have been trying for six months draw attention to this terrible abuse.
The situation was saved by the fact that it spread through the Internet video, on which the moment of the beating of the pupil with a rod by the teacher of the rehabilitation center and also in front of other pupils was recorded. The shocking case came to the attention of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Dmytro Lubinets, who took case under personal control. And the minister of social policy Oksana Zholnovich stated about the importance of conducting systematic control over the living conditions of children in similar institutions.
Is this an isolated case?
This incident became a litmus test that revealed how unhealthy the atmosphere is in many institutions where children are forced to live in constant stress with no hope of protection. Boarding schools, although designed to provide children with basic needs, have become places where inmates often face emotional isolation, lack of individual attention, and sometimes psychological and physical abuse. In such conditions, children grow up separated from society and family values, which leads to serious difficulties in social adaptation after reaching adulthood.
Research shows that children who are brought up in residential care are much more likely to suffer from emotional and mental disorders, have lower chances of successful integration into society and are more likely to face problems such as unemployment, homelessness, addictions and conflicts with the law. Pupils have no privacy in their lives. About 17% of children live in rooms for 9 people. They decide when to wake up, what to eat and what to wear, when to go to bed and what to do during the day, even on weekends and holidays. Institutional institutions are isolated communities, the borders of which pupils have no right to leave. What appears in the imagination is not a cozy shelter for children, but a kind of institution of deprivation of liberty, where the child becomes a victim of cruelty and has no rights.
Consequently, children in boarding schools are exposed to an increased risk of violence compared to other children. And this is a direct violation of the Child’s Right to Protection from Violence, enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. According to sad statistics, 20% of boarding school graduates have a criminal record, 14% engage in prostitution, 10% commit suicide within two years after graduation, and only 10% fully integrate into society. We still wonder why this situation has developed? Probably because such children were forgotten, locked behind bars, and all care ended there. And only after a high-profile incident in Lviv Oblast came to their senses and realized that such institutions must be constantly monitored. After all, such cases, unfortunately, are not isolated.
In Zhytomyr Oblast, the director of a boarding school imagined himself a slave trader and sent children with mental disabilities to hard work, and took their wages for himself. There are 82 pupils under the age of 35 in the institution. All of them have severe mental disabilities and most of them were rejected by their relatives. They live on a pension of one and a half thousand hryvnias. 75% of it goes to their upkeep, and the rest of up to UAH 400 must be used by the pupils. But they were deprived of their cards, and they did not receive this money.
The Odessa orphanage “Svitanok” became a notorious place for beating children. The foster children tried to escape from this house by any means: some ran away, others even poisoned themselves to get to the hospital. All the crimes committed by the teachers of the home became known thanks to Zoya Melnyk, an employee of the Odesa patrol police, who during a walk met a five-year-old girl who was covered in bruises and was without adult supervision. Later, Zoya Melnyk published on her Facebook page, a video in which this girl talked about all the troubles that lurked behind the walls of the orphanage. In order to calm the children down, the educators used completely non-pedagogical methods, beating them with shockers and dousing them with cold water.
In the children’s shelter in Volyn, children were sent to the quarantine station for a month for any offense. Pupils were also beaten with traces of blood on their clothes. There are 33 children aged 3 to 18 in the shelter, mostly girls. The girls repeatedly informed the teachers about sexual harassment by the director’s brother, but did not receive any response. Law enforcement agencies became interested in the shelter only after neighbors heard the screams of children being beaten by the facility’s employees and reported the incident.
After visiting the Magal boarding school in Bukovyna, where children with disabilities are staying, the authorized bodies recorded bedsores in the children that were a month old. And looking at the playground, where all the carousels and benches are equipped with ropes, makes your hair stand on end. After all, children were tied to them like dogs. Ropes were also used on beds.
In a boarding house in Dnipro, the monitoring group of the Ombudsman’s Office discovered a number of serious violations of children’s rights. Children were beaten, their movement was restricted without any reason. And the boarding house itself violates all sanitation standards.
Such cases show the real picture of what happens behind the walls of boarding schools and rehabilitation centers. Children who have already experienced trauma in their families do not get a second chance. On the contrary, their destinies break even more. They become defenseless against a cruel system that not only does not protect them, but also cripples them.
Instead of being a place of salvation, boarding schools often turn into traps from which children cannot escape. It resembles a cage where little souls scream in pain, but no one hears that scream.
Is there a way out?
The question arises, how did it happen that all these institutions were opened and received permission to accept children, while many of them have terrible unsanitary conditions, the furniture is not adapted to the age changes of children, and the use of some facilities, in general, can lead to serious physical injury due to improper condition? Do the fates of children lose interest for the state at a time when children lose their parents? Does illness or disability put an end to the child’s future? Is it easier to just lock such children behind bars and pretend they don’t exist? Why did the numerous regulatory agencies fail to identify these horrific incidents and protect the children?
The issue of personnel selection for such institutions requires special attention. Of course, the children who come to them have difficult fates and it is not easy to deal with them. For them, there should be a special approach and a boundless loving heart. Of course, not all employees of orphanages or rehabilitation centers perform their duties improperly. Among them there are also many dedicated people who love children and try to help them in every possible way. But such shocking cases point to the fact that employees are admitted to such institutions without proper verification, without establishing whether they have no criminal record, whether they have passed a psychological examination and whether they have the proper education to work with children.
Recognizing such incidents, we, unfortunately, already struggle with the consequences, and our state system does not work with the causes, so the number of such crimes increases every year. Due to the closedness of the system in some residential institutions, students face not only physical violence from their peers, but also sexual violence from adults – educators, and even the director – people who come to the boarding school and others. And it turns out that it is almost impossible to control such cases now.
Experience of foreign countries in combating violence in children’s homes
Violence in orphanages is a global problem that exists not only in Ukraine, but also in many foreign countries. It can be both physical and psychological. In some countries, this issue attracts a lot of attention due to a number of scandals, investigations and testimonies of children. Many countries have strict laws and regulations governing the work of children’s institutions. They include requirements for staff, their qualifications, rules for the treatment of children, as well as regular inspections of orphanages.
For example, in many countries of Europe and the USA, orphanages are regularly inspected by state authorities or independent organizations. This makes it possible to prevent systematic violence or detect it in its early stages.
Education and continuous training of educators and staff of orphanages helps them avoid violence due to ignorance or misinterpretation of their duties. In countries such as Canada and Great Britain, staff receive specialized training in parenting traumatized children and methods of avoiding aggressive behavior patterns.
In many countries, human rights organizations fight for children’s rights and monitor the situation in orphanages. They can receive complaints, conduct their own investigations and advocate for the improvement of living conditions for children.
Some countries have special children’s ombudsmen or lawyers who protect the rights of children and help them in cases of violence. For example, Sweden and Norway have a well-developed child protection system, where ombudsmen have the right to intervene in conflict situations and ensure the protection of children’s rights.
Despite efforts, the problem of violence in orphanages remains relevant because it is difficult to completely eradicate it. However, thanks to the increased level of control and attention from society and the state, the situation in many countries is improving.
The case in the Lviv region caused a wave of indignation in society, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. After the publicity, local authorities promised to investigate and punish those responsible, but is this enough to protect children from similar tragedies in the future?
The answer lies in fundamental changes to the system. We must not only control such institutions, but also create alternatives. The real protection of children is not isolation in closed institutions, but creation of conditions for their development in family environments, foster families, where they can feel love and care.
Society must hear this cry. He cannot remain unanswered. Only together can we change the destinies of children who have lost hope and make sure that no child becomes a victim of violence again where they should be protected.
We have no right to turn a blind eye to this cry in silence. Children who ended up in boarding schools are not statistics, but living souls who face cruelty and indifference every day. They are waiting for rescue and help, but who will hear them? The state system, which should protect them, breaks their destinies, turning places of hope into traps with no way out. Therefore, if society remains silent, even more children will remain captive to this silent horror.
