The majority of disadvantaged children in Russia and the republics have some type of disability or special need. The prevailing medical advice given to new mothers of disabled children is to put their child in an institution and “try again”.
It is common in the region for fathers to abandon their wives if they chose to keep a child with disabilities, leaving her alone to cope with the challenges of raising a disabled child at home. Having to provide constant care for their children, these mothers cannot earn enough money to support themselves, and so remain trapped in the poverty cycle.
State support to those parents who choose to keep their children from a life in an orphanage is inadequate making it common for children with disabilities to be brought up in poverty and often in an institution.
Hippocrates Centre (known also as Children’s Health Centre), Chisinau, Moldova
A medical centre providing treatment to children suffering from problems of the locomotion, cardiovascular and respiratory systems.
A day care centre providing for 45 teenagers and young people with both physical and mental developmental disabilities.
Educational and social inclusion programme into mainstream schools and society as well as a day care centre with a home schooling programme, school for mother’s programme and information programme for the rehabilitation and integration of children with physical disabilities.