January 5, 2012

BOM on WHAS11.com

 How about that? Bible Orphan Ministry is on WHAS11! Really I do not know what is that, but excited. :)
It`s excited and in same time so heartbreaking...So happy for a small girl who found forever her loving family! 
And I read it again and again about condition of kids in mental institutions and orphanages.It seem that I`m first time there...I see, I know. But it is need to be unconcerned that to get accustomed to it...

 Here are some parts of this article:

"Behind the Institution Gates
It's hard to estimate exactly how many special needs children are institutionalized across Ukraine. Some human rights workers estimate it could be in the tens of thousands. But not all come with proper documentation. And others are simply dropped off and abandoned.
Volunteers Misha Glazov and Alla Vasilieva have been visiting orphans -- special needs and typical children -- for years as part of their charity organization, Bible Orphan Ministry. For the special needs children, they are the only visitors most of them get.
Both Glazov and Vasilieva were sent to orphanages as young children and know exactly how these children feel. (It`s from me.I would add here my sister Oksana.She was in orphanage too.)  :)

When they drive up to a girls' institution for ages 5 to 35, the girls surround their van, pulling at them and their visitors for hugs, pictures. It is obvious both how much they crave attention and how little of it they get outside of these visits. 
 "All the time when we come them they say 'Mommy or Papa,'" Vasilieva said. "And I think that they understand and want to be in family."
At the girls' institutions, most of the girls and women have shorn hair. Their teeth are decaying or have fallen out. Most are covered in bug bites and scratches. Vasilieva explains that they often see the girls in the same outfit visit after visit.
They bathe about once a week.
One little girl with Down syndrome, named Masha, clings to her visitors. She looks to be about 3 years old, but is actually 7. Experts say this is a type of emotional dwarfism when a child neglected at a young age fails to thrive physically as well as emotionally.
But the conditions at the girls' orphanage were better than the boys' facilities ABC News visited.
There, the conditions ranged from bad to heartbreaking.
At one institution, where the smell of mold permeated some of the rooms and hallways, the boys sat and listened to Glazov and his ministry volunteers sing and tell Bible stories...

 The caretakers told ABC News they were overworked and often overwhelmed. There are just two nurses for the boys during the day and just one at night. They admitted to giving the boys injections to make them sleep. At times the boys have been restrained with shirts and sheets.
Glazov and Vasilieva know exactly how bad these children have it. But even Vasilieva was stunned when she first saw the conditions.

At a third institution, again for boys and men ages 5 to 35, the reason so many Americans were rushing to file adoptions papers for children with Down syndrome became shockingly apparent.
One step into the main institution was met with a wall of sickening odor, the smell of urine and feces. Several boys were left to sit in a sparse room that consisted only of wooden benches lining the walls and thin blankets spread across the floor.

"First time I came to mental institution and I saw the children I was shocked," she said. "Because I live in Ukraine and I did not know about these children."
Though Vasilieva had been visiting children with Down syndrome for years, it was only recently that she realized they were capable of being educated.
"We thought they cannot study, they cannot have education and we knew that they're life is real hard, but we did not know we could help them," she said. "We thought they understand nothing."
The myth that Down syndrome is a severe mental illness and a scourge on society is an overwhelmingly common one."

If you want to read and know more.There story about family who adopted a small girl Mia and condition of kids in mental institutions.


Please, follow to this link  http://www.whas11.com/news/health/Hidden-Angels-American-families-saving-children-with-Down-Syndrome-136227498.html



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