Caritas Khmel’nyts’kyy Began Workshops that Help Children in Crisis Find Work

28.01.12
On 21 January, the Khmel’nyts’kyy Caritas met with young clients to conduct an unusual meeting to help this group find work. This topic doesn’t only attract the interest of adults; youngsters, especially those living in some crisis situation are also extremely interested

Often, minors must work to help support their families. This causes them to lose a piece of their childhood. They become preoccupied with: having enough money to buy clothing or footwear for the holidays and bringing a loaf of bread home instead of candies, which they unfortunately see very little of. These minors don’t get discouraged, and Caritas staff tries to help them in any way they can—psychologically, financially, socially, and by providing them with information and legal advice.

Today Caritas Ukraine cares for over 500 abandoned and homeless children and adolescents in Donetsk, Kyiv, Ternopil, L’viv, and Khmel’nyts’kyy. They provide these clients with basic needs and offer activities to enable or encourage their development—games and art therapy, workshops, trainings, discussions, excursions, hikes, and summer tent camps.

“All these activities are offered by Social Centres for Children and Adolescents in Crisis and are aimed at improving their socialization skills, making them safer, and teaching them to independently resolve daily hassles in an effective and socially acceptable way. We realized that the children would greatly benefit from a workshop that taught them how to look for good work. They learned where to look for jobs that would hire them, how to write a resume, how to make a good impression in person, and to look at things from the employer’s perspective.

We want to teach them about their rights, responsibilities, possibilities, and of the dangers that lurk in the employment market. Our Caritas branch has been working on preventing human trafficking for many years, and so we understand that this information must be taught to vulnerable under aged individuals one way or another,” says Dmytro Lysyy, Coordinator of Mobile Work with Youth in Ukraine in Khmel’nyts’kyy.