Caritas Ternopil teaches independent behavior clients of residential care establishments

10.07.2014, Ternopil
This year Caritas Ternopil together with charitable foundation “Future of orphans” repeatedly conducted various events for graduates of residential care facilities. Particularly, during spring holidays a cycle of seminars “On the threshold of independent life” has began. At that time 32 clients of orphanages from Ternopil, Berezhany, Koropets and Nove Selo joined 7-day seminar to get required skills for improving communication and coping with conflicts, jointly found out what are the prerequisites for successful employment and development of motivation.

Olya Hilko, Caritas social worker, retells: “Some days ago final training on this subject was organized. Nearly 45 persons from Ternopil residential care facilities had an opportunity to recall things they learnt earlier, tried their hand in different interactive games, quests and checked their readiness to enter independent life.”

Work with children from problematic families became a separate field of activity in 1999 in Caritas Ternopil. Such work started with rendering of material assistance to children-orphans, kids from large and low-income families in form of clothes, shoes, food products, and later this activity included organization of their leisure, notably summer camps. Afterwards, mobile work with youth and children directly at streets was launched.

Nowadays local Caritas provides high quality and complex care for 91 needful families and over 200 children and youth by rendering medical, psychological, information and legal assistance and protection. In Caritas Ternopil, apart from securing basic needs, great attention is paid to spiritual, creative and psycho-social growth of children and youth.

At the moment employees of “Mobile work with youth” project together with volunteers, who continually assist in organization of different initiatives, developed a special quest. Such game included various tasks with topics of previous seminar, and graduates coped with great deal of sport and entertaining obstacles. While looking for a hidden treasure, teenagers tried to recall basic principles of budget management, attempted to sort out conflicts inside a group in a constructive way, freed “unemployed prisoner” by listing conditions that are important for job hunting, and they also cooked a meal from received package of products.

“Our participants were really active, enthusiastic and creative. And even though only one team out of four got the main prize – nobody was disappointed. Numerous impressions, positive emotions and feedbacks, joyful smiles and loud cries and finally physical depletion – all these things testify effectively spent time. Communication of teenagers between themselves and with their tutors is a result of our efforts for greater independence and communicativeness of residential care clients.

We consider support of these young people at the beginning of their self-sufficient life as an important component of social follow-up. And the most significant task is to help them in finding and revealing own potential for successful self-realization in future!” Olya Hilko shares her impressions.

According to expert data, in current Ukrainian situation there are almost 100 thousands of orphans and children left without parental care, nearly 60% of them – in residential care facilities. Approximately 90% of orphaned kids are social orphans, because at the moment of receiving this status they have/had their parents alive. Over 100 thousands of Ukrainian children are brought up in disadvantaged families. 30% of families with children in Ukraine live below the poverty line. Nearly 100 thousand children live and work on streets nowadays.