Leaves of Hope - Seal of approval

Fostering Project gets personal seal of approval - June 2003

In May 2003 Councillor Mrs Patricia Arculus who is the policy adviser to the Social Services Committee accompanied Margaret and the fostering team to Minsk to see for herself what the project was all about. She had attended the conference in Chichester in April 2002 and had been so impressed by what she had heard that she asked if she could come and see what was going on.

She said she wanted to see all aspects of the work. She wanted to see the trainers in action, she wanted to meet the participants on the course, she wanted to talk to all the key Ministry officials, she wanted to meet our partners in Minsk (UNICEF and the Belarusian Association of Handicapped Children) and she wanted to visit orphanages, foster carers and children.

With the Litovchenko Family: Maria and sons, Afanasy and Vladimir, and foster children Sascha, Vitali, Sergeie, Piotr, Nastya

We were concerned that such a busy schedule in such a short time would be far too much but she proved to be a tough and resilient observer. We did everything! The questions she asked were always thoughtful and sensible and it was important that we answered her as fully as we could. We knew that it had been a brave decision of the County Council to commit itself to the partnership three years ago and we wanted to make sure that they were able to take full credit for it.

We need not have worried. She was so impressed and said how proud she was of the work that Susie, Barbara, Caroline and Nicky had done and what had been achieved.

When we talked to UNICEF it was clear that they too were full of appreciation for the contribution that the team had made to the development of fostering in their country. There is now an extensive UNICEF sponsored programme under way to re-profile services for children aged 3 – 7.

Two orphanages will be developed as centres providing family support, crisis intervention, prevention of family breakdown, support for families with children with disabilities, respite, and preparation of children for foster care. Wonderful news indeed and wonderful knowing that we have contributed to that process.

At the UNICEF Office

Achieving permanent change requires the full support and commitment of politicians and civil servants. The fostering project has been blessed with both so it was good to be able to introduce Patricia to the Ministries that had been so influential in ensuring the success of the project.

The photograph shows the meeting with the Ministry of Social Protection – Mrs Tatiana Shemetovets – and a presentation of a silver plaque of friendship and collaboration from the County Council. But we also met our key political partners at the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health and presented similar plaques.

In our very packed week Patricia also observed the training in progress and was able to talk to participants about their reactions to it. She talked to the Swedes who are investing $3m in a much larger project building on the work we have started and visited BelAPDIiMI where she talked to some of the Mums about the problems of caring for children with disabilities within families at home.

Finally the certificates were presented to all our participants. They are so proud of their achievements and it is real testimony to the regard in which the training is held that the Ministry of Education has now approved the West Sussex training as a formal post qualifying award. Recognition indeed!

On the left successful participants on the first part of the last course with HE Mr Brian Bennett, British Ambassador, and above County Councillor Mrs Patricia Arculus after certificates had been presented.

No project or involvement in Belarus is complete without remembering with respect this country’s tragic history. And so we visited a sombre and starkly beautiful memorial 60k outside Minsk which commemorates the 2,230,000 Belarusians (25% of the population) who were killed in WW2. It is built on the site of the village of Khatyn where early on March 22nd 1943 the invading German Forces herded all the villagers into a barn and set fire to it burning alive all the inhabitants. A concrete chimney with the names of the family members commemorates each cottage and their ages inscribed on it, supporting a tolling bell – every minute of every hour of every day of the year. The memorial also includes memories of all the other villages that were razed and no longer exist. The death camps and numbers slaughtered are also commemorated.

We visited and remembered …………

Every village remembered

The children remembered

3 trees and an eternal flame representing one in 4 Belarusians slaughtered