Leaves of Hope - Prevention Programme

PREVENTION PROJECT - FIRST STEPS: June 2004

These pictures speak for themselves! Our workers had barely arrived back in Minsk before we heard that the Mum of Sveta and Sascha - two beautiful little twin baby girls pictured here wanted to abandon them.

Sveta and Sascha.

With ward staff and Tatiana our social worker after Mum said she wanted abandon them.

They were healthy and lovely; but Mum's marriage had failed and she had returned with her two young sons to live with her mother and father in a tiny little one roomed cottage in the country.

Conditions were very cramped and the thought of two more babies had made them all determined that the expected babies should be abandoned at birth. The State should be given the responsibility of bringing them up. But it was clear when the social worker talked to Mum that she really did not want to do this; she did not want to abandon her beautiful new babies. But she felt she had no alternative. With no husband and no job she felt that she could not possibly afford to keep two more children and, furthermore, it would mean that seven members of the family would be living in one tiny room - a little wooden cottage barely bigger than a garden shed. Her despair was distressing.

Arriving home to meet Babushka and brothers.

Tatiana's sympathetic ear helped Mum realise that there was an alternative. Tatiana offered help from Leaves of Hope . She offered friendship; financial support; and information about benefits and services. Through our sponsorship fund we were able to provide clothes, a double buggy and a trip home in the mini bus to meet Granny. It is early days and Mum lives some way out of Minsk but we will be keeping in touch to ensure that we continue to provide as much support as is necessary.

SEPTEMBER 2004

We have some hiccups over the summer. Sadly Tatiana, one of our project workers, had to resign.

Irina, our new social worker

But we have been so fortunate to appoint Irina Logvin to take her place. Irina qualified as an engineer but is now in the final stages of her psychology degree. She takes her final exams early in 2005. She and her sister shared the responsibility of bringing up her sister's disabled daughter. Irina has loads of common sense and compassion. We are delighted that she has joined us and hope that we will be able to offer (very belatedly!) a period of observation and induction in England some time next year.

And then we had to catch up on the twins. Their whole family adores them. But oh dear! They have so little materially. We found they were thriving in their little village about 75 miles north of Minsk . Babushka (Granny) and Dyodya (Grandad) are doting grandparents.
We took bananas, apples milk and nappies together with toys that so many of our supporters have donated.
We also brought another, more manageable, double buggy than the one pictured, and a travel cot that had been kindly donated. But the cottage was so, so small. Everyone was sleeping, eating, and living in one room, which was barely 10ft square. When the gifts were deposited on the floor there was no room to move.

At 3 months with Mum, Gran and brothers

And then when we heard about the possibility of a larger cottage with three rooms in the same village. It was for sale so we bought it! We paid the princely sum of $450, which, at the rate at the time, was £250.00!

The “new” cottage. Natasha’s family
are helping to restore it

The new cottage needs a lot of work to make it habitable but Natasha has a large and willing family to help. With the help of our social worker Natasha has now been put in touch with her local social services centre and is getting her benefits. She is intending to go back to work as a pastry cook in the local school while Babushka cares for the baby girls. We feel that our intervention, for this family has been good. The twins will not be brought up in an orphanage; they will probably always be poor but they have a loving and devoted extended family that will always be there for them. And we wish them well.

OCTOBER 2004 – FEBRUARY 2005

In October we welcomed a new volunteer, Catherine Kelly, to leaves of Hope. Catherine is a journalist with two young daughters of her own. She was so touched by some of our stories that she offered to come to Minsk to write some articles about our work. What is more she persuaded a nationally acclaimed photographer, Peter Langdown to accompany her.

A Baby House in Minsk:-
real love for abandoned baby

Borovliani Regional Hospital
Abandoned baby Unit

The combination of Catherine's subsequent articles and two exhibitions of Peter's pictures have raised just under £5,000. We have dedicated this for the appointment of a nursery nurse to play with and stimulate the children in the abandoned baby unit in Borovliani hospital.

Borovliani Regional Hospital
Abandoned baby Unit

Readers will be familiar with our anguish over the babies who can spend the first two years of their lives behind the bars of a cot with no cuddles, no warmth and no real love. We are now in a position to do something about that. Thank you everyone.

The money that Catherine has raised through gift aid has been put towards the “wheels appeal”. We are hugely grateful to both Catherine and Peter both of whom have said they will continue to support our work in whatever way they can.

Children in an Orphanage in Minsk

We went on to support a further 68 Mums to March 2005. We do not lay claim to having prevented all from abandoning their babies but we do know that all were vulnerable and, for many, abandonment was a real option. We have provided support for them all. At its simplest we have provided friendship and sympathetic listening ear and information about benefit entitlement, and links to local social centres and centres of corrective development. But for the really vulnerable material help has been essential. Through charitable giving we have had the flexibility to continue to provide essential material support – baby milk, food, fresh fruit, clothing, nappies, and essential equipment - buggies, cots, and chairs. Occasionally we have met costs of travel and child care for Mothers having to meet regular polyclinic appointments, and miscellaneous costs for medicines, basic, second hand items of furniture, and household equipment. We just could not do this without the generous support and help of so many people. We do thank you all. The joy for Mothers in keeping their babies is immeasurable. We would like to share it with you.

OUR TRAINING COURSES 2004 - 2005

In our first year we have worked very hard to support our prevention project by providing a range of early years development programmes for professionals and parents. They include:

1. 'Comprehensive Assessment, Care Planning and Review'

Barbara Messenger, senior practitioner in the fostering team, and Nicky Hudson, manager of the children and families assessment team, both in West Sussex have undertaken two separate one week courses, the first in June for 29 people, and the second in November for 25 people. This was a ‘new' course for Belarus and linked nicely with statutory child care guidance that was being prepared at the time. Both courses were highly evaluated by participants.

Working together in small groups

The parachute exercise
learning to work together as a team.

2. ‘Parents and professionals Working together'

Susie Pickett, Chair of the West Sussex Foster Care Association and qualified adult trainer, and Caroline Goble, foster carer and graduate teacher in early years education, undertook this one week course with Alistair Bailey of ‘Face to Face' for a mixed group of equal numbers of parents and professionals – 26 in all. This was a ‘first' for Belarus and was highly evaluated by all participants.

3. ‘Working with Trauma, Grief and Loss'

Dr Marion Gibson undertook 2, two-day seminars, each for 26 professionals exploring the reactions of people who experience trauma such as the birth of a child with a disability or the death of a child, or any other trauma.

During the week she was then asked to give a 3-hour lecture to all the students in the academy on her last day. Over 100 students attended!

Dr Marion Gibson lecturing to a mixed group of post graduate professionals in Minsk

4. Making Assessment a reality through direct Supervision

In January and February this year (2005) Nicky Hudson spent four weeks in Minsk supervising guiding, supporting and managing the two project workers. We are so grateful to West Sussex County Council who gave her the time to do it. Nicky worked with an interpreter alongside the two workers, in the office, in the hospitals, with the parents and relatives, and developed simple practical professional processes and procedures, which built upon the previous course work. Everyone was so very keen to learn and it is salutary to see just how much has been learned by the workers and their managers. We say a big thank you to Nicky. Her work was an utterly invaluable, and probably an essential, building block in creating a successful project. I am also so indebted to her for the evocative and detailed daily logs which captured so beautifully her experiences (ups and downs!) and work.

The British Embassy

Our wonderful Ambassador in Minsk HE, Brian Bennett, continues to support all our courses. He signs and stamps all the certificates of participation and presents them personally either at the British Embassy or, if there are large numbers, at the training venue. This means so much to our participants who know that the Ministries of Education and Social Protection accredit all our courses as bona fide post qualifying credits. We have yet to engage the Ministry of Health but are working on it!

Presentation of certificates at BelAPDIiMI

And at the Embassy for presentation of certificates

Supporting the Trainers.

We continue to ensure that all our trainers are supported fully before, during and after the courses. Providing a period of induction for new trainers is essential if we are to get the best out of them and avoid inadvertently embarrassing remarks through lack of knowledge, respect or sensitivity to the country's values and traditions. We also hold de-briefing sessions after every course and try to learn from different ways of training and facilitating. Course participants formally evaluate every course and although they are usually extremely complimentary we have learned from them and changed things for future courses. If anyone is interested a comprehensive record of evaluations of all courses undertaken by our Charity is available.

Publications

In May this year the latest edition of the RHP Companion to Foster care was published. It is edited by Ann Wheal and is a widely used source book by many social services departments throughout the country. One chapter is devoted to our fostering project. It is good to see Leaves of Hope recognised as a pioneering Charity.

I think I forgot to mention last year that our fostering project also featured in a chapter The EU and Belarus published in 2003 edited by Ann Lewis. It is good to see that our work is also considered of sufficient relevance to be included in a book largely about political and economic matters!

Thank you Everyone

As always we acknowledge the wonderful support from all our sponsors, volunteers, helpers, Particularly our heartfelt thanks to:

• The Community Fund - our Funders;

• West Sussex County Council Education and Social Services Departments for their generous secondment of staff.

• A Trust which does not want us to publish its name but has given us another wonderful grant to provide short term material and financial support to help Mums keep their babies;

• Our brilliant trainers – Barbara, Caroline, Nicky, Susie, and welcome to our new trainers Dr Marion Gibson, Alistair Bailey, Mollie White and Carole Beaty;

• Our Partners in Belarus – the Belarusian Association for Handicapped Children, The Ministries of Education and Social Protection, UNICEF, and the Belarusian Association of Social Workers;

• Catherine Kelly and Peter Langdown for powerful pictures and publicity

• The Directors and staff in Hospital No7 and the Regional maternity Hospital in Minsk;

• Friends, colleagues, residents, parishes and voluntary groups in West Sussex;

• Members of the Rowans Day Centre in Worthing ;

• Coastal Enterprises based in the Brougham Day Centre, Worthing ;

• Colleagues in Adur, Arun and Worthing Primary Care Trust who have provided technical expertise, moral support and supported fundraising events;

• And everyone else who has raised money or provided material support and who have all been utterly devoted to our old project and have committed themselves to this one.