Monitoring of Kharkiv region – day two

Within the framework of the project implemented by the “Ukrainian Child Rights Network” (currently there are 20 non-governmental organizations) together with the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine and with the support of UNICEF Ukraine institutions and establishments of Kharkiv region.

At the same time, two monitoring groups worked to inspect the Malynivka village united territorial community of Chuhuiv district, Lyubotyn specialized boarding school of I-III grades “Dyvosvit” of Kharkiv regional council and the Service for children of Kharkiv regional state administration.

In general, the impressions from the visits are positive. Let’s start with the Service for Children of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration and the Malynivka village united territorial community. The monitors did not detect any significant problems. There are isolated remarks, but they are insignificant. It should be noted that the Malynivska hromada has established a Service for Children, where, in addition to the head, in 2019 the position of a social work specialist was introduced. This decision is extremely important, because the quality work of this specialist can save a child from an orphan’s fate. And it is good that the head of the community understands this, and the regional Service for Children supports him in every possible way.

We would like to talk about the Lyubotyn specialized boarding school of I-III grades “Dyvosvit” of the Kharkiv regional council separately.

All as one experts of the monitoring group were pleasantly surprised and frankly impressed by the activities of this institution. It is worth mentioning that in 2016, representatives of the Ombudsman’s office were here and found many violations. After that time, the school’s principal and nearly eighty percent of the staff changed. In two years in office, the new head of the institution did the impossible. The boarding school has changed beyond recognition.

To say that the work is properly built here is to say nothing. Children independently change the educational space. All pets are very creative. Participate in various projects.

The school cooperates with higher education institutions and public organizations. Prominent people of Kharkiv region are regularly invited here, who hold master classes, give lectures and acquaint children with their activities. This helps the pupils of the school not only to gain new knowledge, but also to determine their professional orientation.

Each class of the school is equipped with the Internet. There are interactive whiteboards. The institution operates in two main areas: IT technology and art. In order to support the creative potential of children, the institution organizes individual exhibitions of school students. Their work also impressed monitors in the best sense of the word.

According to the director of the institution, she wants to build the school of her dreams, so that for children it would be, first of all, a home created by their own ideas and thoughts. Already this spring, students and adults have grand plans. In the school yard, children from each class were given a plot of land. Now students are developing landscaping, and as soon as it warms up, they will make flower beds and plant plants and flowers on their own. In short, will implement their creative ideas.

It should be noted that the school has a ramp. The director emphasizes that they are ready at any time to accept children with special educational problems and teach them not separately, but together with everyone. The institution is designed for 220 children. At the time of the monitoring group’s visit, there were 176 pupils.

I would like to say something about the school kitchen. According to the monitors, it is simply exemplary. There is a separate dining room for the medical unit so that sick children do not cross paths with healthy ones.

This is probably one of the best establishments in Ukraine. But its most important feature is that thanks to the fruitful work of the director and staff, children were quickly socialized and given up in the families of Ukrainian citizens. Today, there are 4 orphans left without parental care and the management is doing everything possible to find parents for them. Already now the director has set a task for herself and the leadership of the region to change the name “boarding school” to “lyceum”, “gymnasium” and so on. The manager is sure that boarding schools are a problem for the child, that’s why the re-profiling of the institution started from the middle. Now it is a small matter, after which, we hope, in the near future in Ukraine will be 1 boarding school less, but children will be happy to study in a modern school, are its creators and owners.

Experts emphasize that if it were possible to give awards based on the results of monitoring visits, this school (not a boarding school) would undoubtedly collect all the gold.

We hope that these are not the last pleasant impressions during the monitoring visits and we inform you that on February 14 and 15 experts in the field of protection of children’s rights will check the Donetsk region.