Ukraine launches program to support families with adopted children

Kyiv, March 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukraine has launched a program for foster parents, entitled "Strengthening Families 2012," as part of which Kyiv will host a conference entitled "Strengthening Families 2012" for adoptive parents from March 30 to April 1.

The initiator of the conference, President of the Emmanuel Association Steve Weber, said that "fatherlessness" was a sign of modern culture, as children get less attention in society and in families.

"The statistics [for orphans] are changing for the better, but I have a dream that we will live in a Ukraine without orphans," he said.

Head of the Ukraine without Orphans Alliance Ruslan Maliuta said that over the 20 years of Ukraine's independence, more than 35,000 orphans had been adopted, another 10,000 such children had lived in family-type orphanages and foster families and that about 70,000 had lived in the families of caregivers.

He said that families with adopted children need not only financial assistance, but also moral support, as a lot of problems arise in the upbringing of such children.

The conference is aimed at providing comprehensive support based on international and domestic experience in the adaptation of children in foster families.

It is expected that the conference will be attended by 95 couples bringing up about 400 children from all regions in Ukraine.