Answer to Prayer

Very good news today regarding Ukraine's possible moratorium on international adoptions. For "some reason", the vote just didn't show up on the parliament's calendar. We are thankful that Ukrainian children will still have another way to get families. I do not exagerate, I am sure there were thousands of faithful people around the world praying that this would not pass!

Capricious Ukraine

Word is getting out that this coming Tuesday, June 2, the parliament of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada, will be voting on a bill to cease allowing all foreign adoptions, except from Russia. Being this far away, it is difficult to know exactly what is behind it. There is certainly an element of national pride. No government likes to see its children shipped out to foreign countries. There is also an element of pro-West vs. pro-Communist/Socialist politics in Ukraine. The fact that Russia would be the only foreign country allowed to adopt seems very suspicious. As if that weren't bad enough, if the law passes, they say it will take effect immediately, and any families currently in Ukraine to adopt that haven't had court yet will not be able to continue. Think they wouldn't do that? Last year, they suddenly passed a law forbidding unmarried people from adopting. It went into effect immediately and all affected adoptive parents were not allowed to adopt. Our facilitator at the time told me about the women he saw at the SDA crying and pleading their cases to no affect. It is saddening to imagine having established a relationship with a child then being told they could not adopt. Now, we are on the verge of an even more serious development. Personally, I see nothing good coming from this, only bad, so let us pray that it does not pass and that President Yuschenko does not sign it if it does.

Here is an article in English from the Verkhovna Rada's official website.

The Fumia's are in Odessa now to adopt Grisha, a classmate of our son, Sergey. We put several pictures of him on our blog while we were at Orphanage #4. While we were in Odessa, I made sure I gave him a hug every day and I told him it was from Ashley. If this law passes next week, they will not be able to complete their adoption. It will be devestating, as they have been waiting 2 years to do this. Of course, they are not the only ones there right now. Among others, the Hoffman's are also there adopting another classmate of Sergey's named Lena. This is potentially a very grave situation. Ashley Fumia describes it in this post.

We were also minorly affected by the capricious politics of Ukraine last year. Though, it didn't seem minor at the time. About the time we finished our dossier, Ukraine passed a new quota on foreign adoptions for the year, limiting 2008 dossiers to 1,453. We did not make that cut and thought we were shut out for 2008. As it turned out, by the time October 2008 came around, they learned that they were coming in under the quota, so we suddenly found out that we made it in. We were fortunate; we had about two weeks to prepare, but some families had as little as 3 or 4 days notice to be there for their SDA appointment.

Nothing seems to ever be certain for long in Ukraine regarding adoptions. Please pray for this situation.


Here are a few pictures I took on a foggy morning in Kiev on Wed. Feb. 11 2009.

This is the parliament building, where the Verkhovna Rada, or Supreme Council, meets. On this day, they were in session and "friendly" policemen told me were I was allowed to walk. There is an Orthodox cross with a picture of the Madonna in front of the courtyard at the main entrance.




For momths, protesters were camped out in Independence Square, or Maidan as it is known there. At night, musicians would perform in front of these huts singing politcal songs. Basically, they are saying that Yuschenko's economic policies are a failure and they are demanding change in the national government.



On this day, Khreschatyk Street was closed off and a large, organized political rally was taking place in front of the Kiev City Hall. There are three main political parties at the national level, pro-West President Victor Yuschenko's Our Ukraine party, the socialist Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko's Bloc Yulia Timoshenko, and the communist Victor Yanukovych's Party of Regions. None of them are getting along at all, and the Verkhovna Rada is the laughingstock of Ukraine because of their impotence. It appeared that there were hundreds or thousands of people that came in busses, as they were parked along the street forming a sort of barricade. Many of their bumpers were literally touching.



There were many colorful flags on display at the rally. Of note in these pictures are the white Bloc Yulia Timoshenko flags, the red Communist flags, and the blue and yellow Ukrainian national flags.

Adoptions News in Ukraine

You may be interested in these interviews with Ludmila Volynets, the director of the SDAPRC, and her boss, Yuri Pavlenko, the Minister of Ukraine for Family, Youth and Sport. I found this article in English over at Sonia Paz Baron-Vine's blog.

Some highlights:

Pavlenko:

• The number of adopted children has finally exceeded the number of bereaved ones.


• In 2008, the number of children adopted by citizens of Ukraine climbed above 2,000; 14 of them were HIV-positive.


• 1,500 applications have lately been filed by the Ukrainians, intending to adopt.


• According to new laws that took effect Dec. 1, 2008, officials at all levels are now personally liable for every particular child’s destiny.


• The Ministry is critical of facilitators (middlemen).


• International adoption can by no means be prohibited, but they clearly give a higher priority to national adoption.


• They have no children less than three years old available for adoption.


• Foreign families adopt either children over 7 years old or severely disabled ones.

Volynets:

• The Hague Convention would be a great benefit in the matter of a full-fledged protection for children adopted by foreign families, and counteraction to corrupt facilitators.


• Her primary objective is to make changes in mass consciousness of Ukrainian society.


• 14% of Ukrainians think themselves ready to adopt orphans into their families.


• Pressure is being put on her personally by foreigners who deem the state’s adoption policy inadequate.


• Prospective adoptive parents do not very well comprehend that the SDA is not to be subject to their whims.


• The SDA’s primary objective is to find a family for the child, not a child for the family.


• The SDA is subject to law, it does no good to complain to them about the laws set by the Parliament, "we are to obey the law and not to discuss it".


• She thinks it is a mistake that Ukraine is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on adoption, but they will be soon.


• Regarding corruption complaints, as private persons, facilitators are protected better than public officials.


• There are more complaints against facilitators, than against public officers; most of the complaints are filed by foreign citizens.


• The facilitators sometimes do not inform the adoptive parents of the child’s disabilities, or vice versa.


• Ukraine needs adequate laws and time so as to establish order and eliminate the abnormal profits drawn by facilitators.


• She is certain that no corrupt practice can ever be exercised in the SDAPRC.

Adoptions News in Ukraine
Sonia Paz (Pachi) Baron-Vine

Ukrainian Baby Boom

I have posted before about the demographic problem in Ukraine. There is some recent positive news about the birthrate.

"Yushchenko stated that the birth rate in the country has considerably increased. The number of children born per year has risen from 413,000 in 2005 to 510,000 in 2008. As a result, the country’s demographic situation has returned to its early 1990s levels, which in itself is a reason for optimism."

Ukrainian Baby Boom
By Vadym Ryzhkov
The Day, Dnipropetrovsk

Thursday

Day 1000 without broadband - or so it seems. Today (Fri.) is the day that the internet company says that they will come to turn on internet access in the apartment. It will be nice to get fast internet. A couple of days ago, we believe there was a power surge and their router and two laptop power supplies were destroyed. So, add a surge protector rated for 220V to your list of things to bring with you to Ukraine. One other note along these lines. Ukraine has 220V power plugs, not the 110V that we have in America. You may be surprised to learn that most modern electronic devices you might have in America will work just fine in Ukraine. A simple plug adapter is all you need to be able to plug your devices in here. But before you come you will want to check the fine print on your device to look at the rating. There are converters available that will step down the voltage from 220V to 110V. I destroyed the charger for our personal DVD player. It is the only device we brought that was not rated for 220V. One other note, bring some of those 3-prong to 2-prong plug adapters along. Most of the Ukrainian plug adapters I've seen only accept the 2-prong plugs. I had to cut off a tab on our extension cord so that the 3-prong plug will fit in.

On the adoption front - Our facilitor has had success securing approval for valya's adoption here in the Odessa region. Now Sergey and Valya are both at the same stage of paperwork. Today, our facilitator will send everything up to the SDA in Kiev for final approval. All adoptions in Ukraine must have final approval from the SDA before you can have court. So we are hoping for a fast approval. I talked to our facilitator this morning and she said that she hopes we can get a court date before New Year's day, but it might be the first working day after. We will have to remain here in Ukraine until we have court. We will come home after court without the kids, as the adoptions will be stalled due the Ukrainian government shutdown during the holdays. I will come back in mid-January to complete the process and bring them home.

There was a little glitch in Sergey's paperwork yesterday that could have caused a large delay in his paperwork. By Ukrainian law, children receive their father's surname when they are born, even if the mother is not married. But Sergey has his mother's surname. While no one down here cares, the SDA would have thrown a fit. So our facilitator did some investigating here and found a document that the mother filed to change his surname to match hers. That is fortunate because without that document it would have been a hassle.

Yesterday, we left at noon to see Valya, along with one of our roommates, who is Ukrainian, to translate for us. We thought there was some kind of party or something for St. Nicolas day, but we learned after we got there that it was that the children would be receiving gifts under their pillows during the night. Also, all of the children have stockings, which will be filled with fruit and other small treats. Each child will also receive 10 grivna. At today's exchange rate, that is about $1.10.

From day-to-day we never know exactly who our driver will be to take us to Andreyvo. We had a pleasant drive yesterday with a Christian man who spoke English. He is 37 y.o. and had quite a story to tell. I don't want to tell all of the details on the internet, but I will tell some of it. He was baptized when he was 16 y.o. When he was a young man, he served in a special forces unit of the Soviet army. One time there was a riot somewhere and his unit of 30 men was called in to quell it. They were ordered to shoot innocent people and he refused. Later, he had to go before his superior officer and he thought that he would go to prison. He shared his faith with him. Eventually, it turned out that he did not have to go to prison and the men in his unit only wanted him to preach to them. He became some kind of chaplain and he said all of them became Christians. Later in life, he became a pastor and started 2 churches in northern Ukraine (by the way, they say Ukraine here, not The Ukraine, as that is the Soviet name). After turning them over to others to lead, he moved down here with his family to Odessa. He has been here for 3 months and is listening for a clear calling from the Lord about what to do here. His brother-in-law is the regional director of YWAM for all of Ukraine.

We had a conversation about adoption with him. It is good to get the perspective of a Ukrainian. He and his wife are in fact interested in adopting a child in Ukraine to add to the 2 teen girls that they already have. In fact, many Ukrainian citizens want to adopt. There is an economic crisis here, however, and many people are afraid to adopt at this time as they are not sure that they can survive as it is. We asked him about foster care in Ukraine and he said that it is taking them a long time to get it going. There was a program on TV recently on the subject of bad families that take in foster children just for the money and then neglect them. The government takes the children back when they learn of these situations. Families that wish to adopt or do foster care here are required to take classes before they are allowed to. Well that is what he told us, you may have heard otherwise. One other thing I will note in passing. I have heard from more than one person here that if the Orange party stays in control (they are the pro-West democratic party led by President Viktor Yushenko), then foreign adoptions will eventually cease. If the Communists gain control of the Parliament (called Rada here), foreign adoptions will continue. There is also a socialist party, somewhat led by the popular Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. She will eventually run for president against Yushenko. It is unclear what will happen with foreign adoptions under her leadership.

Regarding the economy here, the exchange rate for the dollar is going through the roof. The dollar is in high demand. When we arrived in Ukraine three weeks ago, the rate was 6.80 grivna per dollar. Yesterday it was 9.05. For years, it had been 5.0. This is great for Americans coming here, but the underlying reasons are disastrous for Ukrainians. Basically, public confidence in the grivna is sinking. Imagine you are a Ukrainian and you see the rate on the dollar going up. Wouldn't you like to get your hands on some? If someone would have bought a dollar three weeks ago, and sold it yesterday, he would have had a 33% return on his money. In three weeks. So, as the dollar goes up in value, the demand for them goes up, causing the value to go up, causing the demand to go up, etc. The cycle probably won't stop unless the government intervenes.

As the economy worsens here, I can imagine that the orphanages will start swelling with children coming from homes that can't afford to care for them. I have posted before that it is estimated that 90% of the children in orphanages in Ukraine are not here because they have no family, but because the family they have cannot care for them. Children in this circumstance are not adoptable. In this case, the orphanages are boarding schools.

When we talk with the evangelical Christians here, they are upbeat that this as a time of great opportunity for the Christian Church in Ukraine. After the country gained independence in the early 1990'si there was a short period of spiritual revival as the shackles of Communism were removed. Shortly after, the society became extremely materialistic, as you can imagine. Think about how life was under Communism, with shortages of consumer goods, and inferior quality. Now, the Christians say, God is getting Ukraine's attention again. As we drive in the country, we have seen Orthodox churches under construction.

Desperate people do desperate things. There was a time here when you could feel very safe walking on the streets of Odessa. But now crime is increasing. Recently, there was a bus in Odessa that was robbed. Men with guns ordered everyone on the bus to turn over their money and jewelry. Yesterday, our facilitator, a young lady, was mugged across the street from our apartment. She had tried to exchange money, but the line was too long. She left that store and was on her way to another when a man accosted her. She was able to push him away and yell for help, then he ran away. If you come to Ukraine you will want to do your best to blend in and not look obviously American. Don't carry large sums of money with you.

But I digress. I was telling you about our driver. When we arrived at Valya's orphanage, we learned that our facilitator had requested that we take a document from Andreyevo to the government building in Mikolaevka, which is about a 15 minute drive, WHEN IT IS DRY. We left with Valya for another building, and he left for his car. We noticed that it had begun to rain harder. It was raining a little on the way up. We didn't think anything of it. We had planned to stay an hour with her, but that came and went. Then another hour. We called our facilitator and asked her if she had heard from our driver? Yes, the rain had turned into freezing rain and he had slid off the road into a ditch. He was by himself, and in this part of rural Ukraine, it is pitch black at night. There may be a house scattered about here and there, but they do not have yard lights like they do in America. She told us not to worry as he is a Ukrainian and he can figure it out. We finally got a call after 3 hours that he had arrived at the orphanage and was ready to take us back. We asked him how did he get the car out of the ditch? He said he did not know, it was a miracle from God. Another man had come by, but he could not push it as he could not even stand on the ice. On the way home I was very concerned that we would not be able to get out of Andreyevo. It is kind of in a valley and there is a lot of uphill driving to get out of there. His car was rearwheel drive and more than once we fishtailed. But thankfully the road was rough enough and even sanded in a couple of places, and so we made it out. Sometime I want to show you a picture of the little sand piles they put next to the road here on hills. It is much different than America. Meanwhile, our facilitator was very worried for us. Later, she told us that 5 years ago an American couple was out in weather such as this and died in a car accident. The husband was killed in the crash, while the wife was transferred to Germany where she died after 2 weeks in a coma. They had a child in America, and the children they came to adopt in Ukraine are still in the orphanage now.

We had more time with Valya than we were expecting and that was fun. This time we got to meet her best friend, named Anya, who is 15 y.o. She wants to come to America. Last year, her best friend Lienna was adopted by the Tolly's, and now her best friend Valya is being adopted by us. It is very hard for her. Email me if you want to know more about her. We will try to find out more information.

We got to see the wilder more-physical side of Valya. We had given her a teddy bear when we first met her, and she brought that back to our playroom when she went to retrieve Anya. She had also brought a tiny stuffed animal for Mark, which we brought home later. Somehow, we got into a game of tossing the animals back and forth, like hot potato, which became very fast-paced and involved all five of us. I can tell you she has a good throwing arm. While we were with her, we also went over some more English, started to teach her Dutch Blitz, and played Uno. Dutch Blitz is very popular at #4. With her competitive spirit, I imagine Valya will enjoy it too. We also measured her for clothing as well.

When our driver came back for us, it was time to go and we each hugged her. When Valya hugged Mark she gave him a big bear hug and picked him up off the ground and carried him a little ways. Oookaaay... I think she is going to be a feisty one. It should be interesting when we add Sergey to this mix.

We will go to see Sergey today. We are making arrangements to stay in Andreyevo for the weekend. I have not taken any pictures of the orphanage or of Valya's friends. Will try to do that. I am sure many of you are interested in that orphanage. It seems to be a MUCH happier place than #4. #4 is just downright depressing.

Well I've rambled long enough. I Wish I could show you pictures, maybe at the end of the day today if we get broadband going again.

Christmas is less than a week away and there is not much here indicating that. There's a few Christmas lights around, but nothing like America. We miss that. Hope all is well with you.

Submitted!

I am happy to report that Oleg submitted our dossier today. We received the email ½ hr. ago. Oleg thinks we will have an SDA appointment in December.

We did have a false alarm, though. Oleg sent us an email at 11:13 AM Kiev time to tell us that he was not able to submit our dossier because of a new requirement for the Letter of Obligation. Those of you working on your dossier, or waiting to submit be warned: You should contact your facilitator immediately to find out the new document you need and get it over there.

We do have concerns about a Dec. appointment, though. Around the middle of Dec. through early Jan., the Ukrainian government kind of shuts down for the holiday season. That could cause huge delays if we're in-country when that happens. It wouldn't be so bad before we have possession of the kids. We could just come home and go back in Jan. But what if the kids are ours and the whole country shuts down and we're unable to get the paperwork we need to bring them home? I'm not going to worry about that right now.

UPDATE: I had emailed Oleg right away to ask him if we'll be getting a letter from the SDA to inform us of our appointment or if he'll be telling us when it is. He said it would be him. "Be ready for December."

No Longer a Children Donor

Found some hard numbers on 2008 Ukrainian adoptions. According to Yuri Pavlenko, the Ukrainians are having success at encouraging domestic adoptions over foreign adoptions. So far in 2008, for the first time, there have been more domestic than foreign adoptions.

	Domestic	Foreign	Total
1st half of 2007	821	893	1,714
1st half of 2008	1,010	642	1,652

The government also reports that 834 children have been placed into foster care so far in 2008.

2.5 thousand children adopted by new families
All about Ukraine Blog

Flip Side

We American PAP's moan and groan about how long it takes to adopt Ukrainian orphans. Anybody that has followed Ukrainian adoptions since the NAC days, then the SDA, knows that the adoption process has several times been halted as the Ukrainians review the process, make adjustments, and start up again.

From my perspective, the SDA is kind of this black hole, doing things that are difficult to understand. Today, I was glad to find this surprisingly candid forUm post from 2006 that featured Yuri Pavlenko, the Minister of Sport, Youth and Family, which is the parent organization over the SDA.

He gives interesting tidbits of information, such as (paraphrasing):

• They are not sure what happened to all of the missing reports by American families that Americans claimed were filed, but Ukrainians didn't have them. (One of the reasons that foreign adoptions were halted was because the SDA was complaining that foreign families weren't sending their reports they committed to).
  
  
• In 2000, there were 2,200 domestic adoptions. In 2005, there were 1,500.
  
  
• 18% of Ukrainian families want to adopt.
  
  
• 3,000,000 Ukrainians want to become adoptive parents for 93,000 orphans.
  
  
• The problem is not the Ukrainian people, it is the government that is not letting them adopt, taking up to 6 years.
  
  
• Pavlenko would like Ukraine to ratify the Hague Convention. The banning of middlemen in the adoption process is their workaround for now.
  
  
• They have a 10-year plan to move kids from larger orphanages (300 kids) to smaller orphanges (50 kids) in their area of birth.
  
  
• 3,000 Ukrainian families have applied to form family homes, but the government has only approved 600.
  
  
• Orphanage directors support orphanage reform.
  
  
• The government is turning to the private sector (business) to help with orphanage reform.
  
  
• The government regularly performs inspections of the orphanages. Pavlenko says that the number of violations is decreasing.
  
  
• 10 to 15 kids living in a room looks horrible to foreigners. And "it is horrible."
  

I'm sure many would argue with him over his views, but I thought it was interesting anyway.

Ukraine's Minister for Sport, Youth and Family Yuri Pavlenko on Current Situation in the Orphanage System and the Adoption
forUm
October 5, 2006

It's Official: Birth Rate Too Low

There's a lot that could be discussed in this little news article.

Current birth rate too low to overcome demographic crisis
forUm
May 29, 2008

Yuriy Pavlenko, the Family, Youth, and Sports minister, says that Ukrainian families need to have a minimum of two children to overcome the demographic crisis in Ukraine (see my earlier blog post).

He mentions the current Fertility Rate, which is 1.33, up from 1.20. He would like to see it at 2.0 (which was the U.S. rate in 1999). Interestingly, even at 2.0, there would continue to be a demographic crisis. See discussion of Replacement Rate here:

"The TFR required for a closed population to eventually reach equilibrium in size ranges from 2.5 to 3.3 in developing countries and is near 2.1 in many developed countries (2.075 in the UK for example). However, it may take several generations for a change in the total fertility rate to be reflected in birth rate, because the age distribution must reach equilibrium."

I also posted earlier about the cash benefits that families receive for babies. The news report lists the amounts as: $2,400 for the first baby, $5,000 for the second, $10,000 for the third and each following baby.

Interestingly, he also reports that, contrary to what I noted in my blog post, the birth rate in "problem families" did not increase because of the monetary payments.

Easter Bunny

In this famous Dilbert comic strip, the Pointy Haired Boss is telling the employees about this new policy at the company. They will pay the engineers $10 for every bug they find and fix in their software. Now, of course, you can understand the reasoning. They want to encourage and reward the employees for fixing problems. Unfortunately, it is not very well thought out, and as the employees realized, they can just create bugs intentionally, then fix them and earn the bonuses.

This is an example of Unintended Consequences.

A couple of months ago, I posted about UNICEF regarding international adoption and the unintended consequence of dooming children to never being adopted.

Now recently, the Kiev Post brought to our attention a new proposed program of the Ukrainian government that would pay money to families when they have children. I recently posted on the population loss that Ukraine has been experiencing. On the surface, like in that Dilbert cartoon, it seems like bonus money might be a good way to encourage families to have more children, and provide the means to support them. Dig a little deeper, however, and you realize that this is probably not a good idea. Kelly Baehr explains it better than I ever could. This kind of program can actually increase homelessness and the number of social orphans.

Well, a politician can never go wrong with his constituents if he hands out money like the Easter Bunny. But I do hope they can come up with a better solution than encouraging people to "write themselves a minivan".

Houston, We Have a Problem

I mentioned in an earlier post, here, that to better understand the adoption situation in Ukraine right now, it is helpful to get some background on the Ukrainian government. I have also been learning about the social conditions in the country, and the problems that the Ukrainian government is tasked with solving.

For the last 15 years, the population of Ukraine has been steadily falling. For the period 1992-2007, the population dropped by about 6,000,000 people. That is a staggering -12%!

I want to call your attention to the following report. It is very illuminating on the current social situation.

The Demographic Situation in Ukraine: Present State, Tendencies, and Predictions
By Ludmila Shanghina
Connections
April 6, 2004

It is against this backdrop that we adoptive parents find ourselves contending with Ukraine. The government realizes that their children are important, and for the most part, wants to do the right thing. But the population as a whole is unable or unwilling to respond to the government's call for domestic adoption. There is an enormous societal stigma against orphans. So, orphans are caught in the middle of this sad struggle. Now enter UNICEF, which comes in waving dollars to develop programs that reinforce the government's own tendency to keep their children "home". Government money is provided to foster families, with apparently, limited success. There are anecdotes of corruption in the system.

Anyway, the report was eye-opening for me. I suspect it will be for you, too.

I am listing highlights that I took from the article. I added my own emphases.

• The demographic situation in Ukraine is characterized by an accumulation of tendencies that are reaching crisis proportions. The population is decreasing, with an increase in the death rate among working-age people and a negative balance of external migration. Under these conditions, a deterioration in interethnic and interreligious relations in society is possible against a background of a worsening socioeconomic situation for most of the population.
  
  
• After 1993, a reduction in the absolute numbers of Ukraine's population began. Over the course of the years 1993-2000, the population of Ukraine dropped by 2.9 million persons, from 52.2 million persons to 49.3 million. Of that number, four-fifths of the losses have been due to natural population losses (an excess of the death rate over the birth rate) and one-fourth as a consequence of migratory processes (an excess of the level of emigration over the level of immigration).
  
  
• The causes of reductions in population numbers are: a reduction in the birth rate, an increase in the death rate, the unsatisfactory state of the health of the population accompanying the low quality of and insufficient access to the health care system in the country, and an excess of the level of emigration over the level of immigration.
  
  
• The reduction in the birth rate in rural areas of the country is reaching crisis proportions. According to data from the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine, out of Ukraine's 28,794 villages, not a single child was born in 12,673 of them in 1999. There are no children aged between six and fifteen in almost one thousand villages.
  
  
• Against this background of a falling birth rate, the number of abortions remains stable and high. According to data from the Ministry of Health Care of Ukraine, 470,000 abortions were registered in the country in 1999. As a point of comparison, the number of births in 1999 came to 389,200 persons. For 320 of each 100,000 women not giving birth as a result of abortion annually, the procedure ends in death.
  
  
• The birth rate coefficient in Ukraine is one of the lowest among European countries (including the post-Communist countries).
  
  
• In contrast to the birth rate, the death rate in Ukraine is one of the highest in Europe.
  
  
• The high death rate among working-age men is an especially alarming phenomenon, capable of causing significant demographic deformations. This level is estimated to be the highest in the world.
  
  
• Among the reasons for the high death rate among the working-age population since 1990, the most important is that of unnatural causes, including accidents, murders, and suicides. The main unnatural cause reflected in the death rate is suicide.
  
  
• The state of the health care system is also getting worse. The number of medical establishments is decreasing and the level of their financing by the state has fallen to a critical level.
  
  
• The so-called social illnesses - such as tuberculosis, syphilis, or HIV/AIDS - are spreading.
  
  
• About nine thousand people die from tuberculosis annually.
  
  
• Syphilis is encountered in Ukraine almost a hundred times more frequently than in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe.
  
  
• Ukraine, in the opinion of experts from UNAIDS and the WHO, has the "most dramatic" epidemic situation with regard to HIV/AIDS among the countries of the former USSR.
  
  
• Ukraine is the leader among European countries with about 500 new cases [of HIV/AIDS] being registered monthly.
  
  
• 95 percent of parents of rural children do not ask for medical aid due to the distance to medical establishments or due to an inability to pay.
  
  
• The dynamics of the basic socioeconomic indices for 1990-2000 testify to a sharp decline in the quality of life for the overwhelming majority of the country's population.
  
  
• Having work does not guarantee a good standard of living.
  
  
• 27.8 percent of the population (13.7 million persons) was considered to belong to the category of the impoverished, and 14.2 percent (almost 7 million persons), to the category of the destitute.
  
  
• Under conditions of spreading unemployment and poverty, the number of marriages is going down (the index of the number of marriages per 1,000 persons fell from 9.3 in 1990 to 5.5 in 2000). This leads, if not to a decrease in reproduction of the population, then to the growth of incomplete families and the spread of social orphans.
  
  
• The worsening socioeconomic situation in the country, the spread of unemployment, and the low price of labor compels people to migrate from Ukraine temporarily in search of work or to leave Ukraine to take up permanent residence in countries with more favorable employment conditions.
  
  
• The unfavorable socioeconomic situation and the constant threat of unemployment and destitution are powerful factors in spreading a socially depressed condition in society. This in turn has an extremely unfavorable influence on the demographic situation by reducing the birth rate and growth.
  
  
• The extremely high death rate for working-age men is also bringing about a distortion in the population structure by sex. In Ukraine, the noticeable excess of the number of women over the number of men begins in the age groups after thirty years of age. With each year, this point is dropping lower down the age pyramid, which will lead to a distortion in reproductive activity-a further drop in the birth rate, an increase in the number of births outside of wedlock, and accompanying increases in the number of incomplete families and social orphans.

Put On My Blue Замша Shoes

Here's a great gift for that hard-to-shop-for woman on your list who has everything!

Good Morning, Class

I am a newcomer to all things Ukraine. I am only now learning about the government, political parties, politicians, and people. Some of you reading this blog are "old timers". I don't mean by age, but as longtime followers of Ukrainian life. If asked, you could give a long dissertation about why the SDA operates the way it does. And why the politicians do the things they do.

In recent months, our family has been the unfortunate recipients of chaos in Ukrainian adoption. From our vantage point in America, things just don't make sense, and we are left scratching our heads in wonder at the seeming heartlessness of a ministry that seems to be doing all it can to keep kids in orphanages.

Recently, I've been hitting the internet looking for articles to help me understand how the SDA got to where it is today. But to understand the SDA, we need to first learn something about Ukrainian government, who the players are, and recent history, especially since the Orange Revolution.

I found an article that I am studying and I want to share it with you. I think it gives a pretty good overview of what is going on with President Yuschenko, Prime Minister Tymoshenko, and the Parliament. I'm going to read this over and over until I can keep everything straight. Class is in session.

UKRAINE: Ungovernable As Always
Zoltán Dujisin
Global News Blog / Inter Press Service
Friday, May 2, 2008

Little Caesars

According to President Yushchenko's official website, a couple of weeks ago he held "a gathering dedicated to problems of orphaned, disabled, homeless children and large families."

He also "urged the Government and local authorities to work out a complex and effective system of children protection" (emphasis mine). I would imagine that someday they will be looking at joining the Hague Convention, which requires really good child tracking. Sorry, file folders won't cut it.

The system is so broken right now. All those little empires. But what really needs to happen is that peoples' hearts need to change. Ukraine needs spiritual revival, not religion. I'm talking about a Holy Spirit revival. A one-on-one encounter with the Savior, Jesus Christ.

Well I do hope something good comes of this meeting, especially taking care of the street kids. So many times I have been tempted to post a link to street kids' pictures or videos, but it is too much for me to bear. I just can't do it.

If you want to read the article, it is President holds meeting dedicated to сhildren care.