Europe
Bosnia
Before the war, Bosnia and Herzegovina had a relatively advanced medical system. Since the war ended, the number of active medical personnel has been reduced by half, and in some places the war has damaged between 35-50% of the medical infrastructure. The modern paediatric clinic was almost entirely destroyed as it was located on the front line. Because of the war, the demand on the country's medical system has greatly increased while the availability of hospital beds has decreased by 35%.
Owing to the brain-drain, the training of medical personnel in specialised fields such as pain management poses an extreme challenge. Research as part of any medical-scientific approach is nearly non-existent. Increased demand for scarce resources, combined with the inability of national and local authorities to allocate more medical resources, has left patients with inadequate facilities and support.
UNESCO will establish a children’s pain management unit in Sarajevo’s paediatric hospital (providing essential furniture and technical equipment such as beds, work tables, chairs, medical cabinets, cabinets for medical material, documentation and literature, etc. Furnished with medical equipment (visual analogue scale, reanimation equipment, needle sets, catheters, etc), it will be a place for the treatment of children in pain. It will also serve as an educational centre for medical and nursing professionals, with the general objective of improving the situation of children in pain and, ultimately, their full reintegration into normal life. The personnel (doctors, technicians/nurses, pain therapists, etc) will be selected, comprehensive pain treatment will start on a daily basis, and three Pain Management seminars for a total of 120 participants (2 seminars for 80 physicians and 1 for 40 nurses) with experienced and qualified lecturers will be organised.
Germany
Arche Berlin
The “Arche” (Ark) which is based in Berlin, has been involved for decades with needy children in Germany’s socially deprived areas. The Arche runs children’s homes where children are looked after and fostered by social workers so that they are not forced to go onto the streets alone.
Knackpunkt – helping girls in Düsseldorf
As a youth support scheme, Knackpunkt primarily focuses on female minors and young adult women who are living rough.
Knackpunkt’s low threshold service offers these girls and women an initial drop-in and contact centre where they can relax and take care of their basic needs.
Georgia
Elisabeth Gast Foundation: Art therapy for children in Tbilisi
The Elisabeth Gast Foundation supports abandoned and destitute children and adolescents in Georgia. These children are taken off the streets and accommodated in purpose-built homes or placed with guest families. The training centres attached to the homes offer the children education and vocational training. By means of creative art therapies, an attempt is made to restore the children’s will to face life and their pleasure in learning.
Lithuania
In Klapeida, Lithuania UNESCO and RTL are supporting the opening of a day-care centre for children in need.
The main objective of this important project is to provide disadvantaged and neglected children from impoverished families in Klapeida – street children and children living or working on rubbish tips – with advisory services, so that they can lead a self-determined life. In this connection, in order to improve their living environment and with regard to educational support and psychological care, it is particularly important that they attend school regularly and obtain a good education, so that they have a real chance of a self-determined and independent life in future, and are enabled to develop their personal strengths and sense of social responsibility. Support services are geared to children whose families cannot provide them with a home because of unemployment, severe poverty or alcoholism. Many of these children are victims of violence and extreme neglect. The day-care centre also aims to provide children with the opportunity to learn basic everyday skills.
Romania
Für Rumänische Waisenkinder Heidelberg e.V
This association takes care of orphans in the Romanian capital. It is dedicated to giving these children a home and ensuring that they have a better future.
Romania and Ukraine
Concordia social projects: Children’s homes in Romania and Ukraine
Streetworkers, social centres and Club CONCORDIA look after 300 street children, those seeking help, and former charges. Today around 900 children live in CONCORDIA homes and communal housing in Romania and Ukraine.
Russia
Phoenix Foundation for humanitarian aid in Moscow
The work of the “Zentrum für humanitäre Hilfe Phönix” (Phoenix Centre for Humanitarian Aid) began in November 2001 when the “Deutsch-Russische Gesellschaft Kraichgau e.V.” made the decision to provide permanent support to the organisation. On this basis it was possible to launch the project: a semi-detached house was purchased in the village-like part of Rogachevo, a small town approx. 80 km north of Moscow, in the administrative district of Dmitrov. The idea was to implement the project in an area where “our” children would not stick out, and where they could also go to school. Rogachevo’s school goes all the way from primary to secondary, and is only a 15 minute walk from the house.
Since the project started it has primarily focused on: the family house; organising private lessons for the children – some of whom had never attended school before coming to Rogachevo; garden cultivation with some self-sufficiency; psychological support for adults and children; a soup kitchen.
Belarus
Byelorussian Exarchate Centre for Education and Charity, Belarus
The Orthodox dioceses of the Republic of Belarus traditionally belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church but in 1991 at the time of upheaval and the fall of the Soviet Union, as an Exarchate, the Byelorussian Orthodox Church was given semi-autonomous status which increased its internal administrative scope but also aimed to secure its ties to the Patriarchate in Moscow, i.e. full decision-making authority was withheld from the Byelorussian Synod.
Exarch Filaret of Minsk who, since its foundation in Belarus has headed the church, is a guarantee for an open, ecumenical climate, thanks to his sensitive pastoral care and his approach oriented to the church’s future. His attempt to develop an independent theological faculty and a private university close to the church demonstrates a farsightedness which is all too often reined in by the state authorities.
Since 1995 Exarch Filaret has permitted a greater orientation towards and emphasis on the Byelorussian language and identity of his flock. At the Minsk seminary too, Byelorussian is to be put on an equal footing with Russian.
Children’s Cancer Clinic in Minsk
The Children’s Cancer Clinic is fighting an ongoing battle to preserve children’s access to treatment. The UNESCO Foundation is therefore supporting this clinic to ensure that children get the best possible therapy.
