Charities must build sustainable communication with orphanages before holiday visits – Daria Herasymchuk

Any organization or foundation wishing to celebrate Christmas with children in institutional care may do so, provided they have repeatedly visited these institutions and established sustainable communication with them.

Daria Herasymchuk, Advisor and Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Children’s Rights and Rehabilitation, emphasized this position during a briefing at the Media Center Ukraine.

“If you want to visit children in institutional care, it should not be a one-time event. And you should not start your communication by giving gifts. First and foremost, you must ask the child what they want. Secondly, unfortunately, we still have institutions where staff take away everything gifted to the children. If a charity worker only visits an orphanage once, there is no way for them to monitor this. A third scenario is when children understand that this is ‘harvest time’ and they should ask for as much as possible,” she stated.

Herasymchuk stressed that charitable organizations should approach helping and supporting children in orphanages from a mentorship perspective, not one of pity.

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