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Belarussian Aid for Children Cardiff Undergraduate ProgrammeBACCUP was started in the summer of 1999 by five medical students from the University of Wales College of Medicine. It had the simple goal of providing much needed support and care to the children living in Novinki Orphanage in the Belarussian capital Minsk.Novinki is a state funded orphanage in a suburb of Minsk. It is home to approximately 208 children, aged between 4 and 18, all of whom have a physical or mental disability of some kind. Not all of these children are orphans, but the persisting prejudice against handicapped and disabled people, and the lack of State benefits for parents who need to stay at home and look after a disabled child mean that many parents want to or are forced to put their children into the care of the orphanage.There are five units in the orphanage, housing a range of different children. BACCUP now works in unit 3, which is home to 35 children. The children in this unit are varied; some are capable of cleaning, feeding and bathing themselves and are able to leave the unit to play. Others are more high dependancy, suffering from a variety of conditions, including cerebral palsy, foetal alcohol syndrome and hydrocephalus. These children need help in all aspects of daily living, but due to low levels of both staff and training they often do not receive the degree of attention they need and deserve. The BACCUP students role has changed since the programme started certainly in a possitive way. Whilst the care provided by Novinki staff is still not what would be expected in the UK, it has improved with education and demonstration over the last 7 years. Included in the programme now is to demonstrate the best way to actually make the children's lives happy and fulfilled. In Novinki we stimulate the more able children through active play and interaction; and use more sensory stimulation (visual, audio and tactile) for the more high dependency children. We also take the children out on trips whenever we can; to the local zoo, the park, the shops, a nearby lake or even McDonalds, especially those who have no parental contact. For more details about BACCUP's aims and future plans please use 'Useful Links' at the top of the page. |
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© Jacqui Walker 2006 |
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