Translation from Down's syndrome site in Ukraine

Translating with Babel Fish is not exact, WEBPAGE but I hope you get the gist of this. It warms my heart and gives me hope that there exists such a group in Ukraine. Having seen 5 children with Down syndrome in Kara's orphanage, I wished I could being them all home with me, so precious, with so much potential.

I think it is too easy to think that the parents abandoned their children in the maternity homes after their births and never thought about them again. (No they did not run away, this is what the paperwork calls the relinquishing of parental rights in Ukraine). I knew Kara was loved by her Grandmother, a woman whom I wish we could have met and spoke to. Two adoptive families were able to do this in Ukraine this year.

When I first heard of children with Ds in Ukraine (and elsewhere) I was convinced these were uncaring people, I was mad at them, I was judging them harshly for not taking their children home with them. I knew the potential their babies had, I had my Meghan. I saw her determination to learn daily, I saw her intelligence in her sparkling blue eyes, and I looked into the eyes of those babies in Ukraine and I saw it in theirs too.

Through the year it took to get to Ukraine, my feelings changed about this subject, I respected the parents more because I knew they truly did not have the choices we did here. They did not have support or therapies set up for their new babies, they did not have support groups like we do. Their medical doctors did not tell them anything hopeful or helpful about their child, and their fears overtook their desire to parent their children. Fear of the future is a normal reaction to the news that your child has a syndrome that could make life difficult for them.

Now I see this wonderful webpage and have read stories of families brave enough to take their baby home and love them, to be proud of them, and to raise them! PTL.

Please read this wonderful moms story: STORY

Reading through the list below, it is easy to see that all parents love their children, some make very difficult choices, and I am grateful to those who allowed international adoption of their child, thank you from my heart, I love my daughter Kara so much, she is loved and adored here.

Themes of the round table:

1. [Roddoma]. 65% of parents reject their children, who were born with Down's syndrome.The doctors of [roddomov] do not have contemporary objective information about Down's syndrome.Parents do not obtain truthful information about the future their children, which in many instances becomes the reason for failure of its own child.

2. boarding schools, orphanages. Child with Down's syndrome cannot be developed under the conditions of boarding school. Only in the family he will be developed as usual child.

3. early aid. Child with Down's syndrome needs special exercises with it, beginning from the generation(birth). Are necessary the centers of the early aid, where will work the professionals, who will conduct exercise with the child and will consult parents.

4. integrated kindergartens. Children with Down's syndrome must walk into the usual kindergartens, in which must be created special conditions for such children.

5. integrated schools. The right of child with Down's syndrome to learn in the usual school is fixed legislatively in many developed countries of Europe. In the Ukraine there is not one integrated school. Children with Down's syndrome must walk into the usual schools. Their formation must become the integral part of pedagogical strategy and partly new social and economic policy.

6. Medico- pedagogical commissions before the kindergarten and the school. Now before the entering into the kindergarten or the school child with Down's syndrome must pass the medico- pedagogical commission, which determines the degree of its mental development. The methods, with the aid of which is determined the level of the development of child, are not objective. This approach is become obsolete and contradicts the convention of United Nations, in which the acquired right of child with the special needs for the formation, the professional preparation and for the preparation for the working activity.

7. job placement. People with Down's syndrome must have equal with other people rights and capabilities with job placement.