The Orphanages Of Belarus

[pastafreak]

This is shocking, and so,so sad. It's difficult to imagine children being allowed to live in such disturbing conditions in this day and age.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4429160/Children-brink-starvation-Belarus-orphanages.html

[Smowball]

I've literally just been reading it. Absolutely appalling

[gness]

Oh, Pasta...heartbreaking.....what to do?........

[mikey4444]

Simply dreadful Pasta.....reports like this make me very angry indeed !

[naomi24]

Something there doesn't ring quite true. The rooms are brightly decorated with cartoons and pretty curtains, the bedding is similarly especially for children, and yet the children in the pictures are clearly sick and malnourished. Who would provide bright, cheery, surroundings and then starve and neglect the occupants. That seems very odd to me.

[Tilly2]

It also says in the article that one of the children has cerebral palsy. I think all of those children pictured are disabled in some way.

Something strange about this.

[Old_Geezer]

If the article is right when it states that the authorities have demanded a criminal investigation, and that 2 directors have been sacked, it implies something is amiss regardless of the wallpaper.

[Old_Geezer]

Caring doesn't pay much as a job so one is likely to find a very mixed group of people doing it. We've had homes investigated in this country too: Winterbourne View hospital is a recent one that springs to mind. The industry needs a better way to attract and select suitable employees.

[mikey4444]

Not sure what some people are saying on here OG ? Is this real news or fake news ?

This situation has been widely reported, for some considerable time.

[Tilly2]

All I'm saying Mikey, is that these children pictured have all been abandoned and locked away because of their disabilities. Nothing of that is mentioned in the article and yet it is so obvious.

[Old_Geezer]

I didn't spot the date of the photos, Mikey, but the comparison to the 80s imply that it is still an issue over 30 years later. But fair enough, the date of this discovery ought to be prominent to give the article validity.

[naomi24]

Mikey/OG, the rooms don't look run down and neglected - they look pretty well kept - and I think that's relevant because it suggests, to me at least, that the problem in this particular institution lies with uncaring hands of management rather than government or local authority. That is borne out by the fact that two directors have been sacked. A shocking situation but perhaps it shouldn't automatically be perceived as the norm.

[ichkeria]

The surroundings are actually dirt cheap! Yes there are a few pictures on the walls but so what?
It's typical E European set up. A lick of paint and a makeover and a distinct lack of care. Belarus is still effectively a Stalinist country.

[kvalidir]

My partner is from Romania originally and and sad to say the state of the orphanages in the 90's still mirror what's going on there today in places. It takes a long time to heal situations like that, as lack of money, lack of care lack of social responsibility can't be swept away in ten minutes, the appalling becomes the norm so often. Interventions are made all over the place by authorities once the problems are flagged, but it doesn't take away what people have already seen and been exposed to already and what is normalised to them so caregivers because of their own histories are often dreadful, for that to alter the whole mindset of that society needs to change and that will take a generation.