Conditions of keeping children in orphanges leave much to be desired

Conditions of keeping children in orphanages in Kyrgyzstan leave much to be desired, Vice Prime Minister Cholpon Sultanbekova said at the meeting of the Interdepartmental Coordination Council for Juvenile Justice, the information department of the government reported.

The Vice Prime Minister said that during working trips to the regions of the country she visited orphanages and boarding schools and saw the true picture of children’s life.

The conditions for the maintenance of children leave much to be desired, in all institutions there are «dead souls." It became a system. Only 6 percent of children brought up in boarding schools are orphans.

Cholpon Sultanbekova

According to Cholpon Sultanbekova, Kyrgyzstan should consider the possibility of a phased withdrawal from boarding schools and their subsequent transformation into social support institutions.

The Vice Prime Minister emphasized that the destiny of an orphaned child or without parental care should be decided by one state body and it should bear responsibility for it, and courts only in exceptional cases should sent to orphanages or boarding schools.

Local government bodies should actively identify families and children in difficult life situations, assist them, take care of the child to live and be brought up in a family or a family environment.

The participants of the meeting noted that the pilot project on the organization of 17 foster families showed good results. Also the issue of imposing a ban on the admission of children to residential institutions was raised.