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UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund |
When
Lena turned four, she was visited by a clown, given a stuffed toy, and had a
beautiful and delicious cake. She saw a puppet show, and afterwards applauded
heartily. Her birthday was a huge success – the grown-ups around her did their
very best to brighten up the life of a little girl who has spent the last year
and a half of her young life living in the Ust-Izhor Republic Clinical Hospital
for the Treatment of Infectious Diseases near St. Petersburg. This hospital
is at once National Clinical Center for Children’s AIDS, and a practical research
center for helping women and children infected with HIV. Lena is one of the
2,162 Russian children to have been born of HIV-positive mothers in the last
fifteen years. She is among the approximate 20% of such children who are immediately
rejected by their mothers while still in the birthing home. Lena’s mother, 28-year-old
Angela, was enrolled at the drug treatment center in a small town near Rostov-on-Don.
Following the results of one analysis, Lena was sent to the Clinical Center
for Children’s AIDS, where the diagnosis was confirmed. The little girl’s younger
sister – who, happily, turned out to be perfectly healthy – also spent some
time at the center, and was later sent to a children’s home. Back in the hospital,
Lena is now receiving all the treatment and other care she needs – everything
except a mother’s love and attention. Meanwhile, her future remains clouded
and unclear: the issue of the status of children who are HIV-positive, and whose
parents have rejected them, remains open. Some 30–35 children, brought in from
all over the country, now live permanently in the special ward set aside for
them.
"The children whose HIV diagnosis is not confirmed are sent
to an ordinary children’s home, or are adopted", says Evgeny Voronin, the hospital’s
head physician. "Several of our children today live in families, and everything
is fine with them. Children with a confirmed diagnosis continue living in the
ward. We have some "long-time" residents here – Anya, Andrushka, Lena. The number
of such children is going to get bigger every year. It sometimes happens that
it’s easier to stop the spread of the virus than to provide a normal life for
the children. You know, they ought to develop normally, go to school, get to
know the world around them – not be confined all the time behind hospital walls".
Dr. Voronin himself sometimes takes infected children for walks in the park;
not long ago, he took them all to the circus. However, this is not a way out
of the problem, which must be solved on a nation-wide scale. The number of children
born of HIV-infected mothers is increasing dramatically. Half of all the infected
children have been born during nine months – the period from October 2001 through
June 2002. In some regions of Central Russia, the Urals, Siberia, and the Far
East, the number of children with the HIV virus has 
grown
by 30–50%; in Orenburg Region, the figure is twice as much! According to forecasts
by specialists at the Ministry of Health, the number of children who are HIV-positive
might go as high as 6,000 by the end of 2002.
"Approximately 40% of them are infected through their mothers", says Dr. Voronin. "The transmission of the virus from HIV-positive mothers to their children can be prevented, if we take the appropriate prophylactic medical measures during pregnancy. We have all the equipment and medicine we need for this. The problem is that in the majority of cases, the required pre- and peri-natal care is lacking, and doctors find out about the woman’s condition only when the baby is born".
With support from UNICEF, the National Clinical Center for Children’s AIDS holds regular seminars for physicians from all regions of Russia, aimed at initiating the exchange of practical experience and the development of an optimal system for preventing the transmission of the immunodeficiency virus from mother to child. UNICEF has already helped build a playground in the hospital courtyard, and purchase equipment for the psychological relaxation and development of the children. Most important today, however, is attracting the public’s attention, and reaching a final decision on the fate of the children who have fallen victim to their parents’ mindless behavior, and to the lack of the needed government control over the problem.
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According to estimates by the United Nations, there are
around half a million land mines on the territory of Chechnya. In June of this
year, 23 new cases of children killed or wounded by land mines were recorded
in just one Grozny city 
hospital
No. 9.
It is early in the morning. An old but reliable bus picks up its passengers at the various IDP camps situated in Ingushetia. Madina Gishlarkaeva, a worker with the non-profit organization Mingo (which, translated, means "Good Fellow"), helps some children get on the bus. This is a special journey: the children, all of them injured in explosions, have been offered the chance to get medical, psychological, an prosthesis assistance from specialists at the Vladikavkaz Prosthesis and Orthopedic Workshop. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has offered such opportunities in previous years as well, as part of its Land Mine Awareness Program.
Usually, Madina takes a group of 15 children with her to the workshop. In order for their prostheses to fit properly, they must come a minimum of four to five times to be measured by, consult with, and be fitted by the experts from Vladikavkaz. Vladislav Yesiev, the director of the prosthesis and orthopedic workshop, has set aside a special day for the IDP children. Here they are cooked a real dinner; a psychologist spends time with them, and they are entertained by a troupe of visiting performers.
Ella Yeloeva, a psychologist working with the UNICEF program for helping land mine victims, talks with the children after they have visited the prosthesis department. Fifteen-year-old Iriskhan Aybaev, seventeen-year-old Zulekhan Asukhanova, nine-year-old Ayub Gerbertaev, and Madina from Mingo herself, along with some of the others present, lustily sing karaoke songs. This is, however, only the beginning. After a while, the children genuinely begin to relax. In order for the children to be truly set free from what they’ve been forced to live through, the psychologist leads them through a wide range of activities.
"The problem with children injured by land mines", says Ella, "is that they become aggressive and depressed, and no longer trust strangers. It is difficult for them to concentrate, and they begin to do poorly in school. However, the main thing is that they don’t talk about what has happened to them, and hide their suffering. The aim of our activities is to help relieve them of their burden from suffering, and to show them the future that lies before them".
It is now already time to head back to the camps, where the
children will be met by their families. In Satsita Camp, Iriskhan Aybaev’s mother
and brother wait for him impatiently. The doctors weren’t sure if they would
be able to save 
the
boy’s life; he lost both legs in the explosion, along with having his eye nearly
put out. A nurse at the Grozny hospital donated blood for him. The first words
Iriskhan said when he regained consciousness were, "I don’t want to live"!
Several months after Madina took Iriskhan to the prosthesis workshop for the first time, he could once again walk by himself, and a great deal had changed in his life.
"Now, I want to go everywhere", says the boy, "I can get to school by myself, and I can play with my friends. I went to my grandmother’s for my birthday, and I take part in different shows".
Iriskhan, like many of the other children, has enrolled in the UNICEF Program for Vocational Training in Computer Skills. He now wants to seriously study English, and hopes that he will be able in the future to work professionally with computers. Meanwhile, little Ayub, waving his prosthesis in response to the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?", replies "President!" In the country where he wants to be President, the use of land mines will most probably be outlawed. More than 200 children have received prostheses in the last year and a half of UNICEF’s work in the North Caucasus, while some 4,000 children and women have been killed or injured by land mines.
