When a child is given up for adoption, that child resides in a baby houses/budynky malyuky until 4 years of age. During this time, their mental and physical functions are evaluated and they are designated normal or "disabled" (if anyone finds offense or discrepancy with my terminology, please comment, I am always eager to learn about how other people see things).
The orphanages in Ukraine are divided into 4 levels. Level 1 is for children with physical disabilities but not mental disabilities; these children can usually attend school. Level 2 is for children with mental disabilities and/or emotional behavior issues but no physical disabilities. Level 3 is for children with mild physical and/or mental disabilites. Finally, level 4 is or children with critical physical and/or mental disabilities; often these children are bedridden. Children are sent to the orphanages based on their categorization. A child can live in the orphanage until he/she is 18 years old. After 18 years of age, young adults are forced to leave.
Three different government agencies oversee orphanages: The Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, and the Ministry of Public Health. For example, the Ministry of F, Y, S oversees adoptions and the Ministry of PH is engaged during the time between birth and transfer to the orphanage. Each oblast (Ukraine is divided up into 25 oblasts, an oblast is similar to a state or province) upon receiving orders from the ministries, makes their own independent decisions with regard to the orphanage in their oblast, especially with respect to how the budget assigned to each orphanage can be used.
The Ukrainian government pays orphans a pension up until 18 years of age. If a child dies before 18 years of age, the pension money returns to the government.
Most professionals in this field believe that there are 200,000 orphans in Ukraine, with 20 level 4 orphanages housing 6,000 children.
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