By Tanya Sykes | Project Communications Officer
Meet Tetyana and Taras Gursky – short-term and emergency foster carers. They are one of the three families involved in the work of the “Vital Emergency Fostering for Children in Ukraine” project. For less than $30 a day the Gursky family provide 24/7 care and support to children who are in need of urgent protection due to cases of severe neglect, child abuse or abandonment. Their endless amount of energy and enthusiasm is multiplied by your kind donations – this yields great results which we are thankful for.
Over the past two years of the Gursky family has welcomed 8 children. Most of them have been removed from their biological families because of the potential threats to their lives. A mother of a one-month-old baby boy Oleg* has abandoned him in the maternity ward. While the project workers have been looking for potential adoptive parents, Oleg was looked after by the Gursky family. For 6 of the other children it was a similar story: two-and-a-half-year-old Artur* and his one-year-old little brother Zhenia*, two-and-a-half-year-old Glib* and his 18 months-old sister Marina*, as well as siblings Natasha* (three months old) and Vadim* (three years old). They have all been discovered by the social services while their biological parents – heavily abusing alcohol – by the time of the visit were missing. Next followed children’s placements with Mr and Mrs Gursky who have been working on restoring sometimes vitally missing motor and developmental skills of the children, but also filled each one of them with security and love they were all deprived of at those early stages of their lives.
Tetyana Gursky, an emergency foster carer from Bila Tserkva, Kyiv Region, Ukraine says: “My work spurs this sense of vigour inside me every day. Otherwise, it would be impossible to work in tandem with social workers and biological parents of the fostered children for the families to be reunited again." In the end of September 2013, a five-month-old baby girl has been placed into the care of the Gursky family. Her mother Liuda, a young student without a partner or any support network decided to abandon her newly born baby girl. “I am sure that these are the consequences of post-natal depression, - says Mrs Gursky. She will take her time and change her mind eventually. Most importantly, she has to realise that there is help available. We are the help.”
In order to be able to continue this life-saving work, families like Taras and Tetyana Gursky need your support. So please donate whatever you can afford and tell everyone you know about this great cause.
We thank you immensely!
* All names of the children have been changed to protect confidentiality.
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