Tale of Two Boys, II
Posted on November 12, 2007
Filed Under Life, Social Issues, Physical Health
Let me tell you about another boy, Savkin. He had a number of physical challenges as a result of being premature. He went into the neonatal ICU, where he was treated for a severely low birth weight, a lack of normal responsiveness to sensory input and underdeveloped lungs.
He recovered fairly well, and was put in an orphanage at a local hospital. Weak and suffering from unknown conditions, he didn’t interact much with nurses, didn’t exhibited some unusual behaviors, such as lack of eye contact and lack of vocalization.
As he grew into a toddler, Savkin had trouble with physical coordination, and displayed little ability for communication and socialization – did not make eye contact, was unable to verbalize more than a few words, and displaying little tolerance for other people. He became more and more isolated.
I should tell you about a child like this Savkin, an orphan with a disability. The Russian Ministry of Education puts each child under its care into one of two group, those with no disabilities, and a second group contains children diagnosed as lightly disabled, and officially termed “debil.”
The Ministry of Labor and Social Development takes charge of orphans who are diagnosed by a board of state medical and educational reviewers as having heavy physical and mental disabilities at the age of four.
Such children are confined to cribs, staring at the ceiling. They are fed and changed, but deprived of real meaningful one-to-one attention and sensory stimulation and are not encouraged to walk or talk.
Officially labeled “imbetsil” or “idiot” at age four, a diagnosis they will suffer from for the rest of their life. They are committed to closed institutions which often resemble Dickensian asylums of the nineteenth century.
Human Rights groups have visited these asylums, and report seeing children who were considered “too active” or “too difficult” being confined to dark or barren rooms with barely a place to sit. There were other harsh treatments observed, but I won’t go into any detail here. It will suffice to say that children in the Russian orphanage system who have handicaps are not well cared for, generally.
Savkin made it to the age of eighteen, but when he was moved onto an adult asylum, again removed from public view (Russians generally don’t like to see the disabled, preferring to keep them isolated from society).
A boy without a future. If only someone would care.
There are a number of ways you can do something tangible to care for the Savkins of the world. Get involved, pray, give, go. If your heart is stirred, take a leap of faith, and check out the suggestions for orphan care you’ll find here.
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