How can adoptive parents not to become disillusioned with their choice?

In some families, where foster children are raised, the problem of emotional burnout of parents may arise in due course. After the appearance of a child in the house euphoria expires and everyday life comes with a lot more everyday problems. Therefore, adults have almost no ‘me time’. Not everybody can cope with it. Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, within the framework of “Say No to Orphanhood!” programme, gives knowledge to adoptive parents, foster parents, educators, guardians about how to overcome this situation without damage to children’s state of mind.

On February 19, the Foundation held a training course “Survival Code for Adoptive Parents” with the participation of Liubov Loriashvili, a psychologist at the Social Services Department of Kyiv City Center of Social Services for Families, Children and Youth. The event was devoted to the prevention of parents’ emotional burnout. Adoptive children are different, often quite difficult, and this affects the condition of their new mom and dad. Such trainings, according to psychologists, are designed to tell adults that caring for children should not replace their own lives, that parents should take time for their own interests, recreation and hobbies, so that the upbringing of children does not eventually become a heavy burden.

“The moment a child is taken to a family is a holiday, but this is only the beginning of a great and sometimes hard road. So, we in the Foundation should not see the moment of adoption as the last waypoint of our involvement in a kid’s and his new family’s lives,” says Natalia Baryshpolska, the head of Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s “Say No to Orphanhood!” programme. “Such training courses show parents that, despite the difficulties, one must fight for the happiness.”

In addition to seminars and trainings with personal involvement of families, the project specialists regularly hold webinars for parents who raise foster children or just plan to do it.

“Say No to Orphanhood!” programme, designed to help the boarding schools educatees to find their new families, was launched in 2008. During its implementation and the operation of www.sirotstvy.net portal, 8928 children have found new parents.