“Say No to Orphanhood!” portal is 8 years old: More than 8,800 children have found their families

More than 8,800 children have found their families thanks to the internet portal for national adoption “Say No to Orphanhood!”, which celebrates its 8th anniversary.

The portal “Say No to Orphanhood!” is a project of Rinat Akhmetov Foundation and enables potential parents to obtain the information about the child. Now there are 7,695 profiles on the website. They are stories of children, whose lifetime dream is to find a family.

The portal employees overcame hundreds of kilometres to meet with orphans and create a unique photo or video history about each of them. Thus, more than 70 videos appeared on the portal in 2017, thanks to which the hero  of every fifth video has found a family.

The portal “Say No to Orphanhood!” was created so that the orphans have a chance to have a happy childhood with their newly found parents. Over 8 years of work, the hotline received 31,000 calls, and more than 8,800 children already live and are brought up in the families. This year alone, 438 children have found their families on the portal, of which 311 were adopted. Most of the children were adopted in Donetsk, Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions. Now there are 7,6 thousand profiles on the portal”, says Natalia Baryshpolska, the head of “Say No to Orphanhood!” programme.

One of the first to be posted on the website 8 years ago was a profile of three-year-old  Natasha, and soon she was adopted by Ivko family from Boryspil. The girl immediately accepted her parents and persuaded her mother Natasha and father Vadym that their decision on adoption was right. A few years later, Solomyika was born to Vadym and Natalia, and a year ago, three-year-old Ivanka appeared in the family, whom her parents also found on the portal for national adoption. A little girl was left in the birthing home, and during her short life she has lived in three orphanages. Now Ivanka is Mom's main assistant. Together with her sisters, she is talking her parents into taking another child from the orphanage. The family has a tradition: the girls study the profiles posted on “Say No to Orphanhood!” portal, and every time a profile disappears from the website they have a holiday. This means that one more person has become needed by someone.

The portal “Say No to Orphanhood!” celebrates eight years of its operation with the series of social videos. They will be published till the end of this year on “Say No to Orphanhood!” Facebook page and the Foundation’s YouTube channel. These are stories of the families who have found their happiness thanks to their adopted children. On the video, parents share their experiences of communication with children, talk about their first finding and meetings with their future sons and daughters. Thus, the Foundation helps to overcome fear and get rid of stereotypes for those families who want to give their warmth and love to adopted children. The first video heroes are Natalia and Vadym Ivko:

You may also contact “Say No to Orphanhood!” programme’s hotline 0-800-50-14-14 to get a free consultation of adoption specialists.

It is to be recalled that today more than 100 thousand children are brought up in boarding schools in Ukraine.