From childhood to old age: “Groundhog Day” at the Zamglai boarding school

On September 13, 2015, employees of the Department for the Implementation of the National Preventive Mechanism of the Secretariat of the VRU Commissioner for Human Rights and representatives of the public paid another visit to the Zamglai Orphanage.

The monitoring group received its first impressions on the way to the institution: a narrow road, a burnt forest, preserved enterprises, abandoned estates – the Chernobyl exclusion zone is nearby. The urban-type settlement of Zamglai is small, with about 1,800 people living here. It is located 40 km from the regional center, but in a rather remote place.

The monitors were pleasantly impressed: beautiful buildings, well-maintained territory, playgrounds, cleanliness – the boarding house is probably the most beautiful territory in the village, the employees invest positivity and their own work in ensuring proper living conditions for the pupils.

But the maximum efforts of the staff cannot break the established boarding school system. The institution has 93 people, including only 9 children. The rest are young women aged 18 to 35, who live day after day as if in a closed circle, living every day in repetition. The girls do not have the opportunity to study and constantly develop due to the lack of educators (due to the imperfection of the regulatory framework, which does not provide for pedagogical workers in the institution’s staff for the youth department). The only consolation is crocheting and knitting, embroidery, drawing, but not all pupils have such an opportunity due to their health.

The lack of significant sponsorship and proper financing of the needs of the Boarding House from the regional budget is another problem.

The girls told the monitors their life stories. Here are some of them.

31-year-old resident T., who has lived in the institution for 15 years, complained that during her stay in the institution “she even forgot the multiplication table”. After 4 years, T.’s future is not bright – unexpected old age – a home for the elderly.

Resident V. (18 years old) has physical disabilities, deprived of the opportunity to receive an education. Despite her problems, V. reads poetry, sings, draws, holding a brush in her teeth, but she will live the same type of days in the boarding house for another 17 years. And then, at 35 years old – a repetition of T.’s fate – transfer to a boarding house for the elderly.

And so every day – from childhood to the planned old age at 35, but with good food and a warm bed.

“Would any of us want to have such a fate and will the girls have a happy ending in their life stories?” – with these questions the monitors left the Zamglai orphanage.

Based on the results of the monitoring visit, the appropriate response acts of the Commissioner for Human Rights will be prepared.