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Ukraine's Forgotten Children

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Mahatma Ghandi said "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." This film will ask how Ukraine stands up to that test.

Ukraine has the highest rate of child abandonment in Europe. Vast numbers of ‘social orphans,’ whose parents are still alive but who choose to leave the State to ‘care’ for their children, are growing up in institutions across the country. Even before the break-up of the Soviet Union, alcoholism was rife, but since then it has reached epidemic proportions. As the natural resources of Ukraine have made a very small number of people rich beyond their wildest dreams, the vast majority have sunk into poverty. As a result, tens of thousands of young children are going into the Social Welfare System for their entire childhood. In this haunting and beautifully filmed documentary, we observe life in an institute for the mentally and physically disabled from the age of 4 right up into adulthood.

Programme Information

  • Genre: Factual

  • Subgenre: Documentary Special

  • Producers: TRUE VISION PRODUCTIONS LTD

  • Broadcaster: BBC 4

  • Duration: 1 x 60'

  • Tags: Orphan Ukraine Poverty Survival

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