Students focus on sustainable assistance for forgotten orphans, with help of Perth Ukrainian Catholics
By Anthony Barich
MEMBERS of Perth’s Ukrainian Greek Catholic community joined other private citizens to raise enough money last month to fund over 20 university healthcare students to help orphans in their homeland for four years.
Since 2008, occupational therapist Kirrily Kilbane, 37, has organised about 20 physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy students a year to travel to the Ukraine to assist orphans, some of whom have been born with disabilities.
On 20 March, one of the students hosted the fundraiser which drew the interest of the Maylands Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church parish as one of its senior figures, Bodhan Mykytiuk, with a long history in tertiary education, thought it a worthwhile cause.
They raised $9,000 on the day – more than enough for four trips as they only spend up to $2,000 each trip on therapeutic equipment like foam, walking aids and switches that help modify toys for children with poor motor control.
“For something so critical, the opportunity to go back to the Ukraine and leave something (important) behind” was too good to pass up, said Bodhan, whose mother’s side is linked to ‘Patriarch’ Josyf Slipyj, who was arrested by the NKVD (predecessor to the KGB) and held captive in Siberia for 20 years.
The need to help orphans in the Ukraine is great, and government funding is given to help students based on their ability to walk, so the children with more debilitating disabilities receive less.
“I’m haunted by the orphans I saw with a high level of disability – one child with muscular dystrophy was the only one who made eye contact with me. There was a moment there where he looked at me knowingly, I looked at him, and I knew he had significant cognitive ability, but he was trapped. I thought if he were somewhere else (in a western country with better facilities) …” Kirrily said.
“So our focus is on orphans where we can make the most difference, which is early intervention with kids who’ve had no intervention in the first five years of their lives.”
In her trips to the Ukraine, Kirrily has seen much cerebral palsy and other neurological conditions, including Hydrocephelus – water on the brain that requires a ‘tap’ inserted above the spinal cord to relieve pressure in the brain as without it they can get brain damage. She’s seen babies born with no impairment but who have problems as their heads were squeezed with forceps to remove them from the womb.
But it is not without hope. “The situation there is bad, but it is changing,” she said. “We work in regional areas that are not so well resourced, where it’s harder for agencies and non-government organisations (NGOs) to access. She was first inspired after a trip to the Ukraine in 2005 and, within three years she quit her job that hires occupational therapists and started the programme to bring healthcare students over to not only help the orphans but train local staff to better look after them.
This is what she calls “sustainable care”. Since 2008, she has seen a change in how the orphanage staff value the children. At the same time, the experience is mutually beneficial for the students who learn in an acute way about the value of human life.
This year, another group will leave on 18 May for a month. In the long term, Kirrily plans to move there with her husband and child, who is now three, for up to 12 months.
While orphanages are non-existent in Australia, they are necessary in the Ukraine, a country where poverty is rife, the healthcare system cannot cope, and much of the wealth is controlled by oligarchs. It also has one of the fastest-growing rates of HIV, with child porn and people trafficking rife. Tuberculosis is also not uncommon.
To assist Kirrily’s mission, contact her on Kirrily.Manning@exchange.curtin.edu.au.