A "brief" translation / summary of the e-Mail from my friend
"Rodyna" means "family" and is a centre, which was originally built for orphans, but which now mainly is a home for abused women and their children. They can stay there for three months (in some severe cases even longer than that). During their stay, Rodyna is trying to help them reorganise their lives, find new places to live, jobs; they also help them with office channels and so on. Moreover, psychological treatment is provided.
We have encountered several bad things there but the worst thing is that the police refuse to do anything about the situation. They don't arrest the brutal husbands / fathers; in fact they are actually on their side. Not only are the women and children humiliated by the abuse and violence of their husbands and fathers; they are also humiliated by the ignorance of the police.
Rodyna still has financial problems because the city of Ternopil hardly supports them. Similar institutions in other cities do not know these kinds of problems.
According to the leader of the centre, they get 7 Hrivna (= 1€ = 70p = 1.38 USD) per person and day for food (breakfast, lunch and dinner). Other institutions get 20 - 30 Hrivna.
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An Odyssee...
In September, a woman (43) came to Rodyna with 10 of her 11 children (aged between 2 and 18, the oldest daughter is married); two of them are girls (11, 15). The woman and her children have been abused by her husband for years until she took her children in September and fled from her village in the province of Ternopil. They had been walking for 2 days (they slept in a forest) until they reached the city, where they were rejected by several institutions. Finally, they came to Rodyna, where they have been living until now.
According to Ukrainian law, the city of Ternopil has to provide flats for families with many children but this family was refused one of these flats. The reason they were given was that the public authorities assumed that the woman only gave birth to so many children in order not to pay for her flat. She even went to Kiev twice to talk to the president, who supported her and ordered the city government of Ternopil to give her a flat but nothing has happened so far.
Furthermore, she visited Yuliya Timoshenko. Yuliya said, she wasn't responsible for such matters and therefore couldn't help her. So much for the helping angel she always wants to represent.
But she paid for expensive hotel rooms, food in the best restaurants in Kiev, 2 cars with chauffeurs and bodyguards as well as for a tour through the city for the whole family. For this money, she could have bought a house in a village for the woman and her children.
The city government of Ternopil had another solution to the problem though: they took the children away from their mother and put them into an orphanage so the woman is alone and they don't have to pay for her flat.
The leader of Rodyna then published articles in several newspapers that addressed the family's problems. Amongst other people, a woman from a differnet province, about 300 km from Ternopil, responded that there was a house with a garden in a village and offered the family to pay 2.000 € (= 1.440 GBP = 2.870 USD) of the 2.800 that it cost. Of course, this is the best solution because the family will be far away from their plaguer. The house is now being renovated, the villagers give as much as they can and help them. If everything works out the way it's planned, the family can move in in February or mid March.
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The history of the family...
Most of the children couldn't talk properly when they came to Rodyna. They had been intimidated by their father that they didn't talk out of fear. A speech therapist is now working with them and they are making a lot of progress.
The woman is also much better now. She had been beaten black and blue and she had cuts everywhere when she came to Rodyna. He didn't just beat her on his own, but also asked his friends to assist him. They held her when he hit her and in return, they were allowed to rape her. The children were also hit and cut with knives and scissors.
The youngest son (2), who was healthy at his birth, has suffered facial palsy caused by the abuse of his own father.
The man also tortured the children in other ways. He told them to stand in a line, took a knife and disembowelled their dog. Then he told them he would do the same to them, if they didn't do what he said.
Once, when the 11-year-old girl wanted to help one of her little brothers, when their father was beating him (because the boy had been resting on a settee), the man grabbed her by her hair, threw her - face first - against a wall, cut her hair into the shape of a cross and then stabbed her with a pair of scissors.
When he was drunk, he took the woman and told her he'd make a second Jesus out of her, a female one, then he nailed her to the door frame. Then he tripped and fell and didn't manage to stand up again. The children pulled the nail out of their mother's hand.
It all started after the birth of the 11-year-old girl, when the man started drinking.
In the village, where they used to live together, everyone knew what was going on but they all support the man because he is one of them, whereas his wife is from another village. Nobody said or did anything.
Furthermore the man's brother is a higher-ranked policeman, who just tears up all the reports the woman makes...
We have encountered several bad things there but the worst thing is that the police refuse to do anything about the situation. They don't arrest the brutal husbands / fathers; in fact they are actually on their side. Not only are the women and children humiliated by the abuse and violence of their husbands and fathers; they are also humiliated by the ignorance of the police.
Rodyna still has financial problems because the city of Ternopil hardly supports them. Similar institutions in other cities do not know these kinds of problems.
According to the leader of the centre, they get 7 Hrivna (= 1€ = 70p = 1.38 USD) per person and day for food (breakfast, lunch and dinner). Other institutions get 20 - 30 Hrivna.
_________________________________________________
An Odyssee...
In September, a woman (43) came to Rodyna with 10 of her 11 children (aged between 2 and 18, the oldest daughter is married); two of them are girls (11, 15). The woman and her children have been abused by her husband for years until she took her children in September and fled from her village in the province of Ternopil. They had been walking for 2 days (they slept in a forest) until they reached the city, where they were rejected by several institutions. Finally, they came to Rodyna, where they have been living until now.
According to Ukrainian law, the city of Ternopil has to provide flats for families with many children but this family was refused one of these flats. The reason they were given was that the public authorities assumed that the woman only gave birth to so many children in order not to pay for her flat. She even went to Kiev twice to talk to the president, who supported her and ordered the city government of Ternopil to give her a flat but nothing has happened so far.
Furthermore, she visited Yuliya Timoshenko. Yuliya said, she wasn't responsible for such matters and therefore couldn't help her. So much for the helping angel she always wants to represent.
But she paid for expensive hotel rooms, food in the best restaurants in Kiev, 2 cars with chauffeurs and bodyguards as well as for a tour through the city for the whole family. For this money, she could have bought a house in a village for the woman and her children.
The city government of Ternopil had another solution to the problem though: they took the children away from their mother and put them into an orphanage so the woman is alone and they don't have to pay for her flat.
The leader of Rodyna then published articles in several newspapers that addressed the family's problems. Amongst other people, a woman from a differnet province, about 300 km from Ternopil, responded that there was a house with a garden in a village and offered the family to pay 2.000 € (= 1.440 GBP = 2.870 USD) of the 2.800 that it cost. Of course, this is the best solution because the family will be far away from their plaguer. The house is now being renovated, the villagers give as much as they can and help them. If everything works out the way it's planned, the family can move in in February or mid March.
_____________________________________________________
The history of the family...
Most of the children couldn't talk properly when they came to Rodyna. They had been intimidated by their father that they didn't talk out of fear. A speech therapist is now working with them and they are making a lot of progress.
The woman is also much better now. She had been beaten black and blue and she had cuts everywhere when she came to Rodyna. He didn't just beat her on his own, but also asked his friends to assist him. They held her when he hit her and in return, they were allowed to rape her. The children were also hit and cut with knives and scissors.
The youngest son (2), who was healthy at his birth, has suffered facial palsy caused by the abuse of his own father.
The man also tortured the children in other ways. He told them to stand in a line, took a knife and disembowelled their dog. Then he told them he would do the same to them, if they didn't do what he said.
Once, when the 11-year-old girl wanted to help one of her little brothers, when their father was beating him (because the boy had been resting on a settee), the man grabbed her by her hair, threw her - face first - against a wall, cut her hair into the shape of a cross and then stabbed her with a pair of scissors.
When he was drunk, he took the woman and told her he'd make a second Jesus out of her, a female one, then he nailed her to the door frame. Then he tripped and fell and didn't manage to stand up again. The children pulled the nail out of their mother's hand.
It all started after the birth of the 11-year-old girl, when the man started drinking.
In the village, where they used to live together, everyone knew what was going on but they all support the man because he is one of them, whereas his wife is from another village. Nobody said or did anything.
Furthermore the man's brother is a higher-ranked policeman, who just tears up all the reports the woman makes...
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