On December 14, 2016 in the Hotel “Druzhba” conference hall Change Agency “Perspectives” led a kick-off event under the Project “Creating a new model of family-and-community oriented services for children with special needs”.

This event was attended by head doctors and personnel of Baby homes from different regions of Ukraine, representatives of charitable organizations, Kharkiv Regional State Administration and Kharkiv Regional Council, UNICEF office in Ukraine. Also the seminar was attended by former Minister of Health, Labour and Social Affairs of Georgia – Sandro Urushadze and Honorary Consul of Germany in Kharkiv – Tetyana Gavrysh.

Roman Sheiko, the head of the Kharkiv office of UNICEF in Ukraine, said that the issue of Baby homes’ deinstitutionalization is not recent and familiar not only to Ukrainians. In order to find efficient solution we must consider the needs of children and not leave aside the economic aspects of this problem.

Sandro Urushadze, international expert on reform of Baby homes’ transformation, shared his experience of Georgian Baby homes’ deinstitutionalization. He said: "We must do everything possible to ensure that the child can grow in a family. Only under this condition we can talk about building a healthy society."

This seminar helped to form a common information space for participants and was of great importance to coordinate further steps to create new services for children with special needs.

The Project “Creating a new model of family-and-community oriented services for children with special needs” is supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and is carried out by Change Agency “Perspectives” in partnership with the Ukrainian-German Medical Association and the law firm ILF.