tdhontario.tdh.ca

There was a positive trend in 2011 regarding the upbringing of orphans in family-type orphans or foster families, the Ukrainian president's commissioner for children's rights, Yuriy Pavlenko, has said.

"A total of 1,388 children found their parents in foster families and family-type homes in 2011. Despite the fact that this figure is less than in 2010, the trend in November and December 2011 gives all grounds to make an optimistic forecast that in 2012 local government agencies will fully fulfill their task of ensuring the rights of all orphans and children deprived of parental care regarding their upbringing in foster families," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Monday.

Pavlenko noted that foster families and family-type homes received 197 children in December 2011, which was twice as much as the average monthly figure in 2011.

According to the children's ombudsman, 594 family-type homes were created last year, and as of Jan. 1, 2012, foster families and children's homes brought up 9,905 orphans and children deprived of parental care, or 10% of the total number of orphans and children deprived of parental care.

Pavlenko also noted that foreigners adopted 969 Ukrainian children last year and that 2,108 children were adopted by Ukrainians.