A criminal investigation into some of Belarus’ major orphanages, including those in the capital, Minsk, is underway after almost 100 children and young adults were found extremely malnourished and on the brink of starvation.
Orphanage directors have been fired in the wake of the discoveries, which included teenagers who weighed as little as 15-kilograms and one 20-year-old who weighed just 11.5-kilograms, The Guardian reports.
Prosecutors argue the children are victims of neglect, but those working in the orphanages have blamed the children.
“The reason why they do not put on weight lies not in the malnutrition but in their psyche,” orphanage director Vyacheslav Klimovich said. “There is no accessibility as there is no brain there. They have absolutely different processes.”
“These children are brought to us to stay the rest of their lives,” a deputy director, Marina Fedorenchik, said. “The majority of them were given up for adoption at birth. All of them have sufficient congenital mental disability coupled with the nasty form of cerebral palsy or other congenital pathologies.”
Another director blamed a lack of funding for the special food needed for such cases.
“These children have never walked. They are constantly in bed. They don’t have muscles,” Ella Borisova, director of the Cherven orphanage, said. “Their legs are toothpicks covered with skin.”
According to The Guardian’s report, when orphanages provided high-nutrition food to the children, their condition improved. But, they say, such food is difficult (and expensive) to access, made possible only after the children are examined by a paediatrician and granted public funding.
A paediatrician at a Minsk orphanage, Alexy Momotov, told The Guardian of his struggle to raise funds for better food via Facebook. “We tried to organise a festival but nobody came.”