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Music and Art at the Ukrainian Institute of America
Posted by New Yorker on September 20, 2005 at 12:13:18:
In Reply to: low birth rate posted by Mother Teresa's Lawyer on September 20, 2005 at 02:46:15:
I happened to have had the pleasure of hearing your president speak at a fundraiser here the other day and he clearly said that mothers were getting financial help, not fungible equivalents. Prominent americans were present so I doubt he was lying.
perhaps your experiences are true and the policy is different and not executed in the tatar south.
: Ukraine has a pretty high infant mortality rate, I remember reading the figure somewhere on the web, but it's just a statistic, and doesn't covey the real meaning of what it's like to lose even one child. The hospitals here are in a shambles, the ones in cities better than more rural oblasts, which are an absolute nightmare, no wonder lots of people die there. I would like to commend the American volunteers and donors who put in place the only CAT scan in Crimea and even took the time and trouble to train the staff. People in the West who get involved here especially in medicine have made a HUGE difference here, but there's a long, long, way to go. A low birth rate is also caused by the poor economy here, most young people of child bearing age here are barely surviving on their own, and it'd be hard to support children as well. The government had issued a stipend for people to promote their having children, but then changed their mind and instead of cash give some old clothes and baby formula.