«Sick children sweat in their underwear for 5 days»: human rights activist shows conditions of another lyceum in Mykolaiv region

Human rights activist Inna Miroshnychenko has released footage of an inspection of the conditions of the Antonivskyi Art Lyceum in Mykolaiv region. During illness, children are given medication without a prescription, and the clothes they wear are changed every few days.

She wrote about this on her Instagram.

Compared to previous institutions, Antonivskyi Lyceum is clean, the human rights activist says. There is a toilet for people with limited mobility.

Footage posted by human rights activist Inna Miroshnychenko

Footage published by human rights activist Inna Miroshnychenko

However, the children, who number 169 in the institution, share clothes, although there are enough things that come as humanitarian aid. We are talking about underwear and socks.

Children in the lyceum share clothes, and they change them every few days. Photo: Inna Miroshnychenko

Children at the lyceum share clothes and change them every few days. Photo: Inna Miroshnychenko

Children in the lyceum share clothes and change them every few days. Photo: Inna Miroshnychenko

In addition, patients are not treated in the institution because there is no doctor there. The local nurse gives them medicines without a prescription, which can often be expired, writes Inna Miroshnychenko.

The children with scabies are kept in a separate room and are not allowed to go out even during air raid alerts, so as not to endanger other children. And they change their clothes every 5 days.

«This is too cruel. They are getting sick, not serving a sentence. Why 1 and a soft toy? Why alone? There is no one around. No one to hug me and say «everything will be fine». Who will make tea. Read a fairy tale... Alone in a separate building, like prisoners. They are not treated here!!! They are just isolated. Because the school has no right to treat, they don't have a licence,» she wrote.

"There is no one to treat sick children in the institution, and a nurse gives them medicines without a prescription.

There is no one to treat sick children in the institution, and the nurse gives them medicines without a prescription.

The evacuated Centre for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation of Children, including children who were taken away from their parents, is also located on the territory of the lyceum. 26 children cannot get to the shelter during the alarms and are forced to sit in the lyceum's assembly hall. Moreover, the lyceum switches off the heating in some of the premises used by the Centre.

The Centre's children are not taken to the shelter. Children wait in the assembly hall during alarms

«The lyceum switches off the heating without proper justification, which creates unfavourable conditions for the children. The air temperature in some of the rooms where the children were kept was low (10°C-15°C),» the human rights activist added.

In the post, Inna Miroshnychenko noted that the monitoring group expects an immediate response from local authorities, not «just the creation of commissions for additional verification».

Violations of children's rights in special schools in Mykolaiv region

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As it is known, a member of the Ombudsman's Office monitoring group, human rights activist Inna Miroshnychenko shared photos of a public inspection of the Lysohirsk Special School in Mykolaiv region. It should be noted that the institution was one of those inspected by the Ombudsman's Office monitoring group. According to the lawyer, there are currently 156 children in the institution, and 98 staff members are supposed to take care of them.

In addition to the Lysa Hora special school, the monitoring group found violations in a number of institutions. For example, it turned out that children who were evacuated to the Antonivskyi Art Lyceum in Mykolaiv region were not allowed to enter the protective structures, they were forced to stay in the assembly hall, while only students of the institution used the shelters.

It is worth reminding that in December last year, members of the Mykolaiv Regional Council were going to check the situation at the Antonivskyi Art Lyceum in Mykolaiv region (formerly the Antonivska boarding school), but this never happened, and the monitoring group of the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman arrived there from Kyiv earlier.

Scandal in the reorganised baby home in Mykolaiv

On 3 March, it became known that the monitoring group of the Ombudsman's Office, together with NGOs, had inspected children's educational institutions in Mykolaiv region and found gross violations of children's rights. The children were fixed with belts to chairs and strollers, and a six-month-old baby suffered swelling from «binding». In other institutions, children were given expired medicines, did not receive medical care and had limited access to basic services.

On the same day, Inna Miroshnychenko, an orphan rights activist and lawyer who is a member of the Ombudsman's Monitoring Group, showed the conditions in which children live in the reorganised Centre for Medical Rehabilitation and Palliative Care in Mykolaiv (Regional Children's Home). She actually showed the children tied to chairs, who are not allowed to go for walks and are forced to spend time watching TV.

The human rights activist said that according to the conditions, 89 staff members are supposed to take care of the children. However, according to the data from the Ombudsman's Office monitoring team, only two employees were looking after the children. She called the conditions in which the children were kept inhumane.

It should be noted that in April 2024, the Centre for Medical Rehabilitation and Palliative Care was merged with the Mykolaiv Regional Children's Hospital. At the time, this decision was explained by the need to «protect the institution from a lack of funding.

We would also like to remind you that this is not the first scandalous case involving the Mykolaiv Oblast Children's Hospital. Back in July 2023, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the hospital was in poor condition during his visit to Mykolaiv.

In one of the wards, Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that the room was not adapted for a comfortable stay. In particular, the ward lacked curtain rods, curtains, and air conditioning.