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Ukraine is one of the most economically challenged countries in Eastern Europe, "caught in the transition from a former Soviet country" to a modern democracy (United Nations Children's Fund [UNICEF], 2007). Ukraine is most known for the 1986 Chernobyl disaster that affected more than 6 million people and the 2004 "Orange Revolution" that overturned the results of a rigged national election.
Located at the crossroads of western and eastern Europe, Ukraine's location and sizeСas the second largest country in EuropeСhave made it a target for countries competing for European domination. The Soviet conquest of Ukraine in the 1920s resulted in the death of more than 8 million citizens, and battles during World War II resulted in an additional 8 million deaths.
Following independence in 1991, Ukraine has experienced a demographic crisis. This young country faces serious threats; the annual mortality rate (16 per 1,000) is nearly twice the annual birth rate (8.6 per 1,000). As a report of the United Nations Population Fund noted, health crises, social problems, and economic challenges have contributed to the crisis.
Ukraine's citizens face several additional threats:
- The fastest-growing rate of HIV infection in all of Eastern Europe
- High infant mortality rates
- Epidemic rates for many types of congenital anomalies, including neural tube defects four times the normal range in Northwestern Ukraine (where Chernobyl fallout was greatest; Yuskiv et al., 2004), and for communicable diseases including tuberculosis, parasites, and syphilis (UNICEF, 2006)
- Sharp increases during the 1990s (following Chernobyl) of childhood thyroid cancers, other neoplasms, and diseases of the blood and blood-forming organs
- Increased institutionalization and abandonment of children over the last two decades, due in large part to family poverty, family breakdowns, and young age of child-bearing mothers (UNICEF, 2005)
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