Why special needs children need really special families
All over Russia, residential homes are filled with thousands of orphaned and abandoned children with mental and physical disabilities. Many are in remote regions far from proper health care facilities or where there are few qualified medical staff.
All too often the children are unwanted meaning many display challenging behaviour, which is why doctors, nurses and volunteers from a charity called ‘Road of Life’ visit regional homes. They take kids who can’t be treated locally to doctors in Moscow and try to find them new homes and families.
On one trip they meet shy teenager, Sasha who's hearing-impaired, and cheeky nine-year-old, Yulia, who has an orthopaedic condition. The two travel to Moscow with the team for treatment and to find new 'forever' families.
My Forever Family is a story of the children who just want to be loved and accepted, it's also about the grown-ups who want to help but sometimes struggle with the demands of a sick child. Fund coordinators and doctors reveal the challenges of nursing children's physical, and emotional, scars, while prospective parents candidly discuss their fears and sometimes confidence when it comes to taking on a child with a painful past.