Photos of the day

Sly Civilian's post on institutionalization at one of the "better mental institutes" in America had me reading a lot of bad things into some pictures of kids at the Novinki Asylum in Belarus (where lots of kids are not only deemed insane, apparently, but also have physical handicaps thanks to Chernobyl).

However, this picture really brightened my day and gave me hope that, one good worker by one good worker, holding onto patience and love even when the challenges of working with kids who defy all the rules of human behavior that he/she was raised to think of as "right" and "normal" become stressful, things can turn around and people won't have to write posts like Sly's someday.

I thought this was a picture of a kid being restrained until I read the caption.
I don't even know what to say.


Oh, just because I like it, here's one more picture: a worker in a hospital making sure that every kid gets the wonderful feeling of being hugged.

The kid gets the feeling of large arms and a bit of squishy fat (around the arms, on the breasts, etc.) as part of her hug, but you know what? I'll bet that that nurse feels just as much warm fuzziness with skin on bones against her as she does with healthier skin-on-fat-on-bones against her. It's amazing what you can get used to and start to crave that other people find squicky. Maybe I should look into "cuddling volunteering" around here. I've heard that they ask non-professionals to do that with abandoned babies. Don't know about other populations (like 3-year-olds with MS). Hmmmmmmm.

Pictures found on Cecilia Hansson's blog