KYIV, November 10, 2011 (UBO) – About 25% of Ukrainian families are ready to adopt orphans, the Ukrainian president's children's rights commissioner, Yuriy Pavlenko, has said at a round table discussion, entitled “Why are Ukrainians afraid of adopting children?”

At the same time, he said that most Ukrainians want to adopt children under the age of five, while the database of children awaiting adoption mostly includes children above the age of five. In particular, Pavlenko said that 1,500 Ukrainian families awaited the right to adopt children under the age of three. “We must overcome the fear of adopting older children,” he said.

In addition, the presidential commissioner for children's rights said that since 2006, the number of Ukrainians adopting children was twice higher than that of foreigners. He also noted that other forms of family have actively developed over the past five years.