A disabled girl has been banned from a local daycare in her hometown, due to her deformed appearance.
2-year-old Sofya Zakharova suffers from an unknown disability that has caused her skull to be wider, and some of her fingers and toes to be fused together.
The daycare in her hometown in Russia told her parents that she wouldn’t be allowed to attend because her appearance would “scare” and “distract” the other children.
Daycare staff told Sofya’s mother, Svetlana, “First, you need to arrange an operation so she can go to nursery school like an ordinary child.”
This case is unusual, due to the remote nature of Sofya’s hometown in Bashkortostan, Russia. Her parents have been trying to schedule a surgery for her to help address her bone deformations, but the surgery has been moved back repeatedly.
According to local authorities, they’re investigating the daycare’s decision to turn Sofya away. Head of the Bashkortostan government, Radiy Khabirov, released a statement regarding the family’s unfair predicament.
“It’s already clear that the rights of the child and parents are violated, and there will now be an appropriate legal assessment.”
A local educational psychologist, Ekaterina Belan, told a Russian news source, “The sooner she gets the experience of interactions, the easier it will be for her to cope with the conditions in which she lives and grows.” Belan went on, “The more interactions she gets, the easier it will be for her to accept herself for who she is.”
At the time of this writing, the local authorities in Bashkortostan are looking into the cause of the numerous delays to Sofya’s surgery, which has already been funded by a local charitable organization. They’re also taking a closer look at the local daycare to see why they denied Sofya’s access.
The Zakharova family currently lives with Sofya’s grandparents in a home with no central heating, no stove and no running water. Local authorities are also looking into rehousing the family in order to help resolve this sad situation. Thankfully, the local charity was able to bring Sofya’s predicament to the attention of the local government.
