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There are many ways to help children who remain in Ukrainian orphanages and live on the streets. There are many different charities that you can funnel money and volunteer hours into.
The photo to the left is my first picture of my daughter Natasha. I adopted her from Green Forest Orphanage in 2000. She was in a 1970s crib. Yes, the crib is almost 40 years old. The wire bars hurt (my daughter has some strong memories of hurting her head on them) and as an added bonus they are potentially covered lead paint.
I volunteer with a couple of organizations; Life2Orphans (L2O) and orphan’s bright star (OBS). Both of these are American charities so donations are tax deductible. And both focus on aiding specific orphanages.
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I am the Green Forest Orphanage (GFO) coordinator for Life2Orphans. As a coordinator I do fund raising. And I exchange information with anyone who is interested in helping GFO.
I am just a bit behind on my tasks. I have about 100 pounds of donations that I need to get shipped off. I send donations via a container ship out of Portland, Oregon. The shipping rate is very reasonable. I also send cash to Ukraine for different projects.
GFO is a specialized orphanage that houses about 96 children. Many children have health issues like AIDs, rickets, crossed eyes, cerebral palsy, cleft palate and limb issues (missing or deformed). And sometimes they are medically fragile and die.
Over all conditions for GFO have greatly improved since I adopted my daughter in 2000. L2O fixed some plumbing. Les Amis de Svieta (charity is Swiss, French, American and sometimes called Friends of Svieta) improved the quality of the water supply. They replaced 75 of the metal cribs with modern cribs. A local Ukrainian charity purchased additional furniture for storage.
Starting in 2005 around 100 boxes of direct donations were sent to GFO via Life2Orphans. This is about 2,288 pounds of stuff. They received office supplies, art supplies, bicycles, socks, shoes, toys, tea kettles, blankets, toothbrushes, shampoo, toothpaste, underwear, shirts, pants, skirts, diapers and strollers. My special project recently completed. The AIDs babies’ veranda has been repaired.
And last quarter about $500 was sent to GFO to purchase food. Life2Orphans has a discount at the Ukrainian Nestle Food Factory. The orphanage dirctors can decide what types of foods they want; formula, juice or cereal. The GFO director prefers to purchase the juices and cereals.
August 2007 nurses from a Shiner’s hospital travel to Ukraine. They will teach GFO workers how to care for special needs children. We are talking about basic items like feeding, bathing and playing with the children. To understand why read Physical Therapist’s trip to Karkiv Rybalko Ukraine Orphanage. So many workers in Ukrainian orphanages don’t understand how important touching a child is. And some caregivers think a child with issues (cerebral palsy for example) should be allowed to rest. They don’t realize the child needs to be stimulated.
orphan’s bright star has focused on fund raising money for the Svalyava baby orphanage. They want to replace windows. They have volunteers lined up to do the work in Ukraine in August 2007. (If you are interested in traveling to Ukraine and working contact Mindi. They may still have some open volunteer slots.) To fix all the window and insulation they need $11,430. I know the web site isn’t updated. But just this week they successfully raised all the money.
In the sick room of this baby orphanage, the windows and doors are rotten and broken. Throughout the rest of the orphanage, windows are “insulated” by shoving cotton into the gaping holes surrounding the frame, many have broken glass and are encased in rotten wood.
I have mainly volunteered to buy stuff. I bought a dress from orphan’s bright star via ebay. I purchased my Christmas cards from them in 2006. And occasionally I send cash donations.