Ukraine orphans and TB

If you came in through the front door you saw the note posted on the top of the page, dated July 30, 2007.

I had just returned home from a rare, wonderful and all too short visit with Anne Bates Linden, author and tireless (it seems) volunteer helping the orphans in Ukraine. She talked about a specific situation, six orphaned children who have TB in a specific orphanage that she works hard to help. Anne was trying to think of some way she could help these six children get badly needed treatment that they are being denied. Remember, Anne is a boots on the ground hands on volunteer.

Upon returning from the rather long drive I did some web searching about the subject in general and there were general things – governments generally spending money, writing reports and saying that in Eastern Ukraine the situation is generally bad.

These six orphans are in Western Ukraine and are not just general children with some faceless person trying to come up with something. Anne Bates Linden is real, the six orphans she talked about are real, their need is real and there is really nothing apparently that the apparatus in Ukraine can do for them.

I am asking for very real people to contact Anne and find out how best to help. Reread the opening post and follow the thread right to Anne. You will find a remarkable person there.

David

How not to join the Peace Corps

 

Ever since Alice Brew shared with us her Peace Corps experience it’s been on my mind to share my personal experience, but it’s better called, “How not to join the Peace Corps”.

 

I was leaving the University (before being thrown out) and I thought I should join the Peace Corps, it’s something I’ve considered for some time now. But you know what, Vietnam was starting to heat up – not real hot yet but getting there and I was drafted.

 

I’ll show them I said so I just went down and volunteered. Strange thought pattern but I was sent to Germany where I had a nice two and a half years of not being shot at and I practiced German. After release from active duty I went back to the University on a VA program and passed German 4^th semester with an A. No big deal you say. Big deal I say. I had flunked German as many times as I had passed which means I had flunked German 1 and 2 and 3, retaking each in turn and passing.

 

After graduation I thought, now is the time to join the Peace Corps, but nope – I wanted to go to work first and make a bunch of money. So I went to work, didn’t make a bunch of money but retired from a regular work schedule at 63. Now I should join the Peace Corps I said, but nope – I have children and then grandchildren, I best stay put.

 

This year at age 68 I actually started filling out a Peace Corps application, but nope – I have high blood pressure which needs all these pills kindly supplied by the VA. They tell me there is one pill in particular if I miss the twice a day routine for two or three days I have a real good chance of dieing of a serious stroke. So I decided to stay put and not apply for Ukraine.

 

This is the way not to join the Peace Corps and not to go to Ukraine. If you were ever to apply when would be the best time?

 

David

Peace Corps: Service in Ukraine

Alice Brew’s nice commentary about her Peace Corps service in Ukraine made me think that we must follow up. Obviously Alice didn’t go as a “younger generation” right out of school, but please allow me to introduce you to two women who did serve as part of the “younger generation”. They were there recently, in or about the time Alice was there.

Here are some links, which will also appear in Ukraine Links page under a new section, “Peace Corps”. That’s so original it makes me smile. Anyway, do visit the two journals these young women have posted. They are enlightening, educational, and entertaining.

Two Years in Ukraine. Life as a PCV

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/goska1/ukraine/1046935440/tpod.html

and

Liz’s Peace Corps Service in Ukraine

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/peacecorpsliz/ukraine-2004/tpod.html

For more great journals go to www.peacecorpsjournals.com

Now, before reading these great journals why not go to the home page and look up both Alice Brew and Anne Linden and go ahead an order a book from each. Easy to do – we put you in touch with the authors/volunteers.

Anne is a pioneer who helped make things easier for those who followed her. Just after Ukraine declared its independence (August 24, 1991) Anne went as a “mature generation” Peace Corps volunteer. The President of the US wanted to quickly put boots on the ground to establish a presence in Ukraine. The President of Ukraine agreed. The Peace Corps scrambled to put together an organization, establish some kind of training in Ukraine and recruit volunteers. Anne raised her hand.

It turned out that neither Ukraine nor the US was prepared to send in this first wave but in they went. Anne’s book is an intriguing account of those days. Both Alice’s book and Anne’s book should be in your library and loaned around.

If you have ever thought about service in the Peace Corps when do you think would be the best time to apply? When would be the best time to buy a book?

All the best, David

P.S. I’m now going to work on the Links page and put in that section. Give me a few. 

From Alice Brew, about her Peace Corps days in Ukraine

On my 65th birthday in March of 2003, I celebrated by entering the Peace Corps on a mission to Ukraine. I undertook the learning of Russian for 3 months in Borispol where the international airport is for Kyiv. I am fluent in German, and had lots of trouble with the 3 languages of Russian, English and German getting mixed up. I caused a great deal of laughter with my Russian for the next two years, as I bought tickets and food, and made my way around Ukraine. I truly think a Peace Corps volunteer is an ambassador.

I met many people who had never met an American, and whatever was I doing there without my family? How could my grandchildren manage if I was not at home? Was this gray haired lady crazy? I could tell people about America and laugh and joke and drink (vodka) and they could see we were not so different after all, no matter what the Soviets had been saying all those years. I was just a human being there trying to share my business skills, teaching ideas, and my friendship. I think I managed on all fronts.

I worked for two years at a small center for severely mentally challenged children in Vinnytsia in central Ukraine. I got a grant and we got touch screen computers and suddenly these kids could learn colors, letters, reading, and all sorts of skills no one knew they could. I taught them art each week and we had fun.

We spoke Ukrainian, Russian and English and artspeak. We all understood each other. Out of this art teaching was born my book. I wanted everyone to see what can be done with children and art. And I wanted people to buy this book and support my Center Nadiya (Hope) in Ukraine, where all the monies from its sale go.

Alice

Ukraine on a happier sound

I just made a good investment in learning! If you have some curiosity about the Ukrainian language, and know very little like I, may I suggest:

Go to www.bestofukraine.com and download their very inexpensive introductory language lessons - two in Ukrainian and two in Russian. I downloaded part two of the Ukrainian language and find it to be delightful. It is clear, spoken in a female voice which is best for learning language, and contains plenty of words to start a novice. For all non-Ukrainian speakers who are thinking about a trip to Ukraine do consider the offer. The Ukrainian language is known as the nightingale language for good reason.

Most pleasant is that Best of Ukraine donates 10% of the proceeds to Children with Cancer, a Ukrainian cause we certainly support. Hopefully we will be hearing more from Best of Ukraine in the near future. Meanwhile, be assured that I have downloaded the program to my computer within the past hour, have listened to it and shall return many times.

David Cottrell

Two kill themselves at Ukraine orphanage

July 12, 2007 02:25 PM from www.iol.co.za Kiev - Two Ukrainian teenagers at a state-run orphanage have killed themselves, while two others have attempted suicide, the Interfax news agency reported on Thursday. All were permanent residents at Orphanage Number Two in Ukraine's eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, said Viktor Sychenko, an Education Ministry official. Both the attempted and successful suicides took place over a single week, Sychenko said. The first death came on May 22, when an orphan aged 19 hanged herself while visiting relatives. A 17-year-old girl attempted to kill herself two days later near an exterior wall of the orphanage, by cutting open veins in her wrists. A medical team responding to the emergency saved her life. On the following day, May 25, a 17-year-old boy committed suicide by hanging himself from one of the orphanage walls. The last incident came on May 27, when another 17-year-old boy threw himself from a fifth story window at the orphanage, surviving the fall but suffering severe head injuries. He was listed at the orphanage hospital in critical condition. The girl was expected to make a full recovery from the slashes in her wrists. Information about the suicides and suicide attempts was late in coming to the attention of government authorities, Synchenko said, because the Orphanage Number Two director attempted "to conceal systematically" news of the incidents. A government commission was investigating to determine the cause of the suicides and suicide attempts, and if necessary criminal charges against orphanage staff would be filed, he said. Synchenko declined to speculate on possible reasons for the suicides. State psychologists held discussions with other children living at the orphanage, and currently all the orphans have been sent to summer vacation camps. Ukraine's orphanages are almost without exception poorly funded and understaffed. - Sapa-dpa

Please don't drop out!

Viktor ludorum
Jul 5th 2007 | DONETSK, KIEV AND LVOV
From The Economist print edition

"The election in September is necessary but may not be sufficient to clear up Ukraine's messy politics

" 'SORRY we are closed: everybody has gone to the barricades,' read the note pinned to the door of a travel agency in Lvov, western Ukraine, in November 2004. Irina Mala, the manager and part-owner, remembers how she gathered warm clothes for her husband and sent him off to Kiev, 'not knowing whether he would ever come back'. For several days she clung to the television news, watching people like her husband make history in Kiev's Independence Square. 'For the first time in my life, I felt proud for Ukraine.' 

"The euphoria of the "orange revolution" is long gone. In the past six months, Ms Mala has not even watched the news or read newspapers. The power struggle that ensued when Viktor Yushchenko won the presidency in December 2004 after weeks of popular protests made her first angry, then disappointed and now indifferent. Ms Mala may not even vote in the general election on September 30th. 'We can't explain to our children what is going on,' she says. The charges and counter-charges are mind-boggling, the nexus between business and politics that Mr Yushchenko pledged to break as strong as ever and the switching of political sides is like a comic opera, not a revolutionary drama."

The above was excerpted from the article sent to us by Orest.Deychak,  through the Ohio UZO News.

The feeling expressed by Ms. Mala is understandable and I am afraid is part of a wide spread opinion in Ukraine. I would urge from afar, as a friend of Ukraine, not to allow the basic spirit of the Orange Revolution die. A fifteen year old exchange student to the United States in 2005-2006 explained the Orange Revolution to us as, "It was when the people stood up for their rights."

After centuries of not being to publically stand up without fear, the Orange Revolution is one of the defining concepts that today draws Ukrainians together in their own free and independent state. I plead with my friends not to abandon this concept. Your Vote is important in maintaining this important shared core ideal for Ukraine.
 
David Cottrell
                                                        

Worth Repeating from 2002
Vera’s Letter to Steve

From Vera, 14 yrs old, who has lived in a boarding school for many years:

“I have a very nice summer, and I want to tell you thanks. My dream: I want to have a family, mother, father and other. In end of my dear boarding school, I want to be an actor. When I old, maybe I have money and come to America & see you. When we have a New Year in my school, we have nothing. I love New Year and Christmas; this is my best days in winter. I don’t have this: pens, shampoo, cream, clothes, boots, but I have very good friend, this is you Steve.

“I have 2 brothers and 1 sister, but they don’t love me. My (older) sister said; I have my own family, my own child, you not my sister, I don’t love you, I don’t want to have you. My 2 brothers also don’t love me too. My Mother, Father, Grandmother and Grandfather are dead. I live in this world alone”.

No Vera, you don’t live in this world alone. We care about you and want to help you! We sincerely hope that our programs are in place by the time Vera is told to leave the boarding school. We hope to give Vera a decent chance for the future.

May everyone have a wonderful holiday season and please give some thought to our plea for help. Yes, we are small and new, but sometimes good things come in small packages. Our desire to help “our” orphans is strong and sincere.

Please help us help these wonderful children.

Ukrainian Orphaned Children’s Fund of Philadelphia
614 Treaty Road
Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462

Ukrainian Orphaned Children’s Fund of Philadelphia
614 Treaty Road
Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462

Yes, here is Hope!

Mr. Albert Pavlov has kindly responded to a request that he and others with Orphanages of Zaporozhye, Ukraine, contribute as they can to this blog. He is a very busy man, please meet him at www.deti.zp.ua under their volunteers’ tab.

Ukraine Orphans does thank him – you can find a link to them in the Links to Ukraine page also. We thank him for his kindness and encourage everyone to hook up with Orphanages of Zaporozhye.

From        Albert Pavlov
Date         2007/07/09 Monday AM 3:21:05 CDT

To             David Cottrell

Subject    Re: Ukraine orphans

• Ukraine sees reduction of orphans adoption
  
• Single foreigner to be able to adopt Ukrainian orphans?
   

 

My own opinion:

About 900 orphans remain in the orphanage due to reduction of foreign adoption. National adoption increased a little. So people in government, who made such changes in the state child's policy.

About 900 orphans remain in the orphanage due to reduction of foreign adoption. National adoption increased a little. So people in government, who made such changes in the state child's policy made harm to children. I understand that in Ukraine, family adopted child can feel himself more comfortable due to language conditions, but to make barriers to foreigners who want to adopt is madness.

About 900 orphans remain in the orphanage due to reduction of foreign adoption. National adoption increased a little. So people in government, who made such changes in the state child's policy made harm to children. I understand that in Ukraine, family adopted child can feel himself more comfortable due to language conditions, but to make barriers to foreigners who want to adopt is madness.

Personal Pages of Orphans

The goal of creating these pages - not adoption ( we are can't be a
middle-men in adoption according to Ukrainian law), but just find friends
for these children.

Have these sick children hope to live in family?

From Heart To Heart - 3:  trip to rural Ukrainian orphanages

Albert Pavlov
Coordinator of www.deti.zp.ua

You are invited!

Our community here at Ukraine Orphans is dedicated to the promotion of books and information that will benefit orphans in Ukraine. Have you written a book to help Ukraine orphans? If so, send it our way. We'd love to include you.

What does inclusion in Ukraine Orphans mean for you?

• Promotion of your book to help Ukraine orphans


• Information about your personal charity or organization featured on site


• The opportunity to be a part of a community of like-minded, talented individuals

Our authors and participants have come together from the US and Ukraine, but it's possible to work together despite the distance. Join us!

After the orphanage, then what? Not  much hope.

After posting the report about Ukrainian Street Children, July 6, 2007, I knew important facts and ideas were missing and then I remembered Steven Vetterlein’s excellent report at his website www.uocpf.org. This portion was “borrowed” without permission, however I urge everyone to visit Steve’s site and read his complete report, and I do hope for Steve’s understanding. David Cottrell

“Consequences of Institutionalization

Children experts share the following catastrophic estimations as to orphanage graduates after they leave their institutions:

                                                

60% join some form of crime structures and wind up in prisons

30% become homeless bums usually getting their food from garbage yards and through begging (some connected with crime)

50% of female graduates practice prostitution as a main or supplementary method of earning a living

20% commit suicides

10% become relatively functional adults

76% of children are afraid to leave their orphanages due to fear of what will happen to them after graduation.”

“Foster Care (new) in Ukraine

Un-like America or many other western countries, the foster care system is a new and growing experiment in Ukraine. Far from enough, 1,200 orphans live in 130 family type homes (FTHs) formed in all 24 oblasts of Ukraine, autonomous republic of Crimea and city of Sevastopol; 325 children are raised in 115 foster families (FFs). 11 FTHs and 50 FFs were created in Ukraine in 2004.

Despite the declared priority to raise orphans in family settings, the number of children raised in orphanages enhances: during 2001 – 2004 their number has risen by 10%. On the national scale, 10,400 children were accepted to institutions of all types in 2004 alone.”

“Adoptions

As of July 1, 2005 - - 14,535 children were adopted by foreigners since 1997 (of who 5,611 orphans adopted by U.S. citizens). 3,573 children in total were adopted in 2004, out of which 2,081 were adopted by foreigners and 1,492 by Ukrainians.”

“This report was compiled and written by Steven A.Vetterlein, Executive Director of the UOCFP. Much factual information used in this report courtesy of an Assessment written by Konstantin I. Yakubenko, M.A., with statistical information provided by The Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine.”

Please go to www.uocfp.org and contact Steven Vetterlein  to read the entirety of his excellent report but first please visit Steve Vetterlein’s Pages here at ukraineorphans.net.

Thank you, David Cottrell

Ukraine’s Street Children July 6, 2007 a tragic and lingering legacy.

August 24,1991 Ukraine declared itself independent from a morally and financially bankrupt communist empire.

The street children of Ukraine are one of the tragic and lingering legacies. Despite good faith efforts of a handful of secular and nonsecular individuals and organizations the need is immense, as though they were trying to empty the Dnieper River with a tea cup. The flow continues on and on.

It has not been enjoyable to compile this report.

Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Ukraine, U.N. Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.42 (1995).

COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

Tenth session

“C. Factors and difficulties impeding the implementation of the Convention

7. The Committee notes the difficulties facing Ukraine in the present period of political transition and in a climate of social change and deep economic crisis. The Committee also notes the problems relating to the transition economy and that the situation of many children has worsened as a consequence of growing poverty and increasing unemployment.

The Committee recognizes that the State party is experiencing major difficulties in countering the negative consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster, in particular on the environment and on the physical and psychological health of the population, including children.

D. Principal subjects of concern

14. The Committee regrets that appropriate measures have not yet been taken to effectively prevent and combat ill-treatment of children in schools or in institutions where children may be placed.

The Committee is also preoccupied by the existence on a large scale of child abuse and violence within the family and the insufficient protection afforded by the existing legislation and services in that regard. The problem of sexual exploitation of children also requires special attention.”

Constitution of Ukraine

Adopted at the Fifth Session
of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
on 28 June 1996

“Article 52

• Children are equal in their rights regardless of their origin and whether they are born in or out of wedlock.
• Any violence against a child, or his or her exploitation, shall be prosecuted by law.
• The maintenance and upbringing of orphans and children deprived of parental care is entrusted to the State. The State encourages and supports charitable activity in regard to children.”

UKRAINE: KYIV'S STREET CHILDREN FIND GUARDIAN ANGELS

Kyiv, 21 April 1998 (RFE/RL) --

By Lily Hyde

"Yura's teenage benefactors cannot get used to leaving Ukraine's street

children to that fate. Since January, the group has trudged out each

week to offer drug-addled and abandoned youngsters a sympathetic ear

and some hot food. ‘I like children, and I can't stand seeing them

feeling bad," says volunteer Andrei Tvardievich.’ ”

“On a weekly sortie into a rundown Kyiv suburb, a small group of teenagers lugs bags of bread and bouillon cubes to a street corner, where some younger children stand waiting.

The contrast between the two groups is stark. The first is clean,

well-dressed and smiling. The second is dusty, rumpled and ill-clad in

oversized sweaters that don't keep out the chilly Spring air.

The older group has come from schools, homes and youth clubs around

Kyiv on a charitable mission that has evolved into regularly scheduled

meetings with the younger kids, who have clambered out from under a

railway platform.

‘I'm already tired of bouillon,’ sighs seven-year-old Yura, lowering

his grubby face to a steaming cup nevertheless. The orphan has been

living beneath the station platform in Svyatoshino district for three

years, he says. ‘If you're used to it, it's OK on the streets,’ he

says. ‘But getting used to it is hard’ "

Odessa Charity Fund, The Way Home

All rights reserved © 2002 The Way Home, Odessa, Ukraine
...Designed by Vadim Fyodorov

What We Are Doing?

"In the year of 2000 we set up a Day Stay Center for street children and teenagers in the day-time. Little customers of the Center can get not only first medical aid, clean clothes and hot meal here but also play, draw, watch TV, and do many other things.

Nearly 20 children and teenagers of 10 to 18 address the Center every day. They go through a complex period of formation of their personality and need special attention and approach. Then the rehabilitation of children and teenagers in their critical state involves two aspects: social rehabilitation and medico-psychological rehabilitation.”

US Department of State

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices  2005

Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
March 8, 2006

“The number of homeless children, usually children who fled poorly maintained orphanages or poor domestic conditions, remained high. Estimates of the number of homeless children varied widely.

The vice premier for humanitarian and social affairs told the press on April 21 that there were approximately 150 thousand homeless children in the country, but the State Service for Minors reported on July 11 that there were only 30 thousand.

In June the respected independent national newspaper Ukraina Moloda quoted experts as putting the number at 129 thousand.”

Help for Ukraine's street kids, from two US women

April 8, 2002

By Arie Farnam | Special to The Christian Science Monitor

" ‘It won't be easy,’ she says. ‘Most Ukrainians don't want to see or can't see these children around their own problems, but there are exceptions.’

One such exception is Stella Petrushenko, a social worker at the Kiev department of social affairs. Two years ago, after homeless children began approaching her on the street asking for help, she noted that her district had no program to deal with them. She told this to her superior and was fired.

Helping, a sandwich at a time

Undaunted, Ms. Petrushenko began taking sandwiches and old clothes to the children in her neighborhood on her own, while living on $24 per month from another job. ‘My friends tell me this is a lost cause, but I can't simply do nothing,’ she says. ‘If we don't do something about it now, we will pay for abandoning this generation sooner or later, when they grow up to be angry.’ "

In conclusion, who is to blame?  - everybody and therefore nobody, but not Ms. Petrushenko and a very few like her.

David Cottrell

To tell you the truth, it’s Friday, April 6, 2007 and I was going to McDonald’s for a Big Mac or something but I’ve kinda lost my appetite.
 

David - other news you may wish to print:

Horizon Capital has agreed to display paintings done by four artists from the Carpathians (three from Kosiv) and one - at my request - will host the foster mother and the two children from the Morshen Orphanage for three or four days sometime this summer. The children are due to leave the orphanage for Chernivtsi either this coming Wednesday or Thursday. I bought a doll for Veronika, probably her first, and will buy paints and brushes for Vasyl. The artist with whom they will stay in Kosiv has promised to give him art lessons.
 
(It's rare for Ukrainians to take orphans into their homes and this foster home is a situation Anne worked hard to help happen. She is justifiably proud of it.)

Other news: the director of Horizon Capital ordered five "Support Green Peace" bags. I had wanted her to see what else I was doing - but when I produced one I had taken to show her she said, "Some time ago I bought five for my staff." Seems I just need to do a better job of promoting them.

(To learn of Anne's interests please go to her website. It's at the very top of the Ukraine Links page - ukraineworks.org)

There's more news - some not great. I fell Thursday and am having trouble with my ankle. Hope to have it x-rayed in Warsaw. Hospitals here are beyond even me.

all for now, anne