Quick Run Down

Here's a quick run down of what is currently happening in our ministry:

We are currently working with approximately 90 children......

Day Center: Works with street children and At-Risk families.....

Medical Center: Works with street children or poor or At-Risk families.....

Rehabilitation Center: Approximately 25 children live in the center......

Independent Living Centers: for older girls and currently working on one for the boys

Sports Center: Being remodeled not open yet.....

Rehabilitation Center in Cherkassy, Ukraine, approximately 25 children live there....

Administrate and run government NGO Rehabiliation Center in Kyiv where approximately 25 children live.........

We are very busy!

Full House

I was at The City Of Happy Children Rehabilitation Center today and it was two year old chaos in the recreation area. Ten two year olds were supposed to be in the room but some of the older kids or the three year olds kept sneaking in the area to play and watch a little TV. Shoes fly off in every direction and as soon as any friendly face shows up there is a mass movement towards the person for a hug or to just crawl all over them to make them feel real welcome.

With some of the older children moving into the foster families, the newer children who have arrived at the Center have been around two or three years of age. This makes for a lot of happy and sometimes loud and screaming chaos!

Right now, this center if officially filled to capacity with 20 children living in it. Our other center is filled with 24 children. Unfortunately we have had to turn away children because there is no more room.

About 40 percent of these children are coming from what we call, "At Risk" homes and have not actually lived on the street. These days there are less and less children who are living on the street and there is more social work to be done with families with various problems which could cause them to loose custody of their children. The focus is to to catch the children before they leave home or end up on the street.

Ukraine Adoption Blogroll

Since I have a few blogs on the topic of adopting in Ukraine linking to my blog, I thought I would create a special blogroll for them on this blog.

If you have a blog about adopting in Ukraine, you can send me the address to my email and I will add you.....mmkukraine@yahoo.com.

Foster Families

I found out this week that two of our older girls (about 10 or 11 years old) have left the Center and have been placed in foster families. My gut churned inside even though I was happy to hear the news. I can't write what I felt exactly, but let's just call it hard core mixed emotions. I then found out that another girl and boy are also going to be leaving soon to live in families. This girl came up to me when she saw me, gave me a hug and said, "I'm going to have a family soon!" For these children, most of whom admit they dream of nothing else than to have their families brought back together, this is their wildest dream come true.

Our ministry is pushing the envelope in Kyiv and working to find couples who are willing to become foster families for our children. This is challenging as daily life in Ukraine is, in a word, challenging. Unless they belong to the upper echlon of the rich, most couples or families are struggling to make ends meet just so they can provide the basic needs for themselves. Ukraine has had a history of homeless or orphaned children being the responsibility of the state and institutionalized so the concept of fostering children is a new idea. Society's demands makes it that much more difficult to find people who can or want to be foster parents.

To know that four children are moving on is a little sad because I am used to seeing their smiling faces come flying at me for a hug every time I visit the Center, but it is also encouraging to know that with education and hard work, foster families could become an even more popular and viable alternative for these children instead of living in a Rehabilitation Center.

New Beginnings

September is traditionally the start of the school year for children and a time of new beginnings: new teachers, new friends, new clothes and my favorite, new school supplies!

It is the same for the children we minister to at our centers as with children elsewhere in the world. But for our children, some are going to be attending regular school for the first time in their lives.

Street children do not receive an education during the time they live on the street. Some have had some time in school but this varies greatly depending on their circumstances. The majority are way behind children their own ages in regards to formal education. Some of these children cannot read or write or do simple math.

Our centers have a school room and tutors. Each child is tutored so that they will eventually be able to enroll in regular school.

Being able to go to a regular school with the other kids is a BIG deal!

Watermelon Season

Sometimes..........

Waiting is hard work!