2010 Children
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View Children Available for 2010 Summer Hosting Program
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We’ve returned from Ukraine and are in the process of selecting children for the 2010 hosting season. Thank you for your patience.
2009 Screening Trip:
Strengthening Connections
Three GFA board members traveled to Ukraine and Belarus for 12 days in November 2009: Carole Clark, President of Ukraine Programs, Sue Lesh, Treasurer, and Diane Purvis, Ukraine Special Projects Director.
Their aim was to visit as many of the hosted children as possible, meet the orphanage directors, and establish strong ties with GFA contacts there. They felt that God blessed their trip immensely and are grateful for everyone’s support and prayers.
Kiev:
Seeing and working with Nastya, the head of GFA’s NGO in Kiev was again a wonderful reunion. Lidiya, our interpreter, as well as her family, were great hosts, and treated us to a wonderful dinner with traditional Ukrainian fare.
The Father’s House:
This private Christian orphanage is 45 minutes from Kiev and ministers to street children and children from crisis situations. They have a comprehensive rehabilitation program in which the children are gently prepared mentally, spiritually and physically to be a part of a healthy family. Children live in large foster families when their initial rehabilitation is complete. GFA is excited to be bringing children from the Father’s House this summer. This is the first time children have been hosted in a program such as Global Family Alliance. Most of the children have had negative experiences with alcohol and tobacco, so any American family bringing a child from the Father’s House should agree not use these substances in the home.
For more information on The Father’s House, see www.otchiy-dim.org.
Boyarka Children’s Home:
Three children last summer were hosted from this small state-run orphanage located about 45 minutes from Kiev. The Director, Galina Kosovska, is a wonderful and caring woman. She works with a small budget to feed and clothe the 50 or so children in her charge. A donation from a Sequim church was gratefully accepted and used to buy curtains for the girls’ rooms. Children here reflect her caring leadership, as they are friendly and cheerful.
While visiting the orphanage, the children put on a cultural song and dance show for the Americans. There were also speeches thanking their new friends for coming and for hosting some of the children.
Borzna Children’s Home:
This state-run children’s home is located almost 3 hours north and east of Kiev in the Chernigiv region. Two children from this boarding school came to stay with Northwest families last summer. There are 180 children that live and go to school here. Interestingly, only 40 of those children are actual orphans. The rest are children who come to “boarding school” because either there is no school in their area or their parents are too poor to keep them at home full-time. The director, Nadiya Gregorivna, is a wonderful and caring person, who credits God for giving them outside resources to update the school. She explained that, when she arrived four years before, they only had pit toilets, and the building needed many repairs. They are hoping to upgrade boards in the classrooms with regular chalk boards, and replace windows in the dormitory to keep in the heat better in the winter.
Nadiya was thrilled with all the school supplies that Warm Beach Free Methodist Church collected for them.
Shchors:
This small city is another hour north and east of Borzna, also in the Chernigiv region. Children have been hosted from this city in both 2008 and 2009.
The orphanage houses 150 children. This orphanage is the most challenging one GFA has worked with. Both the physical and emotional conditions are inferior to the other orphanages. GFA leaders have had to be very careful with any dealings here.
Fortunately, GFA has a very strong relationship with the Director of Social Work in the district and have been able to continue to bring children from foster homes.
Chernobyl/Pri’pat:
For years GFA board members have heard Belarussian and Ukrainian citizens tell of the horrors of the Chernobyl nuclear accident and how the event changed their lives. This trip, there was an opportunity to visit the nuclear plant, as well as the abandoned city, Pri’pat. It was an opportunity not to pass by. Diane, Sue and Carole, along with several other Americans spent the day traveling 2-3 hours to the exclusion zone, the nuclear plant and wandering through the abandoned city. For every participant, the tragedy became very real, and gave them a renewed commitment to the people of this area.
