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"TEREMOK"
DONATION TRIP
December 2002
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The Orphanage
“Teremok” in Kherson is a specialized orphanage for children with psychological and speech
development delays. It is home to around 90 orphans aged 3-7 years
old at any one time. Right now there are 89 children. The building
has been there since 1965, and the orphanage was founded in 1982.
The dedicated staff
of 113 includes educators, teachers, doctors, nurses, caregivers, speech pathologists,
music teachers, operating
personnel: cleaners, cooks, laundresses and others, all dedicated to
giving the children the good start in life that prepare them for
their life ahead .
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ORPHANAGE
NEEDS
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We called the orphanage director Voronina Marina
Vasilyevna to inform her of the donated funds and to discover their
needs. The director explained that they need winter shoes for
children. |
TEREMOK ORPHANAGE SUPPLIES
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We checked with Liberty International and
asked to get winter shoes in the proper sizes. They offered leather
shoes with natural fur of good quality. Here is the list of items.
The currency rate is 5.35 UAH to 1 USD.
| #
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Items
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Pieces
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USD
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Total
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1
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Winter shoes
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15
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15.9
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227.85
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PLANNING
THE HUMANITARIAN TRIP
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The trip was planned
on December 21. Yuri and Nicholai loaded the van and started their
way on December 21, 1 a.m. Kherson is situated about 650 km far from Kiev. The trip was estimated to
take about 7 hours. So, they arrived there in the afternoon, 3:30
p.m.
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KHERSON
"TEREMOK" ORPHANAGE HUMANITARIAN PROJECT
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At 3:30 p.m., December
21, Sunday, Yuri and Nicholai arrived at the orphanage and
were met by the senior nurse, Pavlova Nina Nicholaievna, and the
medical worker, Tamara Vasilyevna. They were very happy to see us,
and they also remembered the boy adopted, their favorite one.
The orphanage staff
was very nice to us and was very grateful for the shoes we brought .
They showed us around the orphanage, let us see the children and told about their
needs. They told that the
average number of adoptions per year is 20 children, however this
year there were only 16 adoptions in their orphanage.
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Children are mostly
adopted by families from Italy, the USA and Spain. This year there were only 2
adoptions by Ukrainian families.
They are very proud
that they hold different celebrations for children, for example,
they have recently celebrated St. Nicola’s Day, and even the local
governor has visited their celebration. Every summer they take
children to the sea and to camps. The orphanage staff also sees to
their cultural education program and takes children to the circus.
There is one more reason to be proud of the orphanage.
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There are 5 groups
of children with psychological development delays and 4 groups with
the speech development delays who can reach the level of normal
psychological and speech development while staying in the orphanage
and having necessary treatment.
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Yuri had chance to talk to Galina Victorovna, the
tutor of David, the child who was adopted. She was very happy to see
the pictures of the boy. She remembered that the he was a very good
singer, and she was very happy that David had gained some weight.
She also let us take pictures of children who were David’s group
mates, and some other group of children. The family who adopted a
boy from that group donated those nice blankets you can see on
the pictures
The orphanage staff told us about their needs. The
daily ration of a child is estimated 4.55 UAH (0.84 USD).They say
that there is no problem with the food supply. The |
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other situation is with the clothes and shoes, so
that’s why they were so grateful for the donation. When I called
the director on Monday to find out about some questions she said
that the shoes we brought are the nicest they ever had. The other
problem is with the equipment: it is very old and some of it is out
of use. They dream to equip the dentist office. They have needs for
laundry and physiotherapy equipment. They also need
new kitchen appliances. The director said that they have no vehicle
at all. They need medicines and
medical equipment such quartz lamps, for example. In winter it’s
very cold in the orphanage, so they need to get boilers and heaters.
However, the orphanage staff is very devoted to the children and
the job they do, though their average salary is quite low: about 200
UAH (about 37 USD). They give their love and care to children and
everyone can see that all children in the orphanage are clean and
well groomed, that makes very positive general impression of the
orphanage.
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KHERSON
BOARDING SCHOOL DONATION TRIP
| The Regional Boarding School in Kherson is home to biological orphans and children whose parents were deprived of
parental rights. It is a specialized boarding school for children with psychological development delays. It
houses
around 330 orphans aged 3-16 years old at any one time. Right now
there are 270 children, and only 15 % of them are biological
orphans, all the others are abandoned children or children whose
parents were either imprisoned or deprived of their parental rights.
The dedicated staff is 163 people, whose average salary is
200 UAH (about 37 USD). It includes 80 educators and 83 operational
staff members. |
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BOARDING
SCHOOL NEEDS
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We called the boarding school director Rudya
Nikolay Grigoryevich to find out if the boy, Papyonov Alexander, was
adopted from their orphanage and to inform him of the donated funds
and to discover their needs. The director assured us that the boy
was
from their orphanage and that he remembers him well. Unfortunately,
later we discovered that the director was mistaken.
When we brought the donation the orphanage teachers said that they
never heard of this boy. However, the director helped to connect and
get the address and phone numbers of the first orphanage
“Teremok” we donated to.
The director explained that they need school desks and chairs. |
GETTING
THE ORPHANAGE SUPPLIES
| We checked with Liberty International in order to get the
desks and chairs. They explained that it would be a custom built
since there are no more factories specializing in school furniture
production in Ukraine. They promised that the desks and chairs would
be of excellent quality.
Here is the list of items. The currency rate is 5.35 UAH to 1
USD.
| # |
Items |
Pieces |
USD |
Total |
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1
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Desks
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3
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120.89
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362.69
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2
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Chairs
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6
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15.48
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92.86
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455.55
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PLANNING
THE HUMANITARIAN TRIP
|
The trip was planned
on December 21. Yuri and Nikolay loaded the van and started their
way on December 21.
Kherson is situated about 650 km from Kiev. The trip was estimated to take 7 hours. So,
they arrived there in the afternoon, 3:30 p.m. First they went to the
orphanage “Teremok” and then on to the boarding school.
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KHERSON
BOARDING SCHOOL HUMANITARIAN PROJECT
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At 4 pm, December 21, Sunday, Yuri and Nicholai arrived to the boarding school and were shown to the Deputy
Director’s office, Alla Konstantinovna Sagaydak, who
welcomed us and were very glad to see us and to get the donation. She explained how important it is to have such
humanitarian projects. The Deputy Director is a very nice and open
person. She told us about the orphanage and of the summer camps in
Italy organized with the purpose of adoption. Every summer 40
children go to Italy. She is very eager and open to such a program
in the US. She is ready to help with the paper work in Ukraine. |
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Deputy
Director Alla Konstantinovna Sagaydak |
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The Deputy Director
told that the adoptions are very rare in their orphanage. This year
there were 3 foreign adoptions in Italy, Spain and the US, and 3
Ukrainian adoptions. She is sure that organizing summer camps in the
US would help much with the adoptions.
The orphanage staff is very proud of their orphanage and children. There
are considerable reasons for this. |
| First of all there are a lot of gifted children in
the orphanage whose hand-made goods are exhibited in Kiev and other
Ukrainian cities. In the orphanage there are 24 hobby groups. The
orphans are fond of sport and amateur art activities. Their concert
program is on the professional level that is the achievement both of
children and their educators. They had performance in Mariinsky
Palace in Kiev, they won the prize in the National Concert Hall
“Ukraine”; they met the President and visited the Supreme
Council. Among all the prizes they won there is the prize “Golden
Fortune” that is considered to be a very coveted one. |
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The other reason to be proud of is that
this orphanage is the only one that has its own sanatorium near the
sea. It’s situated in Skodovsk, so all the staff and children
spend the summer holidays on the seaside. One more thing that makes the orphanage special is
the organization work with their sponsors. Every orphanage group has
its sponsors. They hold the conferences with the other orphanage
directors and their deputies to explain and train them how to work
with the sponsors. The children remember the names and birthdays of
their sponsors, pay them attention and give hand-made presents.
Their sponsors are Bureau of National Security (former KGB),
regional and |
| district authorities, businessmen. Their governor
presented the orphanage computer class: 12 modern PC and Internet
access. The orphanage has special Sponsor’s Day on the last Friday
of November when they invite their sponsors and make the
performance. The sponsors return their love and care.
The Deputy Director
told about their needs. They dream to build their own boiler-room,
since their system of central heating is very poor. The orphanage
cannot afford this because it requires the considerable funds of
10,000 USD. They also need building materials for repair works. The
other need is vehicle, since their car is very old and out of use.
They have problem with the shoes, since the children are fond of
football and participate in football teams that are considered to be
the best among the other orphanage teams. They have no problem with
the clothes, since they get it from the Second Hand. The daily
ration of a child is estimated 6-7 UAH (about 1.32 USD) per day, so
they have no problem with food either. The same situation is with
the medicines.
The Deputy Director
told that there were no cases of adoption of children by the
orphanage workers. However, one girl, who is the final-year pupil
and who is not officially adopted, lives with her teacher as the
member of her family.
The general
impression of the donation and the orphanage was very pleasant. All
the children looked well groomed, the orphanage is very clean and
the Deputy Director was very open.
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Over
6 years experience & 300 completed intl. adoptions