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MARYINKA BOARDING SCHOOL DONATION TRIP
Maryinka is located about 100 km from Donetsk. Maryinka
boarding school is very nice and is home to around 300 healthy children aged 5 -
18 years old. The building was built in 1965. But it wasn't until
1973 when it became the first experimental boarding school in the former USSR.
The experiment was successful and this was the first of numerous boarding
schools that opened throughout the country.
The average salary of the orphanage workers is 200-230 UAH
(about 43 USD). The dedicated staff of 141 includes doctors, nurses, caregivers,
54 educators and operating personnel.
After discussions with the director, Petro Ivanovych Mesyura,
Joan's group used the $2000 that was donated to purchase tights, shirts, socks,
and underwear for all three hundred kids.
At the moment, the director is busy with repair works and central heating in
the orphanage. He works with the sponsors and managed to get funds for repairs
240,000 UAH (44,860 USD). He also gets 30,000 UAH from the state. Joan has
brought a bag of stationery for the children and for the director’s office. We
were introduced to the children and gave them chewing gums and sweets.
The teachers said that the children are trying to do their best and studying
very hard. They are very proud that they have many gifted and smart
children in the orphanage who are going to continue their studies in the
institutes and universities.
The children are hard working and they love to work in the orphanage garden
taking care of it. Besides the fruit trees, they grow and make brooms in
the boarding school for themselves and for sale.
The school has a very competitive soccer team and some of the students excel
in embroidery and cross-stitching. They have given Joan beautiful embroidery
work to sell in the USA. She promised to show these works to some clients and to
get some of the pictures to the exhibition hall in order to get money for the
next donation trip, October 2003, to this boarding school.
The boarding school has 22 extracurricular groups. The children can learn how
to play piano and other musical instruments; they participate in various
festivals and perform concerts. During the summer, the students go to summer
camp.
The director said that for every 20 adoptions there is only one adoption by a
Ukrainian couple. Mostly the children are being adopted abroad in different
countries. There have been no adoptions by the orphanage
workers.
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Over
6 years experience & 300 completed intl. adoptions
