March 2004
The Regional Specialized
Malyutka Orphanage in Donetsk is one of the best in the country. It is
home to around 200 children at any one time, and over the 37 years of
its existence, has seen almost 4000 children pass through its doors.
Right now there are 190 children of the age from 0 to 4 years old. Among
them there are 30% of disabled children having problems with the Central
Nervous System and mentally retarded children and 70% - are the orphans
either biological or whose parents were deprived of parental rights.
Since the orphanage is regional the children come here from different
cities like Mariupol, Krasnodar, etc., towns and villages.
The dedicated staff of
over 300 includes 14 doctors, 104 nurses, 25 caregivers, 26 teachers, 19
educators, 4 speech therapists, 1 defectologist, 2 teachers of music; 41
masseurs, cooks, grounds men, and others, there is also a building team
of 4 people who help with the construction works in the orphanage as
well as repairing the orphanage equipment, all dedicated to giving the
children the good start in life that prepare them for their life ahead –
this could be being returned to their families of origin, national or
international adoption, or progressing to the next orphanage in the
system.
The orphanage is also
involved in gathering professional children’s workers from all around
the region and country, to share ideas and try to solve common problems
they have come across.
Malyutka orphanage
director in his office (left) and with new windows (right)
ORPHANAGE NEEDS
I called the orphanage director Levada Nikolai
Yegorovich to inform him of the donated funds and to discover their
needs. The director told that they would like to have therapy equipment
for the children with special needs such as dry pool, mats and toys.
GETTING THE ORPHANAGE
SUPPLIES
I called to the Liberty, the company that had been
providing the orphanages with the therapy equipment before, and asked
them to help with getting the following items. Here is the final
and complete list of items purchased for this project:
|
# |
Items
|
Pieces
|
Total
|
|
1 |
Dry pool |
1 |
$ 370.00 |
|
2 |
Mat top-top |
1 |
$ 280.00 |
|
3 |
Massage mat |
1 |
$ 220.00 |
|
4 |
Play labyrinth |
1 |
$ 642.00 |
|
5 |
Folding mat |
2 |
$ 210.00 |
|
6 |
Toys |
assortment |
$ 229.00 |
|
|
|
TOTAL: |
$1951.00 |
The orphanage requests were completely satisfied.
PLANNING
THE HUMANITARIAN TRIP
The trip was planned on March 4, 2004, Thursday.
The Liberty made the delivery to Donetsk orphanage on March 3 and Yuri,
our office manager, was going to take a train to Donetsk the next day.
Donetsk is situated 800
km far from Kiev. The road took about 10 hours to make the delivery.
Yuri took the train on March 4, at 7 pm, and arrived to Donetsk at 7 am
on March 5. He bought the tickets back to Kiev on the train station in
Donetsk and went to the orphanage by public transport.
Yuri arrived to the
orphanage at about 8 am and was shown to the Director’s office. Having
explained who we were, the Director, Nikolai Yegorovich Levada, said
that he had been informed of our arrival and had been waiting for us and
he added that he remembers the Russos and our staff who delivered the
donation last time. The director set aside all his work and started
showing Yuri his orphanage.
The director is a very
nice person. He’s been working in the orphanage as the director for 9
years and he’s extremely devoted to his work.
The director told there
are less children than required in the orphanage – 190 instead of 200 –
so they are always in the process of renovating the orphanage rooms
since the number of children allows them to save the place and put more
children in one room while renovating some other room.
The daily abiding of a
child in 2002 in the orphanage costed 26.75 UAH
(about 5.02 USD). In 2003 it costed 38.20 UAH (about 7.17 USD) and due
to the donations it totally comprised 41.28 UAH (about 7.75 USD). The
director told there is a company in Donetsk that is the sponsor of the
orphanage and helps a lot by means of donations. Last year they donated
60 000 UAH to provide children with everything necessary. That is the
reason the orphanage staff always welcomes their sponsors like us and
they never complain about their life in the orphanage. This is one of
the things they are very proud of: instead of complains they have things
to boast of! This orphanage is considered to be one of the best in
Ukraine and it is due to the hard work of its director. The daily
ration of a child was estimated 3 UAH (about 0.57 USD) in 2003 and this
year they are planning to increase it till 4 UAH per day (about 0.75 USD).
They also spend 0.50 UAH (about 0.09 USD) for medical supply and
vitamins. The director partially included to this sum the money donated
by the sponsors.
In 2003 the director
tried to do his best to increase the number of adoption by Ukrainian
citizens so it was higher than in the other Ukrainian orphanages. 51 %
of adopted children went to Ukrainian families and 41% of children were
adopted by foreigners. There were 91 children adopted from this
orphanage in 2003. Italy is on the first place among the other adoptive
foreigners. The second place takes Spain and the USA is on the third
place.
The director says
unfortunately there is no improvement in the state of health of children
during the last years. Everything is as it used to be: the orphanage
still receives a lot of ill children. He also says that the changes to
the Ukrainian Law regarding adoption have complicated the process of
adoption both for Ukrainians and for the foreigners.
Then we talked about
the orphanage needs. The director told that for the last 8 years the
government hadn’t been providing the orphanage either with building
materials or with money for reconstruction so they are repairing the
orphanage at their own expense and due to the donations of their
sponsors. Last year the sponsors donated 80 000 UAH to completely
reconstruct the roof of the orphanage. Though their urgent need is the
technological (industrial equipment) such as industrial laundry machines
and driers, industrial equipment for kitchen such as industrial stoves
and ovens. One of such an item costs from 2 000 USD to 10 000 USD that
is very expensive for the orphanage. They also need new tables, etc.
Having worked with the
sick children the director realized how emotionally hard it is for the
orphanage staff to come across such problems every day, so he decided
that it is necessary to have the place for praying in the orphanage. He
made such a room for praying decorated with the icons and candles.
The pediatrics faculty
of the Medical Institute works on the territory of Ukraine so we had
chance to visit their classes. They are doing the scientific work and
researches in this orphanage.
The general impression
of this donation was very positive because we had the chance to meet
such a wonderful person as the orphanage director who is so devoted to
his work and does his best to advantage the lives of the orphans. They
appreciated the donation and were really glad to see us and they really
hope that due to the Russo & Griffin families' help and the help of
other sponsors the life of the children will change for better.
|
Over
6 years experience & 300 completed intl. adoptions
