Lotikovo orphanage Donation TRIP 

DONATION INFORMATION

February 2002

The Johnson and their church - St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church raised $4,250.00 for the orphanage in Lotikovo, Eastern Ukraine (Lugansk region).  International Management Services donated transportation services including the driver's fee & van. SRC donated funds to cover overnight lodging expenses and additional truck delivery of refrigerators.

SRC used $355.00 (less than 8%)  for salaries and taxes associated with this project.   The total funds used for the Lotikovo orphanage donation totaled $3,895.00.  

Lotikovo orphanage is located in Lugansk region (about 1,000 km or 630 miles from Kiev). Our secretary, Anna contacted the orphanage to find out their current needs.  We finally came up with the following items and purchase them in Kyiv, Ukraine.

1.

Flannel Fabric & Cotton Fabric 

1,223 m

920  

2.

Towels

200

130  

3.

243

290  

4.

Antilimescale Calgon 

50

130  

8

      50

$1,520

  Note:  The average exchange rate is 5.44 Ukrainian Hrivna to the US Dollar. 

We also ordered the items below from a local store in Lugansk and planned to pick them up separately using a local truck.

Description

Quantity

Price (USD)

1.

Tiles    

126 m2

455

2.

Water heaters

3

300

3.

Vacuum cleaners

10

630

4.

Refrigerators

4

990

       SUBTOTAL 2:

$2,375.00

       TOTAL:

$3,895.00

Note:  The average exchange rate is 5.44 Ukrainian Hrivna to the US Dollar. 

Our group for the Lotikovo donation delivery trip left Kiev at 3.30 am on Friday, February 15.   Our team consisted of Yuri (SRC office manager), Nikolai, the van driver, and Alberta, the U.S. representative of St. Andrew’s church, who flew into Ukraine to participate personally in this first trip to Lugansk. 

The distance from Kiev to the orphanage is about 1000 km (630 miles).  Normally it would have taken us about 10 hours to get to the orphanage, but it took us 16 hours instead because the road was in bad condition, and the weather was very snowy.  During our drive to the orphanage we witnessed two serious car accidents.

At 7:00 that evening we finally arrived at a little town near Lugansk, called Lotikovo, where we had reserved the refrigerators, boilers, and vacuum cleaners the orphanage had requested. 

The store had closed at 6 pm, and since we were so late, we were not able to take the items that night, so we had to stay overnight in a local hotel. Thankfully, at the end of a long day, we were unexpectedly blessed with hot running water there!

Saturday morning we picked up the refrigerators, boilers, and vacuum cleaners, with an extra truck to help with delivery, and transported everything to the orphanage.  

We were surprised and pleased to be met by a large group of orphanage officials when we arrived at the store!  Even though Saturday is a day off for them, they had come to welcome us and to accompany all the supplies to the orphanage.

Even more surprisingly, the director, Inna Pavlovna, who has been on maternity leave since May 2001, as also there, even though she didn’t have to come. 

Refrigerators, heaters & vacuum cleaners  bought and delivered locally

She had planned to be back at work in February, but problems with her baby’s health had prevented her from starting this month. So she now plans to be back with the children in May.

The director of the orphanage, Inna Pavlovna, has been working there for 3 years. While she is on maternity leave, the lawyer of the orphanage, Oksana Yurivna, has been acting director, and she has been working in the orphanage for 2 years.

We presented the items to them formally, which we had purchased after getting the list of needs of the orphanage several weeks before. 

 After receiving the gifts, Inna and her staff spent some time describing the children’s living situation and activities in the orphanage to us.  

 Inna Pavlovna

The orphanage building was constructed 20 years ago and has not had any remodeling or repair work done since then. The building accommodates 130 children, and at present there are 104 children ages 0-4. 

Inna took Alberta with her around to several rooms which have been remodeled, and to others which need remodeling, so that she could have an idea of what might be done in the future.

The director also gave us some statistics on recent adoptions from this baby house - in the year 2000 there were 69 children adopted from the orphanage; 26 by Ukrainians, and 43 by foreign couples. 

In 2001 there were 91 adoptions; 24 by Ukrainians, and 67 by foreign parents. 

All the performances and parties are held in a general assembly room for all the children to attend at once. When the weather allows, the children are taken for a walk or to play outdoors, but only on the orphanage grounds. These children are very restricted, and never leave the orphanage for any kind of outing, as some of the children do in other orphanages (to zoos, parks, circus, etc.).

The children are relatively well fed here. The daily budget per child is 7.40 hryvna, and the orphanage is well supplied with medicine. The workers are paid on time (it is common in Ukraine now for government workers to not receive pay for 3 month periods at a time).  The doctor receives 170 hryvna a month, the teachers – 145 hryvna. (The exchange rate now is about 5.35 hryvna to $1 US).  There are 150 on their staff but they lack enough nurses; instead of the 40 that they need, currently only 30 are working.  Their biggest needs are for equipment and remodeling, in general.

We enjoyed our visit, and were impressed with how the staff try to take care of the children with the resources that they have. 

 It was also a delight to our staff to have an American representative on the trip to present the items on behalf of the family and church members who donated the funds for the purchases.

As we left the orphanage, the director handed us a formal thank you letter, which is translated below:

Inna, Oxana, Alberta and Lotikovo orphans

The regional orphanage administration expresses gratitude to St. Andrew Presbyterian church and to the families who provided the humanitarian aid and electrical household appliances.

 Orphanage Director                                           T.G. Buryan

COMMENTS

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