| The founder
of SRC, Diane Sadovnikov first went to Ukraine in 1993, introducing a
Christian Ethics & Morality curriculum in the public school system at
the invitation of the local Ministry of Education in Odessa.
She became deeply attached to Ukraine during her first year there,
and returned for a second year in Odessa.
After that, Diane moved to Kyiv in her third year, where she worked
providing logistical services to various groups coming in to Ukraine for
humanitarian and missionary work. In
1996, when the moratorium against foreign adoption was lifted in Ukraine,
Diane began informally helping a few families adopt.
In 1997, she helped 4 families, then 12 in 1998 under the name
Management Services International, which was primarily providing travel
& translation services in Ukraine.
At that point, feeling a commitment to help children and families,
our staff decided to expand the adoption work, and Diane traveled to the
US to incorporate a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization called Sense
Resource Center, Inc.
Letter from Diane: A HOPE & A FUTURE
The reason I was
interested in adoption work, was the result of a picture I saw in the
museum in Kyiv dedicated to World War II in the fall of 1995.
The photo is a wall-sized black and white photograph, larger than life
size, of toddlers in a children's prison camp. The children are all
naked, clearly starving and cold, and reaching through a chain link fence
toward the photographer. Their appeal for help haunted me for weeks
after seeing the photograph, but I could not see how I could help these
children who are long gone from this camp. Still, I could not shake
the need I felt to do something.
Finally, I
committed in my heart to help needy children wherever I happen to live,
and this brought me the peace that I had been missing. I began
working as a volunteer in an orphanage in Kiev, but with the birth of my
first daughter, I was unable to continue this. About this time,
adoptions became legal in Ukraine again, and couples began to approach me
about helping with adoption. Our work with Ukrainian orphans has become my
way to help as many children as possible find a hope and a future in
loving families.
Diane Sadovnikov
President, Sense Resource Center, Inc.
|
Over
6 years experience & 300 completed intl. adoptions
