Shubin 1 Christiana Shubin Professor Mark Schwartz Principles of writing II Research Paper Draft #7 3 April 2007 Orphans in Ukraine “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble” (James 1:27 NKJV). Today in Ukraine, there are currently over 120,000 children living in orphanages with at least another 100,000 in state care, such as semiorphanages and other forms of care (Operation Ukraine). That is approximately five percent of the population. In addition, in Ukraine and Russia combined, there are over four million homeless and orphaned children living on the streets (Ukrainian Orphanages). As orphans pass through the system, living conditions deteriorate and life becomes more hopeless for them, being forced out of the orphanages sometimes as young as the age of fourteen, with a majority of them turning to crime, prostitution, or suicide (“Orphan Statistics”). As well, hope for the children who are homeless without any care or
Shubin 2 adult guidance is even more grim. As I was researching what topic I was going to use for my paper, I found this story online of an elevenyearold orphan girl from Ukraine. The girl’s name is Kristina, and she is looking at a brighter future, a future set apart from most orphans her age, and a future that she only could have imagined; that is, before the Landrum’s, her American family, came into her life. Leslie Landrum, who started a website called Kristina’s Hope, and her family are currently raising money in hopes of soon bringing Kristina home to them. On the website, I found this story which I believe illustrates the problem that orphans in Ukraine are facing, as well as the sense of hope that can be found when one person reaches out to help. There is such an overwhelming need in our world that it’s often difficult to know how to help. We are reminded of the Starfish Story as we reflect on our sense of helplessness. A couple was walking on the beach, on a beautiful cloudless day when they came upon a stretch of beach
Shubin 3 that was littered with literally thousands of starfish that had washed up on the beach during a storm the night before. They couldn't believe how many were lying helplessly on the beach starting to dry out and die in the sun. As they walked, they ran into a little boy who was picking up starfish, one by one, and tossing them back into the ocean. They stopped and asked him what he was doing. "Rescuing starfish," he replied. "There are thousands of them," they said, "you can't possibly save them all. You’re not going to make any difference." Undaunted, he picked up another starfish and tossed it into the ocean. "I made a difference to that one," he said (Landrum). There is a growing problem that orphans in Ukraine are facing. As part of the body of Christ, we have a mandate to do something about these problems happening around the world. We have a responsibility to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves, those who are the least of these, and those who have been orphaned. This is made clear in the book of James when it says, “Pure and undefiled religion before God…is to visit
Shubin 4 orphans…in their trouble.” We have a choice to help, and what we choose to do can have a lasting effect; like the starfish, if you can make a difference for one then it counts. Imagine being a little child living in an orphanage, receiving inadequate nutrition and having few or no medicines to relieve your suffering when you are sick. You have no one who is dedicated just to you, who is there to tell you how special you are, to help you learn to walk and talk and encourage you as you study and grow. Even if the caretakers at your orphanage are caring and loving, there are just too many children and not enough money to change the situation. Your future doesn't look too bright. When you inevitably leave the orphanage, you don't have family to turn to. There are few jobs in your country and you are not adequately trained for a professional career anyway. You have few programs available to you to feed you or house you, and your selfesteem is very low because of all you've been through. The reality for these children is that their futures are bleak (Operation Ukraine). In Ukraine, only a small percentage of children who are orphans are in orphanages because of the death of one or both
Shubin 5 parents. Only about ten to twenty percent of the orphans in Ukraine are what are called ‘full orphans’, meaning they have no parent to take care of them due to death, which is what we normally assume when we think of orphans (“Ukraine”, Ukrainian Orphanages). The greater tragedy is that a significantly larger number of orphans who are in orphanages are what are called ‘social orphans.’ This means that they are orphans because they have suffered physical abuse, violence, or abandonment by one or both of their parents. About eighty to ninety percent of children in orphanages are there because of this problem (“Ukraine”, Ukrainian Orphanages). The approximate number of children living in orphanages in Ukraine is difficult to determine exactly. Most sources state at least 100,000 (Operation Ukraine) to 150,000 (Ukrainian Orphanages) while others say up to 300,000 (Ukrainian Children’s Fund). This means that anywhere between 80,000 to 270,000 children in Ukraine have been either physically abused by one or both of their parents and/or abandoned by them. For those children who are taken out of an abusive situation or who do not become homeless and left to fend for themselves due
Shubin 6 to abandonment, they will most likely end up in government care in an orphanage. Four summers ago in June/July of 2003, I had the opportunity to spend two weeks in an orphanage in St. Petersburg, Russia on a mission trip. There were no orphans there because in the summer time they are sent to camps. Even though we did not get to experience what it is truly like to be an orphan living in an orphanage, we got a little taste of it. We got to sleep in their beds, use their showers and bathrooms, and eat what they eat. The orphanage where we stayed was not horrible, but it was also hard to imagine it being home for so many children. In my small room where I slept, we had eight girls in eight beds. Our mattresses were thin and lumpy with holes, and inside the mattresses, you could actually see bed bugs. Our bathroom had three toilets against the wall with two short walls on either side, which provided a small amount of visual blockage. The shower room was about five showers on each of the left and right walls. There were three walls for each shower, (which was a pipe coming out of the wall) with no covering or curtain. The showers opened up to the center of the room where there was one chair where everyone
Shubin 7 put their towel and clothes. There is little to no privacy for the orphans in that specific orphanage. This experience not only gave me an appreciation for my life and the small luxuries that I have and take for granted, but also an awareness and heart for the children who have no choice but to live in those conditions. In a country where the average standard of living has decreased by eighty percent over the past fifteen years, poverty and sickness are brought on by the inability to provide adequate nutrition and healthcare. Least able to fend for themselves are the children who have been abandoned and orphaned (“Humanitarian Aid Project”). Most orphanages do not have nearly enough funds for clothing, educational materials and many other essentials for the orphans. The budget that they are given for their food is extremely inadequate, so malnutrition can be a serious problem. Many children eat meals of broth and bread. Infants also eat broth and sometimes weakly reconstituted powdered milk. There is just not enough money for formula for every child. The vitamins we take for granted in our own diets are often missing for these
Shubin 8 children. This can have dire consequences on their intellectual and physical development, and ultimately their chances for adoption and a better future (Operation Ukraine). For most orphans, when they turn sixteen, they are turned away from the orphanages, often with little training or resources to properly take care of themselves on the streets of Ukraine's cities. Major Vasiley Sophos is the chief warden at a medium security prison in Ukraine that houses 1,600 male prisoners. He has worked in the penal system for more than twenty years. During that time, he has seen countless graduates of orphanages end up behind bars. "When they finish at the orphanages, they are not fully prepared for life. They are without parents and they are also without government support," says Sophos (Robertson). Girls from orphanages often end up in prison too, but others fall prey to an even worse fate. They are trafficked into prostitution, forced to work the streets and brothels in cities across Europe including Amsterdam, Budapest, and Florence and along the notorious E55 highway on the GermanCzech border (Robertson).
Shubin 9 After the age of five, the chance of adoption for an orphan in Ukraine is only twenty percent, which decreases as they get older. For those who are not adopted, after they have graduated from the system, most have nothing to look forward to in life. About ten percent of these orphans will commit suicide before their eighteenth birthday. Approximately sixty to seventy percent of the boys leaving the orphanage will turn to a life of crime for survival, and about sixty to seventy percent of the girls leaving the orphanage will become involved in prostitution. Only about twentyseven percent of the orphans will find work (Operation Ukraine). This is a serious problem. There is such a large percentage of orphans unemployed and homeless, turning to a degradable and hopeless lifestyle. This problem does not start once the orphans have graduated from the system and are now on their own, but the deeper issue is as they are growing up and passing through the system. There is little practical training for the orphans to help prepare them for when they will be on their own. They are not learning necessary skills that they will need in the future. If something could just be done in between, something to
Shubin 10 help prepare these children, something to give them hope for their futures: “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV). If orphans had the ability to learn skills that they could use in the future to help them get jobs and provide for themselves, a majority of them would not have to turn to a life of crime or prostitution for survival. Though this is not a problem that can be solved overnight, it is in the ability of some to help in a tangible way. Currently a program has been developed in Ukraine called, “Life Skills Training for Youth,” with about two hundred volunteers teaching in at least twenty orphanages throughout Ukraine from a curriculum with ten modules. The orphans are being taught things like: social skills, health and hygiene, marriage skills, raising children, job skills, home making skills, and money management. This program is for older orphans who will not be adopted, but instead transition to life on their own outside of the orphanage (Springs). Shortterm missions teams can play a part in this as well.
Shubin 11 Small teams of people, even youth, can spend time with orphans, teaching them basic practical skills, skills that they will be able to use once they are on their own. In addition to this, Christians who dedicate their time to making a difference to these orphans can also bring a lasting hope to them in the Word of God, which is by far more important. In an article written by Karen Springs, a missionary to Ukraine, who is also apart of “Life Training Skills for Youth,” she writes about the effect that missionaries have had on the lives of orphans in Ukraine. Victor and Lyuba, now in their twenties, grew up within the walls of an orphanage. But what sets these two individuals apart from the rest is that they have overcome the statistics that were stacked against them. With the transforming power found in Jesus, and the involvement of Christians in their lives, these two young people have risen up to challenge the next generation of orphans for the Kingdom of God. “I desire for this new generation to be a good generation and they can be with help,” said Victor. This is what he is doing now; investing in the lives of children he was once so very much like.
Shubin 12 Victor remembers when he was a child in his orphanage, and that missionaries would come and talk about God and share the love that He has for him. When he graduated from the orphanage at seventeen, he went in search of a church, as if he knew that’s where his family would be. And a new family is what he found. Lyuba’s heart is for the older orphans, who she knows will soon be leaving the orphanage and facing life alone. She knows the importance of having Christians in the lives of these kids, as she first accepted Christ when she was in an orphanage. “When I was thirteen years old, I was at a camp and for the first time I was loved as I was.” A Christian couple, who Lyuba had developed a relationship with, had faith that she could achieve success and helped her to become independent by helping to place her in a loving Christian home for young graduated orphans. It was there that Lyuba gained a firmer understanding of what it means to have a personal relationship with Christ. Lives are being changed. These orphaned children have hope to rise up out of their current situations and to find restoration and healing, but it will take the dedication of
Shubin 13 willing men and women of God communicating His truth. This becomes evident when looking at the lives of orphans that have succeeded outside of the orphanage walls, orphans like Victor and Lyuba. God saw their individual faces when others may have seen only a statistic, but He needed willing hands to touch their lives (Springs). For some people, God may be calling them to the mission field and to work with orphans, helping them hands on. For those who are called to be missionaries, there can be many challenges that they face. One of the main obstacles that I have seen when it comes to missions, are finances. Many missionaries depend on the support of people who give to missions so that they can continue to do the work of the Lord overseas. For many who do not have the ability to visit the orphans, and who are not called to the mission field, they can contribute in this way, financially, both specifically for the orphans, and for those who are sent to the orphans. You can give directly to organizations, either through churches or websites, for orphans in Ukraine that will help to feed, clothe, supply necessities, and care for orphans as well as giving to support the adoption of
Shubin 14 a specific orphan, like Kristina. You can also give to orphans in a more indirect yet more impactful way, by helping to send missionaries to Ukraine who will bring necessary supplies, love, and the Word of God to the orphans. Regardless of what you can physically do to help support orphans in Ukraine, one essential part to seeing lives changed is not done in the natural, but in the spiritual. Praying for the needs of the orphans in Ukraine is a vital part of the ministry, and can be more impactful than anything else you can give, because we cannot expect to see changes in the natural if we do not first deal with them in the spiritual. For there is a spiritual battle, especially when what we are doing is in the name of the Lord. Then lastly, the ultimate step that can be taken in helping to give an orphan in Ukraine hope would be adoption. This is especially important in the Christian community, though not intended for everyone. As Christians, we would be giving more than a home, more than a new life, and more than natural security, we would be giving them the love of God, eternal hope, and relationship with the Father through Jesus. Adoption is a
Shubin 15 tangible way that the body of Christ can minister to the fatherless and model the same adoption that God the Father gives us freely through His Son Jesus Christ (Springs). “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble” (James 1:27 NKJV). And like the little boy with the starfish, you never know what a little gesture can do to change a life.
Shubin 16 Works Cited “Humanitarian Aid Projects: Ukraine” Wide Horizons For Children. 2007. WHFC. 21 March 2007 . Landrum, Leslie. “How Can We Help” Kristina’s Hope. Jan 2007. 30 March 2007. . New Spirit Filled Life Bible (NKJV). Ed. Jack W. Hayford, Paul G. Chappell, Kenneth C. Ulmer, Roy, Hayden, Jonathan David Huntzinger, Gary Matsdorf. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2002. Operation Ukraine. 23 Feb 2007 . “Orphan Statistics” Music Mission Kiev. 14 March 2007 . Robertson, Lloyd. “Forgotten Children” CTV.ca. 12 Nov 2005. 4 March 2007 . Springs, Karen. “Former Orphans Bringing Hope to the Next
Shubin 17 Generation” KarenSprings.com. 4 March 2007 . Thompson Chain Reference Study Bible (NIV). Ed. Frank Charles Thompson, David R. Douglas. Indianapolis, IN: Zondervan, 1990. “Ukraine” Orphan’s Hope. Orphans Hope. 4 March 2007 . Ukrainian Children’s Fund. 4 March 2007 . Ukrainian Orphanages. 29 Jan 2007. Orphanages of Zaporozhye, Ukraine. 14 March 2007 .
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