We have quite a few stories from the orphanages in this update, which will hopefully show the varied level of support that your donations help to fund. It shows just how important your regular donations are in helping us to support these children.
We also have an important update regarding the Children of War project further down, and how things are progressing with bringing some of the affected children to Scotland for a much needed holiday.
Firstly though, lets have a look at some of the activities we have funded recently…..
Orphanage Trip to Kharkiv
The main spring trip for the orphanages this year was a 2 day trip to Kharkiv. The first day was spent at the Kharkiv Water Park and the second day involving a tour of Kharkiv, that included the puppet museum and Kharkiv Zoo.
The full report on the trip, by committee member Duncan MacRae, can be viewed here.
Kyivstar Computer Donation
We are very lucky to have such a good partner in Ukraine as mobile communication company Kyivstar. Thanks to the generosity of Kyivstar all the orphanages that we support in Ukraine recently had computers and laptops delivered to them.
Each orphanage had at least 2 desktop and 2 laptop computers donated to them, with the bigger orphanages having an extra one of each provided. The main purpose of these computers is to assist the children with their school work and homework, although I’m sure one or two games may also be getting played from time to time.
Both the children and orphanage parents were very grateful to Kyivstar for such a fantastic donation.
May Birthday Trip
There were 5 children with birthdays in April/May and we organised a birthday trip to the Lviv Chocolate Workshop for them. This is a nice little cafe, that also organises a chocolate making class for children. Natalie says that “sweet and chocolate heaven” is the best way to describe this cosy little cafe. The cafe has shelves and shelves of chocolates and sweets, and a lovely chocolatey aroma from the second you walk in the door.
The kids were taught how to coat and decorate various sweets and chocolates, and they really enjoyed it.
During their visit each of the children were given the birthday present they’d requested.
Yura Pashkovski had asked for a wireless mouse for the recently donated computers, as well as a flash drive and memory card for him to store and transfer his songs and school files.
Masha and Timur Pashkovski had both asked for mobile phones.
Masha Chalaya had asked for a doll and pram. She really enjoys playing with these in the orphanage, especially with the younger kids, and had wanted one of her own.
Hasanskaya Orphanage
Dnipro Kids received a couple of requests from the Hasanskaya orphanage, but also had an invitation to come visit and look at a new project they were starting.
We were invited to join them for lunch and barbeque, and spend some time with the kids.
Orphanage mother, Luda, had asked if we could help out with some t-shirts and school bags for the kids. Of course we were happy to help out with these requests, and paid the orphanage a visit to hand them over.
While we were there we got an update on how the kids were progressing. We were told that the children were still talking about their Dnipro Kids trip to the Water Park in Kharkov, and that they were buzzing with excitement about where Dnipro Kids would take them next. Luda was also very proud to tell us that Natasha and Yura were both top of their classes, and had received awards from the school.
Orphanage father, Yura, was also very excited to show us his latest building project. He has started building a separate accomodation block to the rear of the property. The plan is that it will be kind of a “half-way house” for the older children that leave the orphanage. It is very difficult, and expensive, for older kids leaving the orphanage to find rented accomodation. Yura hopes that this temporary accomodation will help the older kids get their feet on the ground, and find a good job, without the worry of also trying to find somewhere to stay. It’s a great idea and something that Dnipro Kids would be willing to help out with, if needed.
Igren orphanage
Dnipro Kids received an invite from orphanage mother Yana to come and join in the birthday celebrations of orphanage father Slavik. It was a beautiful day so the party was outside in the garden, with Slavik taking charge of the barbeque.
The kids had been making gifts for Slavik behind the scenes, and the older girls had written birthday poems for him.
To allow Slavik to get himself something nice for his birthday Dnipro Kids presented him with a shopping centre gift card.
Igren Orphanage Improvements
In the last update we’d mentioned how we had helped to fund a room conversion for the Igren orphanage, to allow them to bring in two new girls to the orphanage.
I’m happy to say that the conversion is now complete, and what was once an unused open balcony is now a fully enclosed bedroom.
War Children Coming To Scotland
Due to visa problems in Ukraine we have had to postpone the visit of the children affected by the war until September. It was getting very close to the travel date and we could not be 100% certain that all visas would be completed in time, so the proposed date was postponed from June to September to ensure that none of the children missed out.
As part of this project we hope to link up with other charities and volunteers to arrange recreational trips for the children during their stay.
We are still looking for help, and ideas, for activities for the children when they arrive in Edinburgh.
There is also a separate fundraising page for this project.
If you would like to volunteer or require more information, please contact us on e-mail: steven@dniprokids.com or ukrchild@outlook.com
Videos On Website
We have uploaded two new videos to the Dnipro Kids website, use the links below to view them.
Ten year anniversary video….
Video tribute to Ira Polyashova….
Please Support Our Work
If you don’t make a monthly donation but would still like to contribute towards our fundraising efforts, please visit the donations section of our website to make an online donation.
Many thanks,
Steven Carr.
