September Topolinaya Orphanage Graduations
In September there were 22 children that graduated from school, and left the orphanage. All the kids are expected to enter colleges and universities, and move into student accommodation. Although just less than half of the children were ones that Dnipro Kids had sponsored, a couple of them through 3 different orphanages, the charity felt that we should support all those that were graduating.
As with previous years the charity helped with purchasing food, gifts and sweets for the leaving party, as well as buying the leaving packs for each of the graduates.
The party had an American 1930’s theme and we helped to provided some “dressing up” outfits to match. The orphanage also managed to invite along a make-up lady (and a couple of her friends) to provide the girls with make-up sessions throughout the day.
The graduates all entered the main hall .. one by one .. and literally given the red carpet treatment!
Inside the hall there was an area that was set up for a 1930’s photo shoot, with big canvas prints provided for a background. The kids loved this and all of them were excited to get such professional looking photos taken.
The party had everything you would expect .. singing, dancing, games and food!
At the end of the party each of the graduates were presented with their Dnipro Kids leaving packs by Ira. The packs are designed to help the kids get settled into their student accommodation. They’re given bed sheets and towels, cutlery and plates, pots and pans, kettle and tea bags .. and even an alarm clock to make sure they get up in time for lessons!
All the graduates, and the orphanage staff, said a huge thank you to Ira and Dnipro Kids for helping to make the leaving party such a success.
October Birthday Trip
In October we did something a little different for the Topolinaya orphanage kids with birthdays around this time.
Irina discovered an Italian restaurant, called “MAFIA”, that catered for birthday parties with entertainment and a pizza making class!
It was a pretty nice looking restaurant, and the kids were quite excited upon arrival. It wasn’t long before everyone was settled in, and then one of the pizza chefs entered with their hats and aprons.
There was a bit of a worry that the boys might put up a fight about wearing an apron, but they put them on without a fight!
All the kids listened carefully to the instructions from the chef, and then it was “hands on” as the kids enthusiastically got stuck in to some serious pizza creation.
The kids really enjoyed the pizza making, and the final creations looked pretty good as they headed towards the ovens.
While they were waiting for their pizzas to cook, Ira took the opportunity to present the kids with the birthday gifts they’d asked for.
Lada Derzhivitskaya, Vlad Samosudov and Zhenya Litvinyenko had all asked for MP3 players. Ira bought the ones they’d requested, along with headphones and memory cards.
Olga Gulyayeva had asked for a nice pair of shoes and Natasha Pahomova wanted some nice make-up items and a top-up card for her mobile phone.
Andrei Punduch had asked for a simple mobile phone and Sveta Deripasko had her heart set on wireless Bluetooth headphones.
The restaurant also provided a karaoke, for the kids to have a bit of fun while they were waiting for their birthday banquet to arrive. The girls were the ones that were picking the songs and up on the stage, but despite not putting themselves forward the boys were certainly joining in with the singing from the tables.
It wasn’t long before the pizzas arrived, and there were lots of other dishes included as well. And there were a couple of cheesecake options for dessert as well!
And the end of the party all the kids were presented with “Mafia” t-shirts as a souvenir from the birthday party. They all had a great time and said a huge thank you to Ira and Dnipro Kids for such an enjoyable day.
Family Home Orphanage, Community Meetings
As Ukraine continues to move away from large orphanages, in favour of smaller “family home” orphanages, Dnipro Kids is starting to build a small “family home” community. As well as supporting the TB Sanatorium and Topolinaya, the last large orphanage, we now have 5 smaller “family home” orphanages that we support.
We are always looking at ways to assist, and one idea that was put into action last month was to create our own Dnipro Kids Community for the “family home” orphanages. The idea of the community is to try and bring everyone together, and hopefully share responsibilities, problems and offer help and advice when needed.
It could probably be argued that the community idea stemmed from the L’viv trip in September, where the kids played together during the day and the parents chatted with each other at night. The trip was such a success that we felt it would be a great idea to bring everyone together on a regular basis in Dnipropetrovsk.
With this in mind we set about organising a couple of community meetings. Yura and Ludmila kindly offered to host the first meeting at the Hasanskaya orphanage, and Dnipro Kids chipped in with funds for the food for the barbeque and for games for the kids.
So on the day of the community meeting 24 children, and 3 sets of foster parents, descended on Hasanskaya. Yura fired up the barbeque and the kids decided on which games they wanted to play and split up into groups.
There was Lego and Jenga, in the newly converted loft.
There were jigsaws, card games and Monopoly in the rooms downstairs.
Although all games were put on hold when the smell of cooked meet starting working it’s way into the house from the garden ..
… with poor Yura struggling to keep up with the demand!
Not that it got in the way of the mothers have a good old blether …
There was musical entertainment provided by the resident band ..
And sporting activities to burn off the barbeque calories ..
All in all it proved to be a very successful event, and everyone there had a great time. Ira, and Dnipro Kids, were given a huge thank you from everyone involved.
The day after the first community party, we held a second one for the 2 family orphanages that were unable to attend at Hasanskaya. We had exactly the same format of barbeque, games and lots of fun. The feedback was excellent and everyone really enjoyed it.
And once again everyone said a huge thank you to Ira, and Dnipro Kids, for making the party happen.
November Theatre Trip
As a follow up to the community parties we organised a trip to the theatre for all 5 family orphanages. There was a theatre group visiting from the city of Kharviv, doing a production of The Wizard Of Oz.
Most of the family orphanages made their own way there, and the theatre slowly started to fill up.
It wasn’t an extravagant performance, and certainly nothing like the big budget pantomimes we are used to here, but the kids loved it. They were swept away with the characters and their colourful costumes.
And there was also an opportunity at the end for some photographs to be taken with the Wizard himself!
Child Sponsorship
If you are not already a Child Sponsor please consider direct sponsorship of one of the children that we support in Dnipropetrovsk. Your monthly contributions will assist in providing birthday, Christmas and summer trips for these kids as well as helping to support the many other projects that we help fund for the children.
For details about Child Sponsorship please email me directly steven@dniprokids.com
Donating to Dnipro Kids
We have a secure link set up on the main website, for anyone wishing to make a direct donation to the charity.
You can also make small donations by text.
Simply text DNPR14 Ł2/Ł5/Ł10 to 70070
Visit the Facebook page and add Dnipro Kids to your friends list.
http://www.facebook.com/dnipro.kids
Yours,
Steven Carr,
Dnipro Appeal Committee
