All about the Orphans of Ukraine

The situation facing orphan children in Ukraine, and their need for the love of Christ is overwhelmingly desperate. According to UNICEF, there were some 65,000 children living in state-run orphanages in 2005, with the number doubling every ten years (http://www.unicef.org/ukraine/children.html). Add to that factor the large number of orphans now living on the street, and most estimate the actual figure in 2009 as being between 100,000 and 120,000 orphans in the country.

The vast majority of the children in these state-run institutions have been abandoned by their mothers and fathers, or taken away from them because they were no longer fit to parent. Many of these children have been abused physically and/or verbally, and suffer from detachment disorders or other mental illness. However, the real crisis for these children begins when they are turned away from these facilities in their mid to late teens. It is then that any and all support is taken away from them. Many of these children end up homeless, living on the streets having to fend for themselves. Drug use is rampant. Orphan boys living on the street most often lead lives of crime. Many of the orphan girls will resort to prostitution or become victims of human sex trafficking, a problem greatly on the rise in Ukraine. Perhaps saddest of all, many of these children will turn to suicide before their 18th birthday.

These children, before they are left alone, need something bigger than themselves to live for. They need to learn that they are a part of a family; that if they receive Jesus Christ they have been given “the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). They need to be told that their lives have value; that ultimately they are loved by God through Christ, even if everyone else in their life has abandoned them. These children know rejection and pain so well. They need to know that Jesus 8 is not some character in a book, but a living savior who has come to rescue them from their sinful nature, and the broken world they inhabit because of it. This is the precise message Midtown wants these kids to learn in the crucial years before it is too late. By working with Radooga, this is the message that we can bring.