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For orphans across the land of Ukraine, the reality of
life is tragically grim. A young boy or girl ends up in a state-run orphanage
because their parents have died or are too poverty-stricken to take care of
them. Still others are taken away from their parents because of
alcoholism, abuse, or neglect, and placed in the care of the state. The term
“orphan” does not have the same meaning as we in North America might associate
with the word. To us an orphan is a child who no longer has parents due to
death. In Ukraine an orphan is not only a child who has no parents, but an
orphan is also a child whose parents are drug addicts, drunks, prostitutes, etc.
and who has been removed from their care and placed within the state system for
care and supervision.
Once these children are a part of the state system, the meager provisions,
inadequate clothing, and sometimes cold impersonal care, take their toll on the
children who should normally be vibrant and happy. Many develop deep
psychological scars and withdraw into themselves. When they graduate from the
ninth grade, they leave the orphanage unprepared to face an uncertain world on
their own. Studies have shown that about 15% of these children will commit
suicide and 70% of them will turn to crime or prostitution within two years of
leaving the orphanage.
Following ninth grade, these children are typically sent to “trade schools”
where the state provides them with an additional three years of education in a
specific field (examples include: masonry, carpentry, computers, cooking,
sewing, sports, etc.). At the
trade schools these children live in co-ed dormitories with several hundred
other children, and just a handful of caretakers. Life in the dormitories is
rough and, for the most part, these children are not adequately prepared to
handle the temptations that are
placed before them. They leave the trade school at around age 18, this time
completely on their own, with no adult guidance and very little training in
basic life skills.
In the Donetsk region of Ukraine, there are thousands of children who are listed
as orphans. Across the region there are 9 orphanage-schools that house around
300 orphans each and there are 40+ others that house 50-100 orphans each.
Within the orphanage system in the city of Mariupol alone, there are at least
500 of these children.
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