Thousands of Ukrainian Orphans Need Hope, Love, a Future and a Better Life Then What They Have Been Given
Too many orphans reside in Ukrainian Orphanages and will get nothing for Christmas. Sadly, too many even live in the streets. In fact, hundreds of thousands. Cold, wet, hungry with little chance for a future and very little hope that things will change.
(PRWEB) December 19, 2004
From: The United Orphaned ChildrenÂ’s Fund of Philadelphia. Established to help disadvantaged children and youth in the country of Ukraine.
December 18, 2004
The world sure has changed in one year. But not a whole lot changes for the thousands of street children and orphans living in Ukraine. No family, little future, and so little hope. The current events there have brought some light to this country that has been somewhat secluded from the rest of the world. A darkness of social and political corruption has had a firm grip on this former Soviet Union republic. The tug-a-war between the West and the East has Ukraine placed squarely in the middle of Democratic reform and Russian domination. With Russia flexing its muscles once again, and trying very hard to “fix” the outcome of the current Presidential election going on there, Ukraine is in a crux. Will there be freedom from corruption? Will there be Democratic reform? And will the economic crisis ever end?
Meanwhile the children are suffering. Family life there has been diminishing. “For the close to the 70 or so odd years when Ukraine was under Soviet domination, the Soviet government made every effort to create a new being reflecting the glory of their proletarian philosophy and the workers’ revolution. This resulted in a stilted creature called “Homo Sovieticus”. Unfortunately, this merely brought out extreme manifestations of the worst social attributes in the Ukrainian populace, and a massive breakdown of the basic unit of society, the family. The result of this socialist experiment is a large amount of children in Ukraine know who have been abandoned. Many live on the streets, others maybe considered luckier, and are living in orphanages. What took 70 years to destroy cannot be rebuilt in a day…a week… a month… a year… a decade… or even a generation. But that does not mean we can close our eyes to this tragedy, and hope it goes away. For if even my smallest brother cries, do not I cry too? We must do what we can to dry their tears, and give them a little bit of joy in their lives.” Insert by Nykola Rudnytzky and Ihor Stefan Bilynsky.
The UOCFP is growing slowly, but unfortunately there is a limit as to what we can do right now. But there is no limit as to what we can do in the future, if we had more support behind us. So, why should you care and support us? Well, thousands of orphaned children desperately need your help, and that should be sufficient enough. Like we say on our web site; you canÂ’t ignore a child that truly needs your help. You canÂ’t be blind to a bad situation. You must do all you can to help. If you donÂ’t, then what kind of person are you?
On a bright note, finally our book, Mountains of Grace, is completed! It soon will be available through Xlibris. You will be able to order it through our web site, or soon through the Ingram Publishing and Xlibris sites. We are truly proud of this fifty plus page (11” x 8.5”) photo picture book, with our story about our bicycle ride across Europe in the summer of 2000, and about my subsequent trip afterwards in 2002. With fifty breathtaking color photos, flashbacks about our ride across Europe, and weeks spent in the Carpathian Mountains with the really wonderful Ukrainian orphans, we think you will find it most interesting. Plus any proceeds received from the book will support our projects. The book will retail for around twenty dollars in soft back. Please check our web site (uocfp. org) for the latest info about this book and how you can order it.
And by the way, please by all means check out our new web site! We are constantly improving it and recently we changed it again. Instead of using the colors dark red and black, we changed it to blue and yellow, the colors of the Ukrainian flag. These colors are symbolic, as blue stands for the vast Ukrainian sky, and yellow stands for the thousands of square miles of wheat fields.
In 2005, we plan to make at least one or possibly two humanitarian trips to Ukraine. On one trip, we hope to join (God willing) Sister Mary Bernarda Arkatyn, a eighty plus year old nun who has been traveling to Ukraine for the past decade delivering aid, food, clothing and a little spiritual uplifting to hundreds of orphans from all over Ukraine. She spends two months traveling all about visiting more than two-dozen different orphanages and pays for most of the expenses herself! It will be an honor to help her and to spend some time with this remarkable nun and travel with her to many of the orphanages she usually visits.
Please read about our other 2005 projects on our web site. We’ve listed them, and also added a “results” column right next to them. Raising money seems to be the hardest task we consistently face, but it is very easy to find a million ways were it could be spent and were it is much needed. If you could help us this year, it would be much appreciated. Please remember, its much better to give then receive. But even if you can’t or won’t support us, still drop us a line and let us know how you feel about what we are doing. Any form of feedback is always appreciated.
May everyone who takes the time to read this letter have a peaceful and blessed holiday season. May you find yourself, your family and friends healthy and in good spirits. Just donÂ’t forget, of all the treasures in this world, there is nothing more precious than giving someone a piece of your heart! Thousands of orphaned kids in Ukraine need your love. Please show them that you care!
May God truly bless and look after all of the orphans in the world!
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all!
Sincerely,
Steve Vetterlein and Olexandra Hnypiouk of the UOCFP
Www. uocfp. org
###
