Progress in Canada

With Christmas nearing, we are working hard to wrap up our reports and dive into the next wave of activity. We are processing the assortment of information gathered in Ukraine, whilst working on the final editing of our International Best Practices Report! Work is largely desk oriented at present, but very busy. We are hoping these reports will serve a dual purpose: 1. to inform Canadians on what is going on with Child Care in Ukraine, and 2. to inform Ukrainian child care practitioners and government officials of the situation of their at-risk youth, discuss the strengths of the Ukrainian system, and offer suggestions of how to improve their system. We are working away on these reports hoping to have them ready for publishing by Christmas!

Our Life Skills Team is continuing to work on developing the modules for our curriculum! We have 3 modules well on their way, leaving 7 yet to be developed! So far we have covered maintaining the home, kitchen safety, and personal hygiene; meal planning and nutrition; and the program introduction with the development of group work and trust building! Each module is developed, the adapted to best suit the Ukrainian situation and culture, then written into a formal curriculum. Our final product will be a comprehensive package that we can hand over to the government to be broadly implemented in orphanages throughout Ukraine should the government choose to do so.

And so, our work on the Canadian side of things continues. The work is certainly accompanied with its frustrations and feelings of being overwhelmed. However, keeping in mind the ultimate goal of affecting child care in Ukraine and improving the life opportunities of at-risk youth is good motivation!

Some other points of interest:

1. World Hope Canada just completed their bi-annual meeting of the Board of Directors. After being updated on the progress of the LifeStart Odessa project, the Board re-affirmed our activity in Ukraine. 

2. Ukraine has been experiencing some anti-government protests this week, originating in Kiev, but spreading throughout the major urban centres of the country. I have been unable to find a reliable media report on the issue, but keep your eyes peeled for new developments! 

Life Here and Life There

I have enjoyed being apart of life in Hope House for the past few weeks. Every day is entirely different, with new drama and fun. There is a huge garden here, which provide food for everyone here all year long. With the frost coming, it was time to pull the carrots and store them in the cellar. Each girl took their turn in the garden. It was great to see the teamwork :)

Kristina and Tanya took the first shift

A bit later, Nadya and Vika took their turn

On a different note, I've been working with a translator here, Lena, one of the girls who used to live in Hope House, to translate the video footage of the interviews with the Hope House girls. As the details of the conversations came to light, I was surprised to realise that almost all of these girls came from large families. Like big, too big for the parents (usually single a single mom) to provide for. And so, another problem of why kids are on the street and in the orphanages comes to light.

Back in August, our Life Skills Team decided to create a section addressing high rates of teen pregnancy among at-risk youth. The section will include a little bit about maternal health and healthy pregnancy and a little bit about responsible pregnancy. Learning about these huge families, how the size of the family may lead to the neglect of a child, and that many of these families were started with a very young mother, I am reaffirmed in the importance of this section.

One of the Hope House girls, Luba, with her little brother. Luba was living in a small house with about 30 people. Her brother is still living there, but he came to visit his sister at Hope House

And, from what I hear, the Life Skills Team is working away in Canada, following the rigorous work plan and hammering out the first few modules of the curriculum. Our Foster Care Team is well under way as well. I look forward to returning to Canada this week and catching up on all the goings on! Being here these few short weeks, I am fully convinced at how helpful the LifeStart Odessa pilots can be!