Changes

And here, we think the winter is a slow and sleepy time, when in actual fact, life is racing along, bring all kinds of twists and turns and changes!

A spurt of cold weather in Odessa (yes, even cold by Canadian standards!) has caused the closure of two of the orphanages in which WHU staff work. At the moment, the orphanages have closed for one week. Our staff are hoping to get back to their regular schedule and time with the kids by next week! Please continue to think of them as they navigate Ukraine's wintry roads.

The foster care pilot has seen a number of changes.Towards the end of December, two more of our girls, sisters, decided to leave their foster home. This time, however, the departure was bitter-sweet. On the one hand, our team and the foster parents were sad to have the girls leave. On the other hand, these sisters will be living as a family with their older sister, who was not apart of the foster care pilot and is currently attending university in Odessa. World Hope Ukraine was glad that they were able to help the sisters obtain the necessary document, so that they are able to receive government financial support, and enroll them in college. The foster parents are keeping in touch and making sure the girls are managing. 

On a lighter note, three more young women were able to enter the pilot and be placed in homes in the last month. Three girls from Hope House, Yana, Tanya and Tanya, were placed in two foster homes. The placement of these girls in foster homes is two fold: one, the girls are living with families, feeling the love, support, and consistency of a family unit, and two, their placement in foster homes has opened up beds in Hope House. Sergiy has already mentioned that orphanages have been contacting him, requesting that they take new girls at the end of this school year! It looks as though Hope House will be full again before too long!

Finally, we can welcome a new set of foster parents to the team, Danik and Sveta! Dina spent long hours preparing them to welcome Yana into their home. 

And so, our project has once again hit some bumps in this road. Nonetheless, onward we go, doing and hoping the best for these girls!

A Study

We are currently doing a study comparing girls who have transitioned directly from the orphanages to independent living and girls who have lived in Hope House, a transition home for you women run by World Hope Ukraine and World Hope Canada.

So far, we have gathered information on girls who have left Hope House and transitioned to independent living in the last 3 years. Currently, we are gathering information on young women who went directly from the orphanage to independent living. We are hoping for a sample group of 10-20 girls.

Yulia and Veronika outside their dorm in Odessa

Today, I met with two girls who graduated from their respective orphanages in June and are currently living in a students dorm in Odessa. We conducted a short interview with the girls, asking them about their living conditions, education, income, and personal relationships. I had heard from the girls at Hope House how poor the student dorms were and this interview confirmed this information with facts. 

Both these girls have the status of orphan, which means they draw on a government stipend. However, though  their stipend is supposed to be 2,200 grivnas every month (about $300 a month) on which to subsist, in reality they have only received 1,100 grivnas for two months (about $140 for two months) on which to subsist. The cost of things in Ukraine is similar to prices in Canada. Soviet prices are certainly a thing of the past. 

The girls mentioned they eat no breakfast, have a plain bun and coffee for lunch, and soup or oatmeal for supper. They eat meat maybe once a week and said they never buy fruit because it is too expensive.  One of the girls is suffering from stomach problems from a poor diet. 

Finally, we asked about the dorm. One of the girls said they had one toilet for 40 students and no shower. If she wanted to shower, she went to her friends dorm, where one shower and one toilet was shared with 25 students. They described the kitchen, which had broken ovens and rats.

The girls excited at the options of what they could eat from our Foster Care Coordinator, Dina

Happily, we were able to provide some food and a treat to the girls, but this felt vastly inadequate... 

What this study has told me so far is how many of these students need assistance. Even if we obtain government support and stipends for these girls, life is still difficult. They may not receive the full sum of their stipend. These girls typically have no family to turn to and their orphanages are poorly equipped to provide any help once the girls leave the orphanage.Some are not even provided with enough underwear or bedding to start them off in the dorm. They have nothing and receive little. And worse, they have no one to turn to for help.

We are still hoping the government will support our girls in foster care. This way, these girls would be able to live with a family, have regular meals and stable living conditions. In addition, they would also have adults to care about them and advocate for them. Our pilot is only able to place 6 girls in foster homes. However, we are currently starting a rigorous government relations campaign in order to influence the government to make good on laws they already have. Laws for a foster system exist here, but the government is so far not adhering to them. 

I had thought that once the project was implemented, it would be smooth sailing. As it turns out, we have entered into a vital period and important work lies ahead of us!

Viktoria and Yulia enjoying a meal

Ongoing Partnership

Having launched the pilot three months ago and with increasing interest from the Canadian International Development Agency, another trip was in order. This trip consists of Sheldon, Project LifeStart Odessa's Project Manager, and myself, Andrea, coming to work more with World Hope Ukraine and see for ourselves how things are settling in. The trip was inspired by our CIDA Project Officer, who wanted to come and see the project as well!

Early in the trip we spent a full day introducing our Project Officer, Annie, to not only the foster homes and life skills teachers, but also to Hope House, which was the result of a previous CIDA-funded project. 

Everyone pitching in to get Sunday lunch ready at Hope House. 

On any given Sunday, anywhere from 15-30 people may come for lunch! This Sunday was no exception :)

And a Ukrainian business lunch. Sergiy, the Director of World Hope Ukraine, 

is deep in conversation with Annie and Natalya, officers from CIDA and the Canadian Embassy in Ukraine.

 

And more talking... there was no end to the discussion and questions. 

Sustainability of the project was the issue of the day and the discussion was very useful.

We were also able to spend some time with two of our foster parents (Sergiy and Larissa) and their foster girls (Katya and Olya). We spoke in detail about the placement of the girls and the adjustment process for both the foster parents and the girls. More discussion will certainly follow as we do assessments of the pilots, but so far the feedback three months into the pilot has been very encouraging. 

We were also able to celebrate the implementation of the project with the whole project team from World Hope Ukraine. We has a lovely evening talking about the project, future goals and steps to be taking, and just generally celebrating a good start! It was a treat for everyone :)

Left to Right: Sheldon (Project Manager), Valya (Life Skills Teacher), Andrea (Project Assistant), Kostya (Life Skills Coordinator), Lina (Hope House Mom), Alyona (Life Skills Teacher), Dina (Foster Care Coordinator), Sergiy (WHU Director)

And so it has been a good week, busy and productive. Sheldon is on his way back to Canada with an armful of new information to report to CIDA, whereas I will be here in Ukraine another two weeks working with the World Hope Ukraine team and seeing the pilots in action!

And so it begins!

At long last, after more than a year of preparation, the day has come to implement the pilots! Team Foster Care (Rick, Anita, and myself) arrived in Odessa on 19 June tired, but unscathed! This past week has been a busy one of training Dina, our World Hope Ukraine’s Foster Care Coordinator, in her many roles and responsibilities. This has also been a long process of editing the protocols, ensuring a final product that would work in Ukraine, culturally, politically, and financially.

Day one of the training. We had a full house as we introduced the foster care protocols to World Hope Ukraine Staff. From left to right we have Dina (Foster Care Coordinator), Marina (Translator), Rick (Canadian Team Trainer), Kostya (Life Skills Project Coordinator), Sergiy (WHU Director), Tatiyana (First Step Centre Coordinator), Lina (Head of Hope House), Anita (Canadian Team Trainer).  

Working around the table 

Rick and Anita: Expert Volunteer Trainers!

So far things have gone very well. The work has been tiring, but we’ve also had the opportunity to explore the city, hit the beach, enjoy the sunshine, and hangout with everyone at Hope House.  We have another week of foster care training ahead of us, including working with foster parents!

Here is everyone gathered for a birthday celebration at Hope House.

And so, all is well in Odessa! We’ve had one busy and productive week of training with Team Foster Care. Team Life Skills will all be here shortly and ready to start our week of life skills training! 

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! 

A Sunday of Business and Barbeques!

Today, Sunday, was both a fun and relaxing day, as well as incredibly busy. We went to church with the girls this morning. A number of the girls sing in the church choir. It was pretty cool to see them up and participating in community activities. One of the girls, Anya, sang a beautiful solo, to boot! 

The choir

Anya hitting every note beautifully! 

Sergei promised us an authentic Ukrainian barbeque, complete with shishkabobs (шашлык) and Sunday was our day. It was a fun event for the girls and Sergei provided a fantastic spread! :) I told him, due to his excellent barbequing skills, he could be an honourary Canadian :) Such a great meal! 

 The Cook and his son, hard at work! 

We got to try Kvac, an inexplicable drink that you will just have to try for yourself. 

Here's Matt and Sergei enjoying the Kvas.

The girls helping Alla prepare the feast and milling about waiting for the feast

The house, with 13 girls, 2 adults, any number of guests, plus 2 Canadian males (our videographers) and a wannabe Slav (me), is a mighty busy place. I love it when I can join the girls in just doing what they do. Here are a couple of the girls just kicking around on a Sunday afternoon.

Luba tickling the ivories. She would like to become a musician. 

She practices often and plays beautifully.

And Tanya cuddling one of the cats that hang out by the back door waiting for scraps. (Cats are not typically domesticated and brought indoors here... they are only brought inside if there is mousing to be done) :)

Our evening was filled with interviews. We had interviewed 3 of the girls on Friday night before the camera equipment was drained (not to mention the camera crew). This left 10 girls to be interviewed tonight. It was a mighty task, but all was well. It was hard to hear the stories of the girls. Some were quite open, whereas others were very closed about their pasts, their presents, and their futures. I see these girls every day in a normal way of life. It was crazy to hear a bit about their backgrounds! For instance, one girl was abandoned by her mother at birth, then spent her whole life in the orphanage until coming here to Hope House. Another girl was beaten by her step dad and ran away, living on the streets until finding her way to Hope House through First Step Centre. Another girl's father had died and her mother was an alcoholic and unable to provide for her children. Another girl lived in a house with 28 other people, leaving no space for her even to sleep. She was able to come here and have her own bed and a place to study and grow. 

Such heavy lives these girls have. However, seeing them her in Hope House operating in a family unit and thriving reinforces in my mind how beneficial family-based care is and how important our foster care pilot for the LifeStart Odessa Project is! Hopefully we can remind the government here of the importance of family-based care and have them perpetuate and expand the foster pilot!

Child Care and Street Kids

Today we had our first full day of shooting footage for the LifeStart Odessa Project! First, we headed off to hear Sergei, the Executive Director of World Hope Ukraine, speak at a seminar to encourage people who work in child care. 

Sergei telling a joke during his speech at the seminar

Proof that our videographers are working hard

From the seminar, we headed to the First Step Centre (Клуб Первыи Шаг), a drop in centre for street kids. Municipal elections are under way at the moment here in Odessa, so the police have very recently "cleaned" the streets of street kids. That is, the police had combed the city, picking up as many street kids as they could, and brought them to a temporary shelter (Приют). As a result, there were not many kids hanging about the shelter. Nonetheless, we were able to meet and speak with a few kids. I hung out at the shelter, whilst Matt and Adam had the opportunity to see an apartment where two boys live with their alcoholic mother, as well as where kids sleep on the street. 

Some of the stories are quite brutal to hear. One boy I had a conversation with a boy (in my very broken Russian and his very slurred speech) who was quite obviously high. I asked one of the women at the shelter what he might be high on. She said it was most likely glue that he was sniffing, but he was a drug addict and would take whatever drugs he could get. 

Here is the cook of First Step Centre. We had lunch at the centre, which was delicious! No wonder these kids stop in! 

We also met a boy, Andre, who, through the shelter, turned his life around. We were able to interview him and hear his story. He was very open about talking, though also quite shy. He was living on the streets and was a drug addict. He would steal to feed his drug habit, but also to provide for himself. Somehow, he came to First Step Centre. For a time, he just came for what provisions they offered: a shower, food, clean clothes. But, after a time and through the relationships he made there, Andre decided to clean up and smarten up. He is now going through technical school, off drugs, receiving a government stipend, and living in the students dorm. He comes back to First Step Centre to maintain the relationships he made there and to constantly say thank you to them for helping him. I asked him what he wanted for the future. His answer was quite simple: he wanted a normal and good life. I think this is an achievable goal! :) 

Two girls who come to First Step Centre with Kostya, who works at the shelter and is also our LifeStart Project Coordinator.

We will be returning to First Step Centre tomorrow to interview the staff and hopefully a number of the kids. The more we learn about the needs of these kids, the better. Meeting and chatting with these kids of the street stood in start contrast to chatting with the energy and openness of the girls in Hope House, a few of whom had lived on the streets and most of whom have only lived in Hope House since June. The kids in the shelter were distant, reserved, and they laughed and played very little. We were also told by one of the workers at First Step Centre that these kids will give false names and they may only learn their real names after months, if ever. 

 A few kids who stopped in and grabbed a bit at First Step Centre

Yesterday, we also received some wonderful news here at Hope House. There is a girl in the community here, Kristina, (a friend of Luba, one of the girls in Hope House) who needed a bit of support. She was living off 200 grivnas (Ukrainian currency ~$30 CDN) a month, which was the stipend she was receiving from her college. However, from this 200 grivnas, she needed to pay 150gr to stay in the students dorm of this college, leaving here only 50gr to live on for the month! There are a number of problems with this situation. One, the student dorms was terrible. Everything is dirty, more than 20 students are sharing one kitchen with one stove, and there was no adult supervision over the students. Second, 50 grivnas is no where near enough to live off. Kristina, who is training to be a cook, would only be able to eat on Wednesdays at her practicum and would come stay at Hope House on the weekends and eat here. She was only able to eat 3 out of the 7 days each week! Though she and all the girls here wanted her to come live in Hope House, the house was at capacity and there was no more space for another girl. However, due to a change in the wind, Kristina was able to come live at Hope House and become a part of this wacky family. She has quickly adjusted to the routine of the house. The goal of the LifeStart Project is to encourage family-based care for at-risk youth. I think Kristina is excellent proof of the benefits of family-style and seeing how a family will come together to care for and support each other :)

And here is one of the Hope House girls, Lena, being silly after supper whilst Adam tries to repair the very out of tune guitar. These girls have so much energy and usually are full of laughter :)

Odessa, Ukraine!

Hello from Odessa!

We've been working on the project from Canada for over 4 months now on various aspects of the project. Over these months, a number of questions came up and we figured it was necessary for one of our project staff to venture away to Odessa and sort out some of these details! I arrived here in Odessa on Thursday (after departing Canada on Wednesday), 14 October and will be here for 3 weeks, living in Hope House and  working on the project!

The daughter of Lina, the mom of Hope House, got married on Saturday. As a result, the house was completely chaotic! Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun, both for me and the girls.Here is a shot of the wedding ceremony. A number of the girls in the bridal party are girls from Hope House. 

It has been a bit of an adjustment, so far. I hadn't realised how reliant I was on certain amenities that are so easily had in Canada, such as the internet! Only today, on day 5 of my trip, were we able to sort out any kind of regular internet usage! As a result, this blog posting is much longer than I intended! 

There are 13 girls here at Hope House have they have all been wonderful to me. My Russian is very broken and most of them are very patient with me and willing to explain and re-explain things to me until I understand. I have had the opportunity to sit and chat with a few of them and learn a little bit about their lives. A few have been very open with me about where they came from, where their parents are, and why they were in the orphanages. Others, however, will not talk about their pasts. The girls come from a variety of backgrounds and situations. For instance, one of the girls came to Hope House through the First Set Centre after living on the street. Another they met through a local church. Most of the girls, however, are from the orphanages. Some receive a pension from the government, whereas others receive nothing. To be part of this program and stay in Hope House, each girl must attend a college. By attending college, they receive a small stipend. However, this stipend is no where near enough to live on. 

A number of the girls at Hope House are new, only having arrived at some point this summer. Here is a photo of a few of the girls and myself with Sergei Petrovich, the Director of World Hope Ukraine. 

The girls seem to thrive here. Hope House is a family-style home, where adults care and take care of these girls. Money and parental supervision and care seem to be key aspects most of the at-risk kids here lack. Lina and Alla, the two women that live here in Hope House and work with the girls, provide them with the love and care necessary for these girls to thrive. The house is currently at capacity. However, there are still more girls who want to live here. This style of living is incredible successful for girls who want a better life for themselves. Still, though, there is so much that can be done to help them! Our hope is that our current project will provide more opportunities for youth to live in family-type homes. Seeing how these girls thrive here proves how easy it is to improve opportunities for these kids! 

Here are 2 of the Hope House girls walking along the road from Hope House.

So, our first task on this trip in Ukraine is to start shooting some film footage. From this footage we will create  videos for public engagement in Canada, but also for an educational video for child care practitioners here in Ukraine. We hope this video will reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the Ukrainian child care system, and also offer some recommendations and show how successful family-based care can be!

Here are two of the girls, Luba and Kristina. We went out for a treat, a Ukrainian-style milk shake, between the wedding ceremony and the reception. Luba lives with us at Hope House and Kristina is a friend of hers. We are all hoping that Kristina, despite Hope House already being so full, will soon be able to live in Hope House as well.

Our 2 videographers, Matt and Adam, arrived today. We picked up these two weary Canadians and brought them back to Hope House to meet 13 energetic teenage girls. We will start shooting footage ASAP, everything from life here in Hope House, to life on the street and in orphanages, to life in general in Odessa. 

Back in Canada, our volunteer teams are continuing to working away on developing a set of foster care protocols to be implemented in our foster care pilot here in Odessa and a life skills curriculum to be implemented in the orphanages. 

And that is all for now! Providing the internet keeps working, I will hopefully be able to provide you with regular postings of the goings on! 

And here is a typical street scene in Odessa. Public transit here is an experience unto itself! :)