Vika - A Success Story in the Making

This is the story of Vika K.  She was born in the Odessa region of Ukraine on November 6, 1989.  Ukraine declared independence on December 26, 1991, twenty-four days after the break up of the Soviet Union.  Vika’s early days are somewhat of a blur.  We have a few details of her first seven years.  At age 3, Vika’s mother and her current boyfriend in Odessa left her with her grandmother one evening and went out to drink the night away.  With this regular behavior of her mother, it was just a matter of time before Vika was removed from her mother’s custody and placed in a shelter.  Her mother’s boyfriend was quite attached to little Vika.  In no time, he stole Vika from the shelter and took her back to her mother.  In spite of his feelings for Vika, his own health was in jeopardy.  He died not long after.

To avoid the authorities, Vika and her mother moved to the village of Big Valley, about 20 kilometers southwest of Odessa.  Her mother soon found another guy to be her drinking buddy.  There were a number of alcoholics who gathered in a house that became the “home” of Vika and her mother.  This house, as you can guess, was not in very good condition at all.  For a child, much less a preschool child, it was just not acceptable.  The house had no windows to keep the cold out in the winter.  There was no way to heat the house either.  There were no kitchen or bathroom facilities.  It was a place to hide from life, but certainly not a place to live.  For Vika, it was very dangerous, even life threatening.

By the time that Vika had reached age 7, the people in the community of Big Valley were talking about Vika.  They were talking about her living among alcoholics.  It was 1996.  Life in Ukraine was still very difficult.  Rebuilding a country after 70 some years of oppression left everyone looking out for themselves.  People could talk and talk, but what could they do.  Who could afford to add one mouth to feed at their table?  Who had enough compassion to take this child into their home?  There was such a man.  His name was Victor K.  He went to this “house” one day and took her away from this terrible environment.  He brought her into his home to live with his family: his wife, two daughters, and two sons.  Vika’s mother didn’t put up a fight. She didn’t even object.

As time went along, Victor invited the mother to visit Vika at his house whenever she wanted.  It was seldom that she came to visit Vika.  She truly had no interest in her daughter.  She was controlled by the bottle.  Not long after, the house where the mother and her friends drank together burned down.  Had Victor not taken Vika, she surely would have died.

There was a building, maybe a house, on Victor’s farm land.  The mother and her boyfriend asked if they could live in this building.  He allowed this.  Also, he gave them work to take care of the cattle.  He would pay them in food and clothing only.   They were content with this arrangement.  It continued for 8 years.  During this time Vika’s mother, although she was living so close, showed no interest in her daughter.

Vika attended school in the village.  After school each day, she would come home and eat a snack.  Then, immediately she would go with her brothers to the field to herd the cattle.  Her life was not an easy life.  Life in Ukraine was not easy. Vika had an opportunity to live a “normal life” in the village.  Even so, her past would haunt her yet.  She had no legal papers documenting who she was.  This meant that she could not move forward with her education.  She could not even get a job without documents.  She baby-sat for income.  What else could she do?

Finally, in 2007, Vika’s documents were found after an exhaustive search through the public records in Odessa.  Vika is now “in the legal system.”  She has a chance to make a life for herself.  Unfortunately, she still needed help.  She found friends and spiritual guidance in the Illichevsk Baptist church. Maybe it was in 2004 that she made a commitment to Christ.  She has become very involved in the church activities.  She sings in the choir.  She has a very strong and beautiful voice.

Vika has the desire to improve her life.  Through the kindness of others, she has made it this far in life.  Now it is up to her to go the next step.  She has taken the examinations for University.  She passed the exams and has been accepted into the program.  Now she will need funding.  She cannot raise enough money working to pay her own way.  How will she go to the next step in her success story?

She applied for the Mission Ukraine Children’s Hope, (MUCH), Transportation Scholarship Program. After four long years of working in Odessa, and attending the university on the “session system,” (three weeks of lecture, twice a year), she graduated with a teaching degree.

Later that year, she married the son of the Senior Pastor of her church.

The following year, Vika gave birth to her first child. She and her husband Vitalik are very happy and are carving out a life for themselves.

It has been a difficult life for Vika. Some good people stepped into her life and gave her opportunities to move her life forward. She made her life a success through hard work and faith in God. She began her life as a burden to society, and now she gives positive contributions to her church and her society.

Sixty dollars a month made this life-changing opportunity possible. Two, three, or four sponsors could send a youth to higher education for $15.00 (four sponsors) to $30.00 (two sponsors) a month. Education is not so expensive; lack of education is devastating. Consider becoming a sponsor with MUCH and together break the cycle of poverty in Ukraine.

What About Education? Part 8

Happy days for today!

Some of us will be looking for work soon!

Continuing our discussion about morality and sex education in Ukraine, we should remember what it was like to be a child looking for answers about sex. In the orphanage/boarding school (OBS) that I focus on in this series, the children have many opportunities to watch movies, which have been approved by the administration, without supervision. Part of the reason that movies containing sex and violence are approved is because it is better to satisfy the curiosity of the children within the walls of the OBS. Unfortunately, there is no discussion or evaluation with the children about what the children see. They are left to make their own conclusions.

In Soviet times, mothers would not necessarily prepare their daughters for puberty and the biological changes that would take place. Imagine experiencing this in an OBS. I have watched the girls grow up over the past ten years and I was aware of the ones who were having difficulty dealing with their growing pains. It was obvious which girls were interested in boys, and which were lost in their self-consciousness. In either case, the girls need good examples and clear understanding of sexual morality.

When we started our program, a number of years ago, the focus came about because some of the children were sniffing glue. As we battled this chemical abuse toward the body, we began to understand other problems that the children were encountering. The program that we support, provided by a local church, reaches out to the children before they lose their innocence, if that is possible in an OBS. There are no funds available in the OBS budget to provide a program like this, so MUCH looks to a local church that already has this type of program. It is a big task. MUCH has been making a monthly donation to the church for someone to come to the OBS to teach the children. The personal attention helps the children, but we see bigger changes because of the program.

Looking at national statistics, I see big reasons to be afraid for the children. After leaving the OBS system, an alarming number of the children become involved in crime, end up in prison, or commit suicide. The very sad statistic is that 60% of the girls become involved in prostitution. There are many reasons for this, many are not their own decision, but the question remains, “What can we do to change the future potential of the children?” MUCH is opening doors to create new opportunities in education.

This church-run program is one of the three programs that MUCH supports at this OBS. In What About Education? Part 9, we will look into the computer program that is piquing the interest of many of the children. Their enthusiasm is on the rise.

What About Education Part 6

My second focus of outreach during my first six weeks living in Ukraine was the Emmaus Food Program. I began to support this program, operated by the local Baptist church, which reached out to children from difficult homes. Some of the children came to eat without having showered for days, some of the children arrived with lice in their hair, and others appeared in clothes that seemed to be stuck to their bodies.

After interacting with the children for a few years, I realized that no matter how good the program was, the children aged out when they graduated high school and had nowhere to go for help. What was next for them? This was the big question that entered my mind. My evaluation was that the children would continue to live with their parents, and many would follow in their footsteps, using alcohol and drugs to escape the seemingly hopeless situation of their lives. How could this cycle of poverty be broken?

One very powerful answer must be viewed as higher education. In 2007, I had a vision of helping students in financial need who qualified for higher education with transportation to and from Odessa. MUCH began the Transportation Scholarship Program, beginning with two students enrolled in a four-year university program. Transportation to and from Odessa universities in 2007 cost about a $1 a day. In 2012, the cost has risen to about $2.50. One of our students graduated last year, see our January 2012 Newsletter, but it was unfortunate that the second student dropped out of our program. Our third student began university in 2010, and she is doing very well. You can read about her in the June 2012 Newsletter.

Our first student who studied to be an English teacher, has since married, and she has given birth to a baby girl. In the future, she will use her education to help her get a good job, but for now, her education will help her to be a better mother. Our third student is studying nursing, in the area of pharmacology. Each student works through difficult times, but their desires and goals were stronger than the challenges that they faced.

I began to investigate the number of children in Illichevsk who are in need of financial help for higher education. I didn’t have to go far to learn that there are many. My current goal for the school year beginning September 2012, is to add four students to our existing program, which will total five students. To send five students to university, the transportation cost will be about $300 per month.

What About Education? Part 7 will focus on the educational programs at the Marganets orphanage that MUCH supports. These children all have some type of mental or physical challenge. Their ability to learn is different, therefore we want to focus on what motivates them the most and help them to excel. We will look more deeply into their needs in the next section.

What About Education - Intro

V. is preparing for her third year of medical college under the MUCH Transportation Scholarship

After ten years of developing the MUCH outreach programs for disadvantaged children and those with disabilities, we have sorted our programs into three categories: health care, education, and clothing. In this article, I will begin to discuss the topic of education.

The schools of Ukraine provide a good educational program, similar to that of the past Soviet educational system. Since the fall of Communism in 1991, Ukraine has been rebuilding itself as a country. One of the many realities during this time was the weakening of the educational system, in a large part, due to the fact that many of the teachers were not being paid.

The teachers, a breed of their own, continued as long as they could, providing the same quality of education as before. After many months of no pay, their personal economy became desperate. They began to take matters into their own hands. They charged the students in different ways. Some for grades, some for diplomas. That was then. Unfortunately, when you corrupt the moral fiber of a people whose government was already corrupt, changing that fiber to the positive, is not so easy.

Having spoken about this problem with some of the teachers that I interact with throughout Ukraine, I asked about the quality of education today. They all agreed that it had taken a turn for the worse two decade ago, but it was getting better. The computer age has helped education, but it has had an equally negative effect on the children. On the plus side, in 2011, the first generation of children born in freedom graduated high school. They, unlike their parents, learned the truth about the world and life in other countries, having access to an overwhelming amount of information. On the negative side, the children prefer the video games and anything that they can learn how to download for free. Becoming flooded with choices has greatly distracted the children from their focus on studies.

About six years ago, after watching the development of the children from difficult homes at the Emmaus Food Program in Illichevsk, I began to understand the bigger need for these children. It was higher education. Without it, their lives would most probably imitate that of their parents, low-income work, alcohol abuse, and no vision for their future. This is bad, but what makes it worse is that Ukraine is on the fast track to change, and change in a big way. You can read in the  http://tinyurl.com/2012jannewsletter about the first university graduate and the second student beginning her third, who participate(d) in the MUCH Transportation Scholarship Program.

I invite you to follow my article series at it unfolds.