Emergency Response Center For Mother's With Children
After they leave the orphanage, the girls live in dormitories at their vocational schools. They can become pregnant. What is the solution? Abortion? They need housing and an education. What can a young girl do to provide for a child?
But there are people who can give these girls another scenario. These people can give them an option that is not abortion and help take care of women with newborn babies.
But there are people who can give these girls another scenario. These people can give them an option that is not abortion and help take care of women with newborn babies.
Emergency Response Center For Mother's With Children
"In our Center, women or girls who are caught up in difficult life circumstances are able to stay with their newborn babies." - says the Center's director, Nina Zakharchenko - "Here they get the necessary treatment, and undergo psychological rehabilitation. We help them to recover lost documents and find work. Regional social services often send us girls who were pregnant and living on the street. We need to take them out of the maternity hospital and straight to our Center because they have nowhere else to go."
WHO IS IN THE CENTER
Catherine Stefak is twenty two years old and from Coloma, near Ivano-Frankivsk. She became pregnant in Kyiv in December 2015. She traveled to the capitol to see the father of her unborn child who was working in Kyiv, but he did not meet her when she arrived.
After someone stole her bag with documents and money, she lived for some months at the train station. When it came time to for her to give birth, Katie was advised to give up the child to an orphanage because she had no residence documents.
After someone stole her bag with documents and money, she lived for some months at the train station. When it came time to for her to give birth, Katie was advised to give up the child to an orphanage because she had no residence documents.
The pediatrician's assistant sympathized with her. So she went to the Center.
"At the Center, they helped me recover my documents. The village council found my old passport that someone had thrown away. I am so happy! Now I go to an evangelical church and am baptized. I want to live with God. He always takes care of my son" - believes Kate.
"Catherine was deprived of her parental rights to her three sons. Kate says that she used to drink with her old friends but now she has started a new life with God. And we are seeing that this year has brought her good changes." - says Tamara Murashko, a Center worker. "This young woman is praying and working to build relationships with her mother and wants to return to Coloma. During this time her mother and friends noticed real improvements in Katie's life."
Tamara works with troubled girls for over fifteen years. She has experience and patience to support young women as their mentor and sometimes as a substitute mother.
"At the Center, they helped me recover my documents. The village council found my old passport that someone had thrown away. I am so happy! Now I go to an evangelical church and am baptized. I want to live with God. He always takes care of my son" - believes Kate.
"Catherine was deprived of her parental rights to her three sons. Kate says that she used to drink with her old friends but now she has started a new life with God. And we are seeing that this year has brought her good changes." - says Tamara Murashko, a Center worker. "This young woman is praying and working to build relationships with her mother and wants to return to Coloma. During this time her mother and friends noticed real improvements in Katie's life."
Tamara works with troubled girls for over fifteen years. She has experience and patience to support young women as their mentor and sometimes as a substitute mother.
"I remember Kate Danyluk, an orphan from the orphanage. We took her in as an orphan because she lived in a dormitory." Tamara recalls - "In university, she became pregnant with a son. Now she would be homeless and everyone advised her to have an abortion. But we met Katya and persuaded her to give birth and offered her support. We took her from the hospital with the infant in a wheelchair."
Kate asked about everything. She was able to learn about basic household items because someone was there she could ask and learn from. Kate was a wonderful mother. Her boy was bathed twice a day and she carefully nursed him. We purchased specific products because the little boy had allergies. And all the time she kept saying, 'Why do is the baby doing this?' With our psychologists, we prayed with Kate and tried in every way to support her. Now she lives with the little boy in the Odessa Center For Mothers With Children. When the boy was one, he went to daycare. Kate got a job. In Kyiv, she graduated from the School of Hospitality Management. There, in Odessa she wants to go to university and work part time. She wants to learn a foreign language and takes courses in English and Italian. Every evening Kate calls me and tells me how they are doing. Artemka is two years old and he is so smart and every night he tells me new Italian words over the phone."
Tamara has worked fifteen years at the Center and has become a mother and grandmother for many young women and their children.
Kate asked about everything. She was able to learn about basic household items because someone was there she could ask and learn from. Kate was a wonderful mother. Her boy was bathed twice a day and she carefully nursed him. We purchased specific products because the little boy had allergies. And all the time she kept saying, 'Why do is the baby doing this?' With our psychologists, we prayed with Kate and tried in every way to support her. Now she lives with the little boy in the Odessa Center For Mothers With Children. When the boy was one, he went to daycare. Kate got a job. In Kyiv, she graduated from the School of Hospitality Management. There, in Odessa she wants to go to university and work part time. She wants to learn a foreign language and takes courses in English and Italian. Every evening Kate calls me and tells me how they are doing. Artemka is two years old and he is so smart and every night he tells me new Italian words over the phone."
Tamara has worked fifteen years at the Center and has become a mother and grandmother for many young women and their children.
41-year old Ludmila Karpenko was forced to leave her older, twenty year old son and eight family members in Vasilevka, and go to work.
The creamery, where she previously worked, had been made into scrap metal. Hundreds of people from other villages and from the Vasylevka Lebedinsky district were forced to seek work in the capital or abroad.
Ludmila worked as a cashier and administrator in the metropolitan supermarket. And then, already pregnant, went to work in Poland. She worked ten hours a day harvesting vegetables in a field. She returned with her earnings and moved to Kyiv where she gave birth to a boy. As it turned out, immediately after the birth, she found out her son had underdeveloped lungs and the doctors did not give her any hope that he would survive.
Ludmila turned to evangelical Christians and asked them to pray for the child. After a night of prayers, she found the boy in an intensive care unit which was disconnected from the respirator.
The creamery, where she previously worked, had been made into scrap metal. Hundreds of people from other villages and from the Vasylevka Lebedinsky district were forced to seek work in the capital or abroad.
Ludmila worked as a cashier and administrator in the metropolitan supermarket. And then, already pregnant, went to work in Poland. She worked ten hours a day harvesting vegetables in a field. She returned with her earnings and moved to Kyiv where she gave birth to a boy. As it turned out, immediately after the birth, she found out her son had underdeveloped lungs and the doctors did not give her any hope that he would survive.
Ludmila turned to evangelical Christians and asked them to pray for the child. After a night of prayers, she found the boy in an intensive care unit which was disconnected from the respirator.
"Your child is a living miracle" - said the stunned doctors to Ludmila's surprise. Ludmila believes in the power of prayer and that God almighty is interested in her personal life.
When Ludmila was discharged from the hospital, she lived on the streets. After a month of wandering around, some Christians sent her to the Emergency Response Center For Mothers With Children In Kyiv.
It has been a year and she is a different woman. It is especially difficult to live in a Center with other young mothers, graduates of orphanages, who do not have the basic skills in handling life. To teach and to help, a Center worker is there daily and also more skilled women help temporarily.
Ludmila's husband tragically died shortly after the birth of David. Her parents live with her brother who is disabled. He does not speak and cannot walk and needs constant care.
Ludmila Karpenko wants to wait until the baby grows and can place him in kindergarten and then she can find a job and rent an apartment. She will then be able to leave the Center.
It has been a year and she is a different woman. It is especially difficult to live in a Center with other young mothers, graduates of orphanages, who do not have the basic skills in handling life. To teach and to help, a Center worker is there daily and also more skilled women help temporarily.
Ludmila's husband tragically died shortly after the birth of David. Her parents live with her brother who is disabled. He does not speak and cannot walk and needs constant care.
Ludmila Karpenko wants to wait until the baby grows and can place him in kindergarten and then she can find a job and rent an apartment. She will then be able to leave the Center.
"If we do not help the women and girls who are in difficult circumstances, the system of orphanages will be in effect for a very long time" - said Alexei Fedchenko, the coordinator of the Center, "Save Ukraine." He is also one of the founders of the ICO Center "ChildRescue Services"
Alexei leads the management of the project, "Center For Emergency Care For Mothers With Children." This Center is for female graduates of orphanages and pregnant women who have nowhere else to go. It is these young mothers who are in the area of greatest risk.
"If we do not take them in, they will be forced to abandon the child and we have become the buffer that prevents abandonment. War breeds orphans, illegitimate and abandoned children. What we will see in this scale in a few years time, we do not know, but we must be prepared to work with mothers," says Alexi Fedchenko, "These crisis Centers are working across the country, especially on the edges. The plans of the organization - creating the Center For Combating Violence, which over time can be victims of violence as well as pregnancies resulting from rape. The purpose of the ICO staff, "ChildRescue Services" is to save the lives and health of unborn children and to save babies from orphanages.
"We support women with children and help them get firmly back on their feet. It is a comprehensive system of measures to prevent child abandonment in Ukraine" - says Alexi Fedchenko - "We refuse to send children to orphanages and gather resources from the communities. We support families and family care of children"
Alexei leads the management of the project, "Center For Emergency Care For Mothers With Children." This Center is for female graduates of orphanages and pregnant women who have nowhere else to go. It is these young mothers who are in the area of greatest risk.
"If we do not take them in, they will be forced to abandon the child and we have become the buffer that prevents abandonment. War breeds orphans, illegitimate and abandoned children. What we will see in this scale in a few years time, we do not know, but we must be prepared to work with mothers," says Alexi Fedchenko, "These crisis Centers are working across the country, especially on the edges. The plans of the organization - creating the Center For Combating Violence, which over time can be victims of violence as well as pregnancies resulting from rape. The purpose of the ICO staff, "ChildRescue Services" is to save the lives and health of unborn children and to save babies from orphanages.
"We support women with children and help them get firmly back on their feet. It is a comprehensive system of measures to prevent child abandonment in Ukraine" - says Alexi Fedchenko - "We refuse to send children to orphanages and gather resources from the communities. We support families and family care of children"