A few months ago, I wrote about Sasha, who has a ministry to orphans in Vorzel, where Ruslan lived before we adopted him. You may remember that Ruslan had surgery on his legs, but he was not given any pain killer afterward. He was in such pain that one of the caregivers called Sasha, who brought the medicine Ruslan needed. The March 29 post tells the whole story.
Anyway, Sasha brings teams of volunteers to Ukraine every year to help update the orphanage facilities. The conditions are pretty grim. For example, the bathroom in Ruslan’s house didn’t have a toilet seat. It was just a cold (very cold) ceramic bowl with no top on the tank and you had to lift the plunger chain to flush. The flushing wasn’t a problem, but the lack of a toilet seat was bewildering. I kept thinking it must be broken and would certainly be replaced soon. I didn’t clue in until the very end that this was their permanent toileting situation. There's just NO money in that country for things like toilet seats for orphanages. Sasha writes in his latest newsletter about one bathroom with a water leak underneath the floor. The staff take turns every hour to soak up the water.
The volunteer teams are in Ukraine RIGHT NOW and Sasha just posted about their first ten days. It’s really amazing, the conditions they are facing, so I thought I would post a link so everyone can see for themselves.
Here is their latest newsletter: http://almaz.mailerlite.com/b5r2z4/2140246. Be sure to check out the story about Remodeling 70 Year Old Restrooms, and their effort to get a humidifier in some of the children's bedrooms.
Here is a link to their ministries homepage: http://almazgo.com/
A few people have been asking about how to give to his ministry. Sasha works closely with a few churches/ministries here in the states. If you want to give directly to the facility renovations, scroll down to the bottom of that first link and there is a church coordinating the donations.
There is also a ministry here called Father’s Heart that is hoping to hire a full time representative in Vorzel. According to IRS rules, they can’t raise funds for a specific person’s salary, but they CAN raise funds for the POSITION, so if you are looking to give MONTHLY to help finance the positions salary, this is the place to go. They are also taking a team of volunteers to Ukraine in June—late June, so you can give toward their upcoming missions trip or sign up to join them!
Their home page is here: http://www.fathersheartinc.com/home and details about their mission trip are here: http://www.fathersheartinc.com/upcoming_events_and_mission_trips
Feel free to e-mail me: marnie@afo.net if you have any questions about Sasha or these ministries. Even if you can't adopt, you can make a HUGE difference in the lives of these children by volunteering to go for a week or donating funds to help update their facilities. Believe me. They need your help.
While I totally support you wanting to help a ministry that helps the orphanages serve the children better, having no toilet seats is a common Rusiian occurence. The fact of the matter is they they get stolen as soon as they are installed, that's why any and every public or semi-public institution's toilets have no seats. One pees while standing (the French have elevated this to an art by having only holes in the floor of public bathrooms - an art performed by the user of the bathroom ;-). For the same reason people drive around with their car wipers unmounted (those get stolen as well). Socialism at work - it's a beautiful thing if you don't have to actually live there.
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