NEWS AND VIEWS
Concrete aid to Ukraine's people: helping the orphanage in Morshyn
by Anne Linden
When I left Stryi just before Christmas 2000, I knew I wanted to return to work with the local orphanages. But as I explained to Orysia, the friend and gymnasium vice-principal with whom I'd been living, before I did anything more, I wanted to see them myself.
I'd first helped the gymnasium, as a Peace Corps volunteer, to get textbooks and cassette players, later to obtain their first computers and printers. Then in the fall of 2000, I'd returned to teach English for three months. Teaching environmental science had been one of my assignments. I did a recycling project with one group, a "re-use" project with another. It was through this that I became acquainted with the area's three orphanages. But it was not until 2003 that I had an opportunity to visit - and even then - only one.
Earlier in the week, I'd had lunch with another former Peace Corps volunteer and in the course of our conversation had mentioned what I was hoping to do. Immediately, she took out her wallet and handed me a $100 dollar bill. "Spend it on textbooks," she told me. Neither of us knew the children would range in age from 2 to 8.
Following our visit to the orphanage, Orysia and I spent a glorious morning shopping. For $50 we bought three large anthologies of Ukrainian children's stories, reading books for the school's first graders, three sets of building blocks, crayons and coloring books and a ball. I couldn't believe what we had been able to buy for so little money. The other $50 I authorized Orysia to spend on pots and pans, once I cleared this with the donor. Then I personally bought a radio/cassette player along with children's stories on tape. I figured - wrongly - that because Orysia and I both knew the Stryi region's contact with the orphanage that we were acting prudently.
Sadly, it was the loving work of a friend in Poland that almost put an end to the project. She had contacted two international schools in Warsaw for donations - and, except for toys, the results had far exceeded her expectations. To make sure there was a special gift for each child in each of the three orphanages, she and her husband spent close to $400 themselves buying toys, fruit, nuts - items she felt would add to the children's Christmas celebration. Although she had wanted to accompany the 40 boxes of goodies herself, she was pregnant and unable to travel. So she and her husband had sent the Ukrainian couple who had been with them for the past four years instead.
What happened has remained a mystery. All we know for sure is that much of the food rotted and many of the items went astray.
When my friend finally heard, she was devastated. Hours and hours and hours of hard work - and expense. And seemingly for nothing.
* * *
It was the spring 2004 before either of us had even an inkling of what had happened. I was back in Stryi. This time the Stryi region coordinator had promised to take me to all three orphanages. Somehow my friend in Poland was being blamed for what had taken place. I was angry, ready to walk out. And visiting the first two orphanages in no way improved my mood.
Not one of the orphanages knew to expect us as everywhere the phone lines were down. No charades. The first good news I'd had.
In the facility I had visited earlier, I found eight Barbie dolls still in their original packaging being used as wall decorations. So was a set of blocks Orysia and I had purchased with some of the original $100 donation. A second set had disappeared. The next facility had received nothing. I couldn't believe it.
Perhaps there was hope, I thought as Orysia and I followed the Morshyn facility's director through the children's areas. In their main room, toys were grouped along the perimeter within easy reach of the children. "These came from Poland, the director explained, pointing to a group of trucks or a doll set or some large blocks." She knew each piece.
As the result of this experience, we changed the way we operate. Over time, we have developed an effective working relationship with the Morshyn facility's director. She identifies specific needs: one pair of size 36 boy's shoes, 20 pillow cases, 30 cups, a meat grinder. Then, based on funds we have available and often in consultation with one or more of our donors, I decide what we can do. Mutual trust based on accountability has become our modus operandi.
Larger items, such as the top-of-the-line domestic Bosch washing machine we purchased last fall, I not only buy myself but see delivered and installed. For smaller items such as a boy's winter coat, or items that would require me to devote days to shopping, such as a gas meter, I advance money. Whenever possible I insist upon receipts; when not, the director shows me what she had bought.
Recently, we have begun focusing on the individual needs of the various residents. One 8-year-old boy had long wanted to take music lessons. That has worked out so well that, beginning this fall, we will pay to have two children take music lessons and another art lessons. In addition, we plan to provide English classes several times a week, using textbooks we will purchase from the Stryi Gymnasium. We learned too late to do anything about it last year that children from the orphanage have not been receiving textbooks. We will see to it that this does not happen again.
We are looking for specialists to examine two of the children: one with cerebral palsy and a second born with only one hand. Depending on the results, we will seek funding for their care.
Finally, this fall we are hoping to involve the business community in renovating the children's bathroom; nothing has been done to it for 35 years according to the director and it needs total renovation. Unfortunately, the children's gym also needs renovation. A pipe broke during the winter of 2003, causing serious water damage. Unfortunately that will have to wait, as will my search for possible foster parents, and for help meeting the psychological needs of children of alcoholics.
Morshyn orphanage at a glance
Anne Bates Linden, originally from Boston, is a former Peace Corps volunteer (1992-1995) who now lives in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, October 9, 2005, No. 41, Vol. LXXIII
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