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Genesis House - Our First Safe Home for Children in Kiev, Ukraine. |
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Genesis Hose |
On the 12th May 2004 New On the 12th May 2004 New Beginnings Charity opened “Genesis House” – a foster home for children in crisis. The house was purchased and converted to accommodate a foster family. Seven abandoned children have already entered the doors of Genesis House giving them a family life they have never had. The house has about 1/2-acre of garden to cultivate and provides food in the form of potatoes, fruit and vegetables. |
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| The children are taught homemaking skills to allow them to ultimately make a home for themselves when they are independent and old enough. Most importantly, the house has loving Ukrainian foster parents to nurture and guide these children and show them, maybe for the first time, what a loving home is. | |||
| Feeding the Street Children | |||
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For a number of years New Beginnings in partnership with Ukrainian Social Services went out on the streets of Kiev in winter feeding the street children, who live in packs, like sewer rats. They had nothing, or no one. One three-year-old was found alone in a cellar. These little urchins are human beings and have a right to some compassion and help. |
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| Helping the Sick | |||
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For whatever reason in Ukraine there are an unprecedented amount of children suffering from Auto-immune System Deficiency Syndrome. Many of them are abandoned babies. Iliya was a 13 years old boy suffering from the Illness. Although he was not an orphan, abandoned or living on the streets, his life was in crisis. Iliya was going to die unless he got expensive pioneering treatment. The government was not prepared to fund the treatment as it was very expensive and had not been performed before and therefore not guaranteed to work. Iliya’s mother is his only support with no way of affording the cure. New Beginnings paid for his initial treatment. | ||
Foster Parent Scheme |
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| Started by a government initiative to provide Foster homes for the many abandoned children in Ukraine. This is a start of a NEW BEGINNING for the children who have spent most of their young lives in crisis. At last, they will have safe homes and loving parents. We would stress that all the foster parents are trained by the local social services and the children are placed with great care. We work together with the social services as partners to change attitudes towards the homeless and institutionalised children. The results we have seen so far have been astounding and we feel that this is the way forward. | |||
| Hospital Work | |||
| When Pat visited Ukraine in August 2005 she was horrified at the conditions of the children’s wards in Borispol hospital on the outskirts of Kiev. No proper toilet, no showers or baths and no hot water. Our foster children have to attend this hospital with acute respiratory infections so common in Ukraine. Pat negotiated with the local Government department responsible for the health resources in the region and formed a partnership with them to help refurbish and equip the children’s unit. In return the authorities had to re-establish the hot water supply. New Beginnings have paid for new windows, provided a fridge, nebulisers, new floor covering, decorating and provided beds and lockers. We are now raising money to buy more new beds and other essential equipment for the hospital. |
New Beginnings receives an award from Borispol Regional Health Authority for refurbishment of the children’s unit. |
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| Borispol Kindergarten | |||
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… with no toys, or child development equipment… New Beginnings sponsored the purchase of toys, games and units to house them. The principle was full of joy receiving the gifts as she cares so much for the deprived children most of whom belong to the local orphanage. It was an answer to her prayers and the joy on the children’s faces was priceless. |
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Borispol Rehabilitation Centre for Disabled Children and Youths |
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Borispol Rehabilitation Centre for Disabled Children and Youths is a charity established over 10 years ago and run by Valentina Bondarenko who has a disabled Son. Their aim is to care for disabled children and improve their chances of being a valued member of the community as capable as anybody else is. They did have a building but it was practically derelict. They needed new plumbing, electrics, windows and floors. They also needed learning aids and even such basics as a phone line and a computer. The government provided the building, but their financial support mainly comes from individuals or other charities like New Beginnings. Seventeen disabled children are able to use the centre now, but we hope that our continued support will enable the centre to open its doors to many more kids and enrich their lives. |
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| Magnolia TV | |||
 Pat recieves an award from Magnolia TV |
While in Kiev Pat met with the director and founder of Magnolia TV – an independent Ukrainian television company that is brave enough to film programs highlighting social problems that affect the lives of children. In the last two years Magnolia TV has re-united 356 street children with someone belonging to their biological family. These children were the forgotten teen-agers living in the sewers and abandoned buildings struggling to survive by any means necessary. What joy that at last they will have a chance with support of their relatives and roofs over their heads. While in Kiev Pat formed a partnership on behalf of New Beginnings with Magnolia TV. They have recently made a film featuring Genesis House to encourage more foster families to come forward and work in partnership with the local authorities and New Beginnings to establish other foster homes. All the people working at Magnolia TV feel passionately about what they do and New Beginnings has sponsored their work to help even more of the 150,000 children in Kiev whose lives are in crisis. | ||
