Project report

The visits on behalf of Footprints to the two orphanages in Chernivtsi, the Ukraine, were once again, a tremendous success.

MOLENTSI ORPHANAGE
Located an hour away from Chernivtsi this orphanage accepts children
who cannot get into the overcrowded government orphanages. It receives no funding from the government or NGO's, instead relying on donations from the local churches. The centre cares for 140 children aged from 6 months to 16 years. Only 26 of the children are in good health, the rest suffering from a variety of illnesses and disabilities. 40 of the children had serious neurological conditions, a number of children had Downs and there were even some with juvenile cancers awaiting operations. There were also a significant number of children with severe birth defects, we were told that winds blew fallout from Chernobyl to the area and people are still being affected.

The orphanage goes through prodigious quantity of medicines, upwards of US$300 a month, which is a lot of money for them. They also badly needed a number of medical machines, in particular a sterilisation unit (they were still boiling all of their instruments), which at a cost of US$600 was way beyond their means. This seemed like an ideal purchase to us -it was sorely needed and it is something which will continue to be helpful for many, many years to come. So instead of buying a supply of medicines we purchased the sterilisation unit.

The head nurse cried when we presented her with the unit, she was very grateful. It will have a tremendous impact on the effectiveness of the Centre.


THE CHERNIVTSI ORPHANAGE FOR HOMELESS CHILDREN

This small orphanage cares for 13 children whose parents have died or have been taken into custody from abusive or alcoholic parents. Their ages ranged from 3 years to 16 years.

The centre receives a small amount of funding from the government, which covers the children's food and the meager staff wages; unfortunately there is no funding for anything else! The center director told me that this was the typical situation for orphanages in the Ukraine.

The director informed us that he managed to get a supply of basic medicines from a contact at the local hospital but they desperately needed shoes. Winter was coming (it gets very cold) and many of the children had outgrown their shoes. This sounded perfect to us so, with a staff member, we purchased them 7 pairs of sturdy winter boots, 12 pairs of slippers (for wearing indoors) and a number pairs of socks. The boots were high quality and will last a long time, which is particularly important in this situation as the children hand-down their shoes to others as they outgrow them.

The children were so excited when we presented them with the shoes. It felt like Christmas (including the mandatory arguments over who had better shoes and tears that there weren't more). It was a very satisfying visit.

CONCLUSION

That finishes our three projects for Footprints. It has been a difficult but extremely rewarding experience and we are proud of what we have achieved. We found combining travel and humanitarian work to be very effective and a fantastic experience.

Footprints should also be proud of what it has achieved - a couple of thousand people are now in a much better position to deal with their difficult lives. And this was achieved with only $2500 (across the three projects); my mind boggles at how simple things need to be. "

DR SIMON DAVIS, PROJECT COORDINATOR.