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On the 6^th of September 2009 I will run the Adidas Women's 5K Challenge in Hyde Park to raise funds for providing basic supplies for the Kharkiv Region Orphanage in my hometown, Kharkiv, Ukraine.

 

For thousands of street children in Ukraine, daily life is a fight for survival. Their rights are often violated and normal childhood has often been replaced by drug addiction and violence.  Inhaling glue or injecting a cocktail of cold and flu medicines are common ways of taking drugs among homeless young people. Sharing needles and engaging in unsafe sex make them one of the groups most at risk of contracting HIV in Ukraine.  Meanwhile, violence, sexual abuse and drug addiction often lead to crime. Many homeless children in Kharkov say they expect to die on the streets. State run orphanages are experiencing a lack of basic supplies. This creates a deficit of places.

I have chosen to sponsor the Kharkov Region Orphanage. My brother works for the police against organised crime and drug dealing in Kharkov and he often comes across street kids. His colleagues and him are pick them up from the streets and take them to orphanages, where they are provided with food and basic accommodation.

If you could find a place in your hearts to support me in raising money me for the street kids in Kharkov would me most thankful. The money will be used to provide places in orphanage for street kids and to bring them closer to a basic standard of living.

Remember: You CAN’T help Everyone but you CAN Someone!

Current needs of the Orphanage

http://www.detdom.info/search_schools

Ø       new windows;

Ø       iron boards;

Ø       furniture;

Ø       30 beds;

Ø       Bed linen, blankets.

A Video Playlist for Ukraine

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHiUpxix8jA

 There are an increasing number of street children videos now available that constitute a supplementary source of information for researchers, especially for those who may not have experienced the reality of street children.  [Playlist developed by Brian Horne of almudo.com & streetkidnews.blogsome.com]

These are the street children of Kharkiv, in eastern , just 40 minutes from the border with .   As many as 200,000 such unaccounted-for children live rough in a country where daytime temperatures can be -30C. They live in subterranean dens under the manholes that cover the maintenance points for the city’s heating system, where conditions are cramped, unsanitary and dangerous – many are burnt by the scalding pipes. But it is their means of survival in a country beset by the problems of adaptation after independence from the in 1991.

Prevention Of Addictive Behaviour Among Street Children In Ukraine

60, 4% of neglected children are drug users.  Among homeless children, about 100% use drugs. The most popular drugs are glue and other chemical substances.  Most often (56, 1%) children buy drugs, friends give drugs to 55, 3% of the children, 8, 8% get drugs in other ways (steal glue, cultivate cannabis and so on), parents offer drugs for 7, 9%.

Caring for the children who 'don't exist'

www.worldhope.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=59:sergiys-ottawa-citizen-article&catid=17:news-articles

Since the collapse of the , nearly 120,000 Ukrainian men, women and children have been trafficked abroad - more than any other Eastern European country.   Some are effectively kidnapped. Others are enticed by promises of money and a better life. Some parents even sell their own kids. Sadly, that is no longer surprises. About 80 per cent are "social orphans" who live on the street because their parents drink, use drugs or abuse them sexually or physically.   Officially, many don't even exist. Their parents never registered their births, so the state has no record of them. “That's why it's very easy for human trafficking, you can take somebody who doesn't exist, so nobody cares."

Rescuing Children from the Streets

It is a Ukrainian tradition that at a certain time of the year, people leave food on the graves of their loved ones as a memorial. Starving street children, desperate for any scrap of food they can get their hands on, often raid the graveyard at night.

Without the help available through outreach programs run by the organizations and individual street children have little hope of living a normal life or perhaps even of surviving. Most are between the ages of 7 - 14. Some are as young as 4 years old. For example Vitalik and his friends don't know anything about Jews, and in fact they do not care much however twice a week they look for a white bus decorated with Hebrew, Russian and English words where they can get some food: a sandwich, some fruit and a can of juice, all packaged in a white plastic bag.

Bur of Democracy, Human Rights & Labour - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005

CHILDREN - Children continued to be victims of violence and abuse. The Voice of Ukraine newspaper reported that, in response to a January 2004 poll by the State Institute of Family and Youth, 43 percent of minors said that they had been victims of some form of violence. During 2003, 300 criminal cases were opened against parents for neglect of parental duties. The majority of complaints of abuse of children related to child prostitution, pornographic video sales, child molestation, and illegal child labour.The commercial sexual exploitation of children remained a serious problem. According to domestic and foreign law enforcement officials, a significant portion of the child pornography available on the Internet continued to originate in . Street children of both sexes, some less than 7 years of age, prostitute themselves as a means of survival.

Ukrainian National Consultation on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Current needs of the Orphanage

www.ecpat.net/eng/Ukraine.asp

Research shows that of all those engaged in prostitution in the country, 11% are girls aged between 12 and 15, and 20% are aged 16 to 17. Furthermore, 18% of street children in have been victims of sexual violence and sexual exploitation.

Since 1989, the trafficking of children from the has exploded, with their percentage in the international sex market overtaking previous sources of supply in Asia and .

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Charity Donating

http://www.ukrainecharity.org.uk/