Last year we saw the BBC film Ukraine's forgotton children, (watch it here); http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs42-5HnQRQ  and decided we wanted to help, over the following 9 months with thehelp of our friends at Hertford Regional College we raised $2700 for the Orphanage and collected thousands  of £s of toys, medicines and gifts. Emily and I headed to Ukraine in March and after a 24 hour trip delivered our gifts to the home and spent two days there with the kids. You can read Emily's article below about our visit there, you can also see http://deti.zp.ua/eng/show_article.php?a_id=506685 an article from the home about our visit.    We now want to return in Spring 2014 and are looking for more people toget involved, The UK based charity Ukraine Charity which has done lots of amazing work for Kalnikova and other childrens projects in Ukraine are also supporting our efforts. We hope to raise at least £5000, so please donate or think about coming along with Emily and I to the home next year.            Hi all,   Mark and I arrived back in London late Monday night after what was probably one of the most eye opening, humbling experiences I think either of us will have.    After two flights, an over night train, and 5 hours travelling the other side wearrive at the home and are met by Mariya Syemashkina, the manager of Happy child charity.   We are shown around the home which consists of 5 parts.  One being for bed ridden children, ranging of all ages, the oldest resident I saw was a man who was 22-23 years old but was extremely small. There were about 9 beds to carer. It was very calm and quiet here, the staff were very friendly and keen to introduce us to their children . There is a link to a video of one of the children ( a 19 year old girl) which Mariya took which I will include at the end.   The second was for young children, I think ranging from 3-10, (some children out stayed their age or are moved ahead quicker depending on size , aggressiveness towards other children and space in the home) instantly Mark and I made friends and recognised some of the children from the documentary that inspired us to go in the first place! Here there would be, I would guess, 20 children for two carers.T his room, like the others, had a massive range in abilities in the children, some children with Downs Syndrome, some children with deformed, or no legs, a few that while able bodied had severe mental health problems, rocking, staring in to space, hitting themselves constantly. There was a TV and children were singing, there were some obvious friendships amongst some, and some more able bodied children helping others. Here there were a few children sat in wheel chairs, and there were a few floating ones that children who were able to get around crawling but cold use a wheelchair either could climb in and out of when they wanted to.       The third room for me was no doubt the saddest.  I had been a carer for elderly and disabled for about a year before joining the Police, and taught disabled children to swim before that, so thought I would be fairly used to sad situations involving children.   This is boys aged 10- 18 (ish) We had brought a tin of chocolates which caused carnage, boys were grabbing and snatching from each other which created a few little fights. The carer was trying to control them but as she turned her back another group would start. Here its about 30 children to 2 carers. In the living room there was one toy (the pink panther, its in the photos) which we are told shouldn't be in there because no one will have time to wash it. There is one side of the floor with some soft mats on which the rocking or immobile children where dragged to. This home was noisy, chaotic, cramped, one high up fuzzy TV for entertainment, and a lot of fighting amongst the children. I made friends with a blind boy called Ruslan, who was so affectionate, when I unwrapped a chocolate for another child came up, hit him and stole the sweet. Un wrapping another one and after a bite Ruslan decides he doesn't like it and dropped it. 3-4 Boys scramble for it, crawling, running or dragging themselves to get the sweet that has been chewed and dropped on the floor. We only stayed there a short time, I put Ruslan down (he had been sitting on my lap) and just before I left I looked back to see him sitting there reaching his arms out looking for me again, I am welling up now at the image and I'm sure it is not one I will ever forget.   The adults home is for men with disabilities. I did not go in to the living area but a few of the men were outside a lot and after giving them chocolates once when they saw us they would run up for more, which they promised to share with the others there but I'm sure they stored them for themselves! Some of the men get paid jobs working on the fields, some do some work but unpaid, like carrying the food from the kitchen to the children's home. They spoke to Mark in Russian about football and were always very friendly.    Now for the best part!    The Happy Home! I promise this email gets better!!. The Happy Home is where 10 boys from the third room get a chance to learn, and to live much happier lives. It is two carers for the boys, who are all good friends and play outside in the   garden together, learn together, and become each others family. Opening up the suitcase full of toys was amazing, they helped each other unwrap things, played nicely, and the room was filled with laughing and playful screams. The boys done arts and crafts, and there were toys, and playing equipment everywhere.  We were introduced to Sergey, who has no mental health problems but is in a wheelchair, we brought animal finger puppets and with in 15 mins he could name them all in English!! He asked a lot of my family and my parents which was sad. Sergey was, like the others, in room 3. We are told that children like Sergey would have lead relatively normal lives if brought up by a family, but living with children who have such severe problems and having no proper interaction for his whole childhood, he would have started to suffer from mental health problems himself. We met Sasha, who was either very good at checkers or smart enough to realise I didn't know the rules and knew he could get away with cheating! He was very keen to learn and wanted to play with the more challenging toys like checkers, puzzles, and lego. These are just examples of two boys, who with out Happy Home, in a few years I have little doubt that it would have been Sergey dragged to the immobile child corner and left to rock for hours on end.   They are currently building a second happy home to for girls and are in desperate need for the funds to complete this. We would like to continue fund raising and return next year to see the improvements. I thank everyone for their involvement in donating to the children there, I don't feel like I can leave it and not do anything more, so I will continue to send things over and anyone who wants to donate again I have seen first hand how appreciated it is! No matter how small a donation, it really is worth it.     Thank you,   Emily Hughes emily.mairead@hotmail.co.uk